Friday, July 17, 2015

The life-changing magic of tidying up





So I have just finished reading Marie Kondo’s book ‘The life-changing magic of tidying up’ and I absolutely loved it.

I could not wait to finish it so that we could get started de-cluttering our house and lives. I did want to start before I had finished reading the book, however I decided that for me it was best to finish the book and then start.

Surprisingly, when I put a photo of the book up on Instagram a couple of friends had already read the book and started the de-cluttering process.

Kondo’s main point is that everything in your home should “spark” joy. If it does then it needs to go. She also states that you should work by category rather than a room so that you make sure you do a category all in one go. So for instance if you start with clothing (which she recommends) then you need to find every single item of clothing in your house and put it in a pile and then start sorting. You need to touch every single item so see if it “sparks” joy.

The one thing that disturbed me a little was when she talked about how many rubbish bags worth of stuff people got rid of. I hope that she meant that they gave it to charity and only threw out thigns that were old/broken or that could not be fixed by someone else. I really struggle with how many things people throw away and things that could be sold or given to people that need/appreciate them. So I will be sorting things into different piles, things to sell for RCR Cat Rescue, things to list on Trade Me, things to donate and recycling/rubbish.

Hopefully, we can make a start this weekend on clothing and I think that I might document our progress on both my blog and on Instagram. We will probably start with clothing, books/DVD's/CD's, kitchen gadgets, paperwork, stationery, photos etc.
 
You can use hashtags on Instagram to find before and after photos from others which is extremely inspiring. Also, I have just found Marie’s Facebook page.


Have you read Marie’s book or a similar book? Have you de-cluttered recently? How did you find it?

2 comments:

  1. I am fascinated by these kinds of things, despite not being a domestic goddess. I HATE clutter but there's always so much of it! I'm sentimental, but I think I have a minimalistic streak just dying to get out too.
    It's scary how many BAGS of things you get rid of when you start decluttering. I try to donate as much stuff to charity as I can. I still feel bad for wasting it, even if it does ultimately go to a good cause.

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    Replies
    1. I hate clutter as well :( I have a small box of sentimental things but I could probably go through that again. Some blogs suggesting taking a photo of something sentimental for the memory and then getting rid of it.

      There are areas in our house that are really low clutter and others where I "fear" that clutter lurks.... :D

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