Can Tidying Up Really Be Life – Changing? (And if so where do I start.)

If you are one of the few people left on the planet who have not read the Marie Kondo book – ‘the life-changing magic of tidying up’, which is based on the Japanese art of decluttering (aka throw most of your stuff away) then let me explain how it works. I did it and it does work.

To really get organised and live the lifestyle you imagine for yourself you need to get serious. Stop moving things from room to room (you will never stop tidying up ever), don’t be fooled by storage (you are just hiding all that stuff you don’t need), tidy by category not by room (so all the stuff ends up in the same place) and do the whole thing in one go (which may take normal people a few weeks/months depending on how much stuff you have.)

THE EASY GUIDE TO TIDYING UP ONCE AND FOR ALL:

• Visualise your destination – what kind of person will this spanking efficiency reveal? Having a visual of the new you will inspire motivation.
• Discard first and organise later. This is key – you should not start putting things in their place until you have multiple rubbish bags snaking their way along your hallway.
• Discard stuff in the following order. Clothes – Books – Papers – Komono (the rest of your stuff) and lastly personal stuff (photos, letters, momentos). Don’t start on one section until you have discarded every last unneeded bit from the category before.
• How do you decide what to keep and what to discard? You are only allowed to keep things that truly ‘Spark Joy’ – instead of deciding what to get rid of you must decide what to keep. This is where you can be tempted to cheat – ‘I may one day fit in to it’ or ‘It’s not broken so I can’t throw it away’ – Pah, says Ms. Kondo – just keep the stuff you love and donate, ditch or delete the rest. I de-clutter with the best of them but this fresh joy sparking criteria made me ruthless.
• Beware the loungewear trap. ‘If sweatpants are your everyday attire, you’ll end up looking like you belong in them, which is not very attractive’. Just because you are at home doesn’t mean you need to slob out. Buy yourself something joyful to lounge in like a pair of Masini & Chern PJs  – LOVE.
• Clothes – only hang those that ‘would be happier hung up’ and ‘arrange your clothes so they rise to the right’ (heavy coats on the left graduating up to silky/wafty stuff on the right). Fold everything else which will solve your storage problems. This ‘act of folding’ shows your clothes love and helps us spot when they need mending or discarding. Marie raves about folding and insists we fold things standing upright (not flat on top of each other) and is not happy with the way we disrespect our socks by balling them up in to sad potatoes – for the record I still fold and ball like I used to and it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference to the overall effect.
• Finding it hard to get rid of some stuff? Maybe it has already served its purpose (reminded you maxi dresses don’t suit you or that green does you no favours).
• Books – if you haven’t read them you probably won’t and if you have, will you read them again? Just keep your absolute faves ( your ‘hall of fame’).
• Papers – ditch pretty much everything, including instruction manuals (do you ever read/refer to them?), Credit card statements (checked? paid? Bin it) and the other papers you think you might refer back to but won’t. Just keep papers you must save (valuations, Birth Certificate etc.) and those to be need to still be dealt with (bills to pay, invite to answer). Marie is obviously expecting the latter pile to be keep to a minimum if at all because now you are so damn organised there is little in your life you have left to do.
• Kimono – A charming Japanese way of staying all your other stuff such as makeup, toiletries, kitchen stuff, clutter – electronic boxes your I phone or blender came in, unidentified cords, stuff you never use and spark no iota of joy. Put any coins you find straight in your wallet.
• Personal Stuff – Now you are an expert at this discarding get stuck in to the nostalgia pile – kid’s drawings, old photos, love letters – handle them all (which allows you to process your past and let lots of it go). Reserve your sentimentality for only a handful of must keeps.
• Now you can store the stuff that is left. Designate a place for each thing and keep all the same things in the same place. You will never need to tidy again but can just gloriously put things back where they belong.
• Appreciate your home and your belongings and they will love you back. Amen to that. I have yet to implement Marie’s final suggestion of talking to my house or saying thank you to my clothes but agree with the sentiment.
• Now your house is in order you can start to change your life. Once I got my house in order I started this blog, which was particularly life changing, as I had always been the type of person who was never ever going to be the type of person who wrote a blog.

This Get Happier post was brought to you by someone who imagined that Marie Kondo obviously did not have children for fear they would likely dribble, spill and potentially projectile vomit over this well curated order. Thank you People magazine for crushing that assumption: http://bit.ly/2ajWKcg