Marie Kondo-san

On Friday night I mysteriously lost my voice. Well, at the time it was a bizarre mystery to me but I have since realized that the voice loss (and runny nose) was from an allergic reaction to the dust from the remodeling being done at my work. I digress.

Since I was voiceless and “sick”, I stayed home rather than going to Friday Night Bible Study. Annuar had taken the boys to his see his parents to share the important news with them in person. (The girls and I had made plans to attend a ballet with her cousins months in advance, so we stayed back. By the way, we haven’t told the kids yet. Sigh.) With the new found spare time I flipped on Netflix and to my absolute delight, there it was waiting for me–queue twinkling fireworks and smilie emojis with the floating hearts (like these 🥰🥰🥰 which you can see if you’re an Apple advocate)–Tidying Up with Marie Kondo!! I had heard of her and her bestselling book and had an idea of her method. Since reading about her “spark joy” philosophy, I had been buying less unnecessary stuff in the past year…to some extent. 😬 This Netflix series launched just in time for New Year resolutions of organizing. I certainly needed practical guidance in that department ASAP and to me the Netflix series is like the Cliff Notes version of the book so………yeah, I almost binged the whole series in one sitting. Mama ain’t got time to sit down and read a whole book about this right now! For lack of better words, the show tidied my mind about tidying–with the KonMarie ritual greeting and thanking the homes (most days I’m angry at the things that need to get fixed rather than recollecting the beautiful memories we have created here) to the therapeutic process of decluttering (it is overwhelming to think about having to toss-dump-purge like a reckless bulldozer; her method is a mindful, item by item journey through your belongings whereby you keep those that spark joy and thank the ones that do not before disposing of them), to the mending and strengthening of the relationships between the clients as a distinct objective of giving in to the process (which I do long for…because I am TOTALLY making my husband watch the show and help me KonMari our way through the house). Plus, the episodes that have the couples with young children really struck a chord with me. These episodes get real, y’all. I teared up at some point in almost every episode. Maybe I’m a little emotional about moving abroad. (Ya think?!)

With the fresh inspiration, I got right to work on my closet that night!

Bam!

I cheated. I left the ones that sparked joy in the closet rather than dragging them all out. So there’s actually more clothes than shown in the photo…and…oh-the-shame-I-also-left-out-the-clothes-in-the-4-dresser-drawers. I didn’t want to refold everything. And since I’m fessing up, I’ll also add that I didn’t fold them into perfect Kondo nuggets of joy either. Ahhh, M-Kon would be so disappointed in me!! I realize that the lack of mindfulness in my rushed process yields a lower success rate of adequately honing in the sparking of joy that is essential for achieving tidying zen. HOWEVER, I’m moving in 6 months so, again, mama ain’t got time for that jazz! I’ll have to settle for Cliff Notes zen. Nevertheless, I was proud of my accomplishment:

Look at all of those empty hangers!!! A huge portion was maternity or nursingwear that I had been styling (know that I use this word with utmost sarcasm) for the past 8 years, so auf wiedersehen to that stage! I loved nursing my babies and all, but I wasn’t wanting to spend $$$ on the high end maternity wear that would only last a stage in my life. In hindsight, I would have invested a little more on quality had I known I would have 4 babies! You live, you learn, and the moral here is to buy only when joy is sparked. Still applies with maternity clothes. Just say no to the sale or to something that evokes “meh, it’s frumpy but it fits”, and most definitely have some strong convictions before stepping foot into Target! I have totally done that and that’s why my KonMarie mountain was extra high! Ask around to get free maternity clothes from a friend wherein the joy is sparked by the free-ness of the clothes and knowing you will also pay it forward. Chances are they are glad to be rid of those clothes too. I’m happy I’ll be able to pass on most of my maternity clothes and baby things to friends. Ok, I’m probably wayyy muddling the true KonMarie ideology by now…I’ll read the book…one of these days.