Tuesday 1 September 2015

SPRING CLEANING - THE KONMARI METHOD



Spring is perhaps my favourite season - filled with so much possibility. It's time to shed old habits and create new patterns of being.

Fortunately this year I feel a little bit more prepared. Our children are that bit older so there's less general chaos at home - less food to clean up off the floor after dinner, and a little less laundry as they don't have as many changes of clothes. I also read a book that has fundamentally changed the way I think about living.























The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is fast gaining cult status among lifestyle books. Not only is a New York Times Bestseller, and has sold more than two million copies, but Time magazine named the author Marie Kondo as one of the world's most influential people in 2015. It is an international bestseller for a good reason. So many of us live with too much stuff - and it has a major impact on almost all aspects of our lives.

A friend recommended it to me - and she is a no-nonsense type of person - not so easily swept into faddish philosophies or self-help books so I was intrigued. She had read it as an ebook so I did too. (And generally I don't like to read this way - but it seemed fitting, given the subject matter of letting go of things once their usefulness has expired.) Of course, you can buy it as a paperback too.

The premise of the book is to ask yourself of everything in your home "does it bring me joy" - if it doesn't, you get rid of it. This is not an entirely new idea. The 19th Century textile designer, artist and writer William Morris said, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." However, Marie Kondo has taken this concept one step further and gives you a plan on how to cull. She says culling works best when you work in categories rather than room by room. Start with your clothes first then move onto another section of your home - such as toys or books.

The other key component of her philosophy is that once you have edited down your home life to just what you need, it's much easier to keep it tidy.

I started this process before we went away on our recent holiday - even before we went on our trip to Tasmania - and I have to say that I could feel a change in my mindset about my objects. Other parts of my life too - including social media.

The main problem though is finding the time to execute her method, especially while juggling family and work. And the other challenge is the type of work that I do - styling - which requires having a stash of props for various photo shoots. I'm also mindful that this method requires you to not constantly acquire more things - which is also a work-in-progress, especially with the constant lure of Instagram and its shiny new wares.

But I look forward to resuming the cull, and simplifying our lives.

image the indigo crew


2 comments:

  1. It would be hard with your props and things, I'm lucky I don't have that! Glad it helped you. As much as I eye-rolled through it, it just made so much sense as well. I'd love to see how she goes if she ever has children though - that is a whole other ball game. I hope she does and writes another book with great ideas �� xx

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    1. Time is my biggest hurdle at the moment. It's such a big job. Interestingly, I saw that she is now a mother: http://www.domain.com.au/advice/the-lifechanging-magic-of-tidying-up-author-marie-kondo-on-the-mess-of-motherhood-20150831-gjbef7/

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