Sunday, September 20, 2015

What are we doing to prepare? Konmari

Things are pretty quiet on the garage front.  There's still a few more weeks until the builder begins and we're in a quiet lull.  Some have asked me what we've been doing to prepare between when we lost the builder in March and now.  I already mentioned some of the work that Scott has been working on at the garage itself, but I've been steadily working on getting things ready at home.  One of my friends read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and shared it with our group of friends.  It took our entire group by storm.  Before we knew it, we were all buying the book and KonMari-ing our houses.
If you haven't read the book it's a system to declutter your house and permanently keep it clean (she claims she's never had a client relapse).  She lays out categories for every item in your house and recommends you work through each category in a specific order, starting with clothes.  You gather everything in each category in one place (so if you books in different rooms in your house you have to gather them together before you can begin that category), hold each item and ask yourself, 'Does this spark joy?' If the answer is yes, you keep it, if the answer is no, you thank it for its service and get rid of it.  I debated skipping over clothes since I got rid of 8 bags before moving to the apartment, but thought that I'd do it anyway.  Here are all the clothes I own on the bed.
Since I had so few, I was able to go through them quickly.  I was surprised that I had another 1.5 garbage bags to donate once I was finished with the process.  I wound up with a summer uniform of sorts, there's one style of shirt I have in several colors and a few pairs of khaki shorts.  There are a few other things I kept, but definitely not the amount of choice I'm used to.  However, now when I put open my drawers or look at the closet, I'm so happy to wear anything that I own.  It's made my life so much easier.  Kondo recommends only doing your own things, but since my daughter is only 2, I did hers as well.  I left Scott's things be, but he has been going through and slowly weeding out things that he doesn't want or that don't fit quite right anymore.  Here's a picture of the closet that all three of us share.
My stuff is on the top left and you may notice that it's my year-round selection.  If I went further and did a capsule wardrobe it'd be pretty empty, indeed.  Scott's stuff takes up more room, but he also needs to maintain a professional wardrobe.  We will each have a closet about three feet wide at the garage.  This closet is 4.5 feet wide, so I think that we'll be sitting really pretty when it comes to clothes.
I've gone through several other categories for Konmari, but I don't consider myself a graduate because there's still a lot of clutter in the apartment.  Unfortunately, there isn't much built-in storage here so there aren't a lot of places to put everything away.  Add to that the knowledge that much of our stuff is still packed away in a storage unit awaiting the big move, and I've lost steam.  I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff, simplified where we keep others, but the great, clutter-free reveal will have to wait a few more months.
While the author makes the important distinction that this method is about keeping only what you love and not just getting rid of stuff, it does jive really well with minimalism.  It was a nice framework to help make those tough decisions now that we're getting towards the end of our stuff.
There are some Facebook groups dedicated to this.
Konmari Adventures: This group has a lot of great before and after photos and is very active.  Any questions you may post will get answered quickly.  If you're on there for any length of time, you'll see the same questions come up over and over again, and there is some drama :(.
Joyce Parker Lives Here: Inspired by an inside joke (a husband thought she was saying Joyce Parker approved instead of saying it was a joy sparker), this group is light hearted and doesn't take itself too seriously.  There are also great before and after shots on this page and I find myself going here more now.
KonMinimalists: These two definitely work together, but it's not a very active page.

I believe I've gone through every nook and cranny in this apartment (removing everything for a category before beginning was a great help) and only kept what we truly need and will use.
Is there another way we could be getting ready to move?  I'd love to start tacking the storage unit during Mother's Day Out time, but right now our key is MIA.  Hopefully it'll show up soon.

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