Tidying Up with Marie Kondo
5 takeaways
from a Professional Organizer
You may or may not have watched the new series on Netflix called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. The show follows 8 families applying the Mari Kondo Method to tidy their home. As a Professional Organizer, I love when people become aware of how organizing can help them. Shows like Marie’s are a great opportunity to open the conversation about how we can improve our home. Here are my 5 takeaways that I think everyone can benefit from. To learn more, keep reading and then you can decide if you want to add it to your Netflix watch list!
Oh and if reading doesn’t spark joy for you, feel free to watch a video on my 5 take-a-ways here.
1. Organizing is for everyone
Each episode of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo highlights a family working on tidying their home. Each family represents a different stage in life and the challenges they face with managing their home. You will be able to relate to the struggles the families face as they go through different life transitions. From becoming first time parents, merging households, inherited a home that’s full of someone else’s stuff or lost a spouse, to name a few, each family provides a different perspective and application of the process based on their stage in life. There is something for everyone!
2. Hard work pays off, but doesn’t come easy
While Marie Kondo’s book is called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying she herself will tell you there’s no magic in the process of tidying your home. There is a lot of time, effort and sweat equity that goes into organizing your home. I love that the show gives a timeline on how long it took each family to tidy their home. Unlike those home improvement shows where the whole house was renovated in an hour. You can see that a realistic plan for tidying your home will take some time. The time the families invest in the process shows the value of taking your time and being thorough. The families transform not only their home, but their overall demeanor. You will find the personal and home transformations inspiring!
3. Organizing is a muscle that needs strengthening
Marie teaches you how to strengthen your organizing muscle. Organizing is a skill and like all skills they take practice to strengthen and develop. If you struggle with deciding what to keep and what to get rid of Marie will help you! The Kon Mari method helps you strengthen that decision making muscle by starting with an easy area to organize, clothes. By holding an item that you love it will allow you to connect with the feeling that item gives you. Image how you feel when you wear your favorite outfit. The one that makes you want to pose in the mirror and vogue (or is that just me?). You know that feeling!? Once you start to make the connection between what sparks joy and what doesn’t; the process of deciding what to keep gets easier.
4. Keep what brings value to your life
While many people make jokes about Marie’s spark joy process. Jokes like, my husband doesn’t spark joy so I got rid of him. LOL. (Those type of jokes.) The underlying meaning to the process is to keep things that add value to your life. Yes, there are things that don’t spark joy that we need in our day to day life. We can’t toss those things, but the perspective helps you look at your home in terms of what you can surround yourselves with that brings joy to you. It’s not always about how much stuff you have, but the value it brings to your life. There is a great lesson to learn here!
5. You must start somewhere
Marie shares some great organizing tips to help you start organizing your home. I think this is why people are drawn to her process because there’s a starting point that people can follow. She breaks down the organizing process into 5 different areas – clothing, books, papers, komono ( basically everything else that doesn’t fall into the other catergories) and mementos. The first 3 categories are a great way to start your organizing journey, but I can see how many people will struggle with komono. This process may become overwhelming (if you it hasn’t already) because this is where we keep TONS of stuff. Unlike the families on the show there are people who can’t organize their space on their own. Don’t feel discouraged if this is you. This process isn’t for everyone.
That’s why there are people like me who love to help people get organized and can provide hands-on help support to ensure you get the job done. If you choose to try her process and make it to the end … congrats! If not, that’s okay too! You may want to also look try our 5 steps for organizing your home.
Overall, as an organizer I think anything that gets you to looking at your home with a new lens is awesome! Like most things in life there is no one size fits all, cookie cutter method that works for everyone. The Kon Mari process may speak to you and that’s great! If not, that’s great too! You have to find what works and speaks to you to be able to find a process that you will actually complete. There are elements that may speak to you and others that won’t, do what makes sense and works for you. There aren’t rules to organizing (no matter what anyone says). Take what works for you and toss out the rest … as it doesn’t spark joy for you!
If you need any help feel free to follow us on Facebook or Instagram and ask me your organizing questions! I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.