The Magic of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo

I’ll let you in on a secret. I own a lot of stuff.
As I’ve been earning a living as a writer and a stylist the past ten years, you can probably imagine how many books, magazines, and all sorts of things I’ve accumulated.

I’ve written several decluttering and organizing articles and tried to live them. If there is one thing I’ve learned, the key to organization is purging. No one could be organized if she's drowning in stuff! And so purging has become an annual event for me after which the discards are donated at the nearby Segunda Mana shop. But somehow, this yearly purging was never enough to eliminate the clutter entirely.

So when I read an online article on the decluttering superpowers of Marie Kondo, I knew I had to get my hands on her book.

Marie Kondo's "the life-changing magic of tidying up" became my bedside read.

I guess a lot of people were in the same situation since getting a hold of a copy of her book locally wasn’t easy. I visited several branches of National Book Store to track it down but in the end, I had to enlist and wait for the next shipment. The very day I got my copy from National Book Store Shangri-La Mall, I simply devoured it.

“When you’ve finished putting your house in order, your life will change dramatically. Once you have experienced what it’s like to have a truly ordered house, you’ll feel your whole world brighten. Never again will you revert to clutter. That is what I call the magic of tidying,” wrote Marie Kondo.

Such a huge promise, I do believe, but it definitely got my heart racing. Who wouldn’t want that? I certainly do and I couldn’t wait to get started!

So how does one declutter? The KonMari Method is based on the principle that one should only keep the things that spark joy. And for one to know if something sparks joy or not, it should be held in her hands.

In theory, it seems such an easy thing to do but I tell you, it is not. Certainly, there are items that are clearly heading to the bin but there are things that are well, so-so. Let's say several rolls of wrapping paper or cartolina. I mean, they are not ugly and in fact, quite useful! It seems such waste to chuck them out. So, what do we do with such things?

CLOTHES

The KonMari Method of decluttering starts with clothes.

And since I have inexplicably commandeered three closets in our humble abode, I thought it was the ideal category to start with. I am hardly a fashion plate so it’s quite baffling – especially to me – that I’ve accumulated that many clothes. But evidently, I have and so I must deal with it.

While it was relatively easy for most, there were items of clothing that I had a hard time figuring out my "feelings” for. But if I had any chance of clearing out two closets, I knew I had to be decisive about it. So being me, I came up with this particular question to figure things out:

If I am moving to another city, will I take this with me?

After an hour of going through each item- from t-shirts to dresses and shoes to bags, I discarded enough items to fill up nine plastic bags and two boxes. And as forewarned by Marie Kondo, I did feel a wee sick and did a bit of coughing. Was it an effect of purging? detoxing? I dunno. Perhaps. Anyway, the bags and boxes have all been donated to Segunda Mana and me getting dressed in the morning isn't such a challenge anymore.

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My discarded clothes made their way to Segunda Mana.

They gave us a receipt after we dropped off the boxes and bags. The first box was thrown into the bin though, so they couldn't write it on the receipt as they didn't officially receive it.