In
an earlier post, I mentioned reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The
Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising by Marie Kondo. I started the book
on a Saturday afternoon and just a couple of chapters and an hour or so later,
I was already raring to get started. Before I proceed, let me share the salient
points of the book or Marie Kondo’s two steps and nine tips for tidying up (the KonMari
Method):
1. Sort by
category, not location. Don’t do bedrooms first, living room next, followed by
rest of the house. Do clothes first, then books, paper, miscellaneous and
sentimental items.
2. Tidy in one
go. Don’t draw it out. If you tidy bit by bit each day, you’ll find you’re
tidying forever. Do it all at once and you’ll have the system in place to stay
tidy.
3. Pick up each
item one at a time and ask yourself: Does this spark joy?
4. Avoid piles. Fold
your clothes so they stand up vertically. This way, you can put all your
t-shirts, for example, in a drawer and see each item at once in one glance
rather than digging through piles of fabric to find what you want (and in the
process, messing up your drawer all over again). Tip other items on their sides
and store next to each other instead of stacking them. I turned to Google to
see how it’s done.
5. Don’t
repurpose clothes to loungewear. Don’t justify keeping a torn t-shirt just
because you think you can repurpose/recycle it as a pyjama top.
6. Recycle your
papers. Scan important legal documents. Get rid of everything else. Nothing is
more annoying than papers so throw them all away unless absolutely necessary.
7. Don’t keep
gifts out of guilt. After the joy of gift-giving moment is through, donate the
gift. It has served its purpose. But don’t foist unwanted stuff on family
members who might take them out of guilt or pressure. Give them instead to
charity.
8. Storage
experts are hoarders. A ‘clever’ storage solution never solved anything. A new
box/organiser won’t make you tidy. Instead, pursue ultimate simplicity. Forget
fancy storage containers. Drawers and shoe boxes often suffice.
9. Start with
what you know will be easy to get rid of. If you start with mementos or items
with sentimental value, it will be harder. Start with items that are easier to
make decisions about and you’ll be in the right mindset to tackle mementos
later.
While
Marie advised starting with clothes, I started with the bookcase at home as I’d
been meaning to tidy up my dad’s miscellaneous items in there. We also have a
lot of Yassin and prayer booklets at home so I collected all that I could find
scattered everywhere. I then sorted out a cupboard and stored the Yassin and
prayer booklets in the newly vacant space in the cupboard. I also took a sturdy
paperbag and stored some Yassin booklets inside – sometimes neighbours want to
borrow Yassin booklets for kenduri or for guests wanting to pay last respects
to a deceased. It gave me the opportunity to chuck out the annual reports of a
cooperative society of which he is a member (annual reports dating back
years!). My dad is a hoarder all right.
Then
I sorted out our wardrobe drawers. I started with dad’s drawers and sorted out
his t-shirts by colour and refolded them, placing them back in the drawers
vertically instead of stacking them flat. And guess what? Where previously we
had problems trying to close the drawers, I now have extra space! I was
pleasantly surprised with this and wondered why no one taught me this before. I
guess we were used to just folding clothes flat like how some boutiques do it
but of course those boutiques have far fewer clothes and shelves. By this time,
I was already hooked. I then tackled his other drawer of pyjamas. Then I
tackled my drawers.
Apologies for the poor quality of photos. These are my dad’s wardrobe drawers. Unfortunately, I still find myself refolding and rearranging his drawers every few weeks.
After
the wardrobe drawers, I went to tackle my dresser drawers. I tackled everything
including my scarves and innerwear and by the time I was done, I was able to
close my drawers without having to push the contents and still had some space
left over. Then I tackled my bedside drawer, kitchen drawers, closet drawers...
I continued on Sunday and even went to bed late and woke up early on Monday
morning to sort out other drawers (I even sorted out the wardrobe drawer of
winter wear!).
My dresser drawer. I can now fit my scarves and inner wear and still have space left!
One of my wardrobe drawers. Apologies again on the poor quality of photo. And I have space left after rearranging them vertically instead of horizontally!
Not
content to stop there, I also tidied up the drawers at micasa on my next visit.
In
her book, Marie mentioned saying a prayer when entering her clients’ homes or
offices. This may sound strange and weird to some people but I don’t find it
strange at all because as Muslims, we usually say Salam before entering the
house. Marie also states that we should thank each item of item we are about to
let go to another home for the joy and service they had previously given us. In
fact, if I recall correctly, she states that we should thank each item that
still plays a role in our life for its continued service. Another tip is that
when you fold clothes in your drawer, arrange like with like (e.g. white
t-shirts together) and by colour with the lighter colours closest to you and
darker colours to the back so that you’re greeted with lighter brighter colours
first (a light colour helps lift your spirit more compared to a dark sombre
colour). If you must hang them, organise them from dark to light colours, long
to short length, left to right. It does make a lot of difference when searching
for your clothes.
I
had a sore throat and was coughing for days after clearing all the drawers in
the house. Interestingly, Marie also shares in the book that many of her
clients get very sick after the few days of tidying up. She states that this is
normal as our bodies are just getting rid of the toxins that have built up over
the years. I think this is a logical explanation. What with the dust that I
shook about and cleared and the toxins I got rid of, it was no surprise I
wasn’t well after tidying up. If you think about it, the whole process of
de-cluttering and tidying up is a form of detox of our life and home and as we
are involved in the process, our bodies join in and have a detox too.
I
find it easier to find my clothes and enjoy the extra space I get from applying
the KonMari method. I find I don’t have to tidy up my drawers as often too
(except for Abah’s drawers because he’s a typical man). It saves me time and
space, and tidies and detoxifies my life and home. I also found, from sorting
out my clothes, that I already have enough clothes, scarves and innerwear so I
have stopped buying new ones. I have given away hundreds of my books this year
alone, to Teach For Malaysia and to the KL Library. So do give the KonMari
method a try. You won’t regret it!
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