This Marie Condo Thing Actually Works!
By 965koit on February 4, 2019
The latest craze has been caused by a show on Netflix called “Tidying with Marie Kondo” and it totally got me while I was taking time off last week. I really found it to be refreshing to get rid of the clutter and I fell like I have taken a step forward in dealing with my problem. Growing up I was called a “pack rat” because I have a hard time throwing things away, especially something that someone has given me. Each time I get a new cell phone I have to thank my old one for helping me over the last 2 years. As I got older I became a “collector” which allowed me to have a ridiculous amount of useless trinkets and random figurines everywhere. Now that I’m married, Kristen has come up with a new nickname for me and it’s “borderline hoarder.”
Why am I like this? I have no idea. If I had to guess I would say it’s because I didn’t have a lot growing up so when I finally got something I wanted to make sure I took care of it. Which is why I have 40 boxes of “collectibles” in the garage and a whole closet full of clothes I don’t wear. It’s been something I’ve been working on and with Kristen’s “help” or should I say insistence, I have made some progress over the years. My garage only has about 23 boxes in it and I have put a lot of my clothes in drawers so that it doesn’t look so cluttered. Then I starting watching “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” and now it’s all changing.
A quick explanation of the show is that Marie Kondo is a professional organizer who goes into peoples houses and helps them organize their stuff. Most people are like me and just don’t throw things away. Her tip for getting rid of things is “finding joy” in them. If you touch something you own and it doesn’t “spark joy” then you can get rid of it. Sounds easy enough right? It’s actually tough to figure out what the spark you’re feeling IS. Is it joy or is it the fear of letting that item go? Luckily, there were a couple people who were facing the same issues that I was. I tend to attach feelings and emotions to items which makes them harder to throw out.
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My first attempt at finding joy was in my closet. I had 4 or 5 drawers full of nerd shirts I never wear, hoodies and button up shirts that don’t fit or I don’t like and a ton of shoes I never wear. The first thing you have to do is throw all of your clothes onto your bed. All of it! This will show you just how much you have and it should make you a little sad. Little by little I went through each piece and decided what to do with it. It took about 3 hours to go through everything and then put it back into the closet. Overall the process felt good and looking at my empty closet actually feels good too. It was so packed with clothes that I forgot what I had in there and I barely wore any of it. I was able to donate a lot of it because there were a lot of items that were basically new. I let go of a lot of things that I had been holding onto over the years and it was scary at first but now it feels good. Of course I’m not perfect, there are still plenty of things I probably COULD have gotten rid of but I chose not too. And that’s Ok. You don’t have to get rid of everything that doesn’t give you that spark of joy, some times you have to keep things because you actually need them.
The closet has shown me that I CAN get rid of stuff and that I don’t need to hold onto everything. So now I’m inspired to take on my nerd room and my garage. It’s going to be REALLY tough but if I can get rid of just half of it then I think that’s a good step forward.
