I Have (Not Really) Started Going Through the KonMari Method, Part 1

Though I haven’t seen Marie Kondo’s Netflix show (I don’t have Netflix), the buzz around the show caused me to read her first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and I am now in the process of going through the clothing-

YOU REALLY HAVE JOINED MARIE KONDO’S CULT! NOOOOOOOO!

Maybe I have joined, so what?

But it’s a popular hot trend of the type you usually ignore! Especially since it’s from TV!

I think it is cool that I’ve fallen in sync with a hot TV trend for once, albeit almost by accident.

But everybody is overwhelming the thrift stores at once!

The picture is more complicated that than in San Francisco (and I am saddened by the disappearance of the thrift stores in the Mission / SoMa). I do sincerely wish I had discovered the book a month earlier (or possibly years earlier).

But you’re an atheist!

I do not plan to do the part of the KonMari method where I set up a little shrine in my home.

But you’re going to be thanking objects! Inanimate objects!

Ummmm, I was doing that even before I heard of Marie Kondo or any of her work.

Fair point. But before you mostly kept that practice to yourself and told only a few people about it. Now you’re not just going to quietly thank inanimate objects, you’re going to try to push other people in the KonMari cult!

I promise that I will not try to push other people into the KonMari cult. I may talk about the benefits (as well as the negative effects) of the KonMari method, and I may counter criticism when I feel like it, but when people say ‘I don’t want to do the Konmari thing’ I will say ‘cool, then don’t do it.’

Fine, I will tentatively stop freaking out over you joining the cult. I hope you behave.

And in a way, I’m not sure I’ve even really started the KonMari method. I mean, I have, but I also haven’t, and I’m not sure I have.

*sarcastically* Wow, do you think you could make that statement any more unclear and vague?

The part of the method I actually have done is visualizing my ideal life – in my bedroom. I did not try to visualize my ideal life overall, but I tried to think about how I would ideally like to spend my time in my bedroom, and what my bedroom would be like to best accommodate that.

What is your ideal life in your bedroom?

If I blog about it, which I may not, I will do so in a separate blog post. The point is that I did it. I have an idea of how I would ideally like it to be.

And I’m guessing your bedroom is currently not like that at all?

Actually, one part of my bedroom is already the way I want. It’s really nice – both because I can already enjoy being in that part of my bedroom, and because I don’t have to work (anymore) to change it into what I want (there are still a few things I want to tweak, but it’s minor things).

You don’t have to work anymore to make that part of your bedroom fit your ideal … which implies you have done work on that part of your bedroom … it’s where your ‘bed’ is, isn’t it?

Yup. I wrote a whole series of blog posts about it – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. I did not like my comforter or blanket, but in the past few months I’ve replaced that too (uhhh, I haven’t blogged about my new light blanket, but trust me, it’s more awesome than any light blanket I’ve had before), so now I love every part of my bedding.

And the sleeping area is the only part of my bedroom I really love now. When I read or sew in my bedroom, I almost always do it where I sleep (though not on my futon, since I roll it up when I’m not lying down).

I know that the part of the bedroom where your computer is has been having some problems lately, particularly with regards to furniture, and you had already been working on those problems even before you encountered this KonMari nonsense … but I suppose if you’re going to blog about it, you’ll blog about it in a different post.

Correct, I’m not going to go into detail about those problems in this post. In fact, the KonMari process is putting on hold my plans to solve the furniture problems. The reason I’m letting KonMari come first is that it is an excuse to procrastinate the final, nerve-racking showdown in which furniture is removed I hope that clearing stuff out of my bedroom will make it easier when I finally do get around to moving furniture. And yes, I had decided that certain furniture items needed to go even before I encountered the KonMari method.

But what if that furniture sparks joy?

The furniture in question is sparking irritation and anxiety, not joy.

It seems that you actually have started on the method. Why do you say you haven’t?

The method starts with clothes.

And you’ve been doing a lot of sorting of clothes lately, getting them out of the house or at least on their way out of the house, yes?

I have, but I didn’t do the thing where I put all of my clothes in one place. That is because it would have been impossible to put all of my clothes in one place at one time to sort them all. And even before I could do that, I had to establish which clothes belonged to me, and which clothes did not belong to me. It was pretty obvious what clothes belong to my father, so I simply took them out of my room and dumped them on my father’s bed returned them. But figuring out where to draw the line between ~my~ clothes, and ~my mother’s clothes which she has been keeping in my bedroom for 10+ years~ was more complicated. I decided that-

Sara, I don’t want to interrupt you, but it’s almost time to post the weekly post. You’re going to have to cut it off here.

Then I guess this will be continued in Part 2.