I said I had waaay too much stuff lying around and I needed to tidy up. I finally did it, using a neat little guide put together by the queen of tidying up, Marie Kondo.
Carving a path through the clutter has to be done methodically, and the most effective way to do it is in one fell swoop. The KonMari method isn’t just a guide to tidying up, it’s a guide to transforming your life, starting with a clear space and a clear mind. She has three rules, which are vital to the process.
1. Discard before you tidy.
2. Tidy by category, not location.
3. When deciding whether or not to keep an item, ask yourself, “Does it spark joy?”
I get it. It’s hard to toss out memorabilia, but I promise you, it feels so much better to be clutter-free. Sorting by category is not something I had ever considered before, but it compartmentalizes tidying up into neat little chunks.
Kondo’s suggested order is clothes, books, papers, and finally sentimental items because you want to get into the right headspace before you face your biggest obstacle on the road to a tidy life—discarding mementos. She also emphasizes that tidying up is an intimate experience, best performed alone because only you can be sure if an item brings you joy. I know. Every time I’ve tried to purge my closet over the years, I get that look. You know the one—it says “Are you really getting rid of that?” I followed Marie Kondo’s guidance and tidied up my personal space, and these were my thoughts.
Clothes
Going through my closet wasn’t hard. In fact, it really got me in the groove of going through my stuff. I ruled that if I hadn’t worn an article of clothing in two years, it was safe to assume I wouldn’t wear it again. That turned out to be a surprisingly large amount of clothing, but the pandemic and my transition from magazine publishing to healthcare really did render my office wardrobe obsolete. I did keep my favourite pair of slacks with cheetah prints, though.
Books
I thought this was going to be the hardest part for me, but it wasn’t, and it all came down to taking one of Kondo’s rules to heart. Does it spark joy?
I’m a voracious reader, and I quickly filled my bookshelf from floor to ceiling after my dad built it. Of course, limited space and funds forced me to be more realistic about what I stocked my shelf with, and now I get most of my reading material from the library. I hate splurging cash on personal items, but I have never felt guilty about buying books. Over the years, though, my tastes have changed, and that made it a lot easier to part ways with my books. Sitting on my floor and going through stacks, it was easy to summon fond memories I had of reading. But I had to admit that while many of my books had brought me joy at one point in my life, I had simply outgrown them, and could let them go, knowing another young reader would find joy in them.
I do still keep a well-stocked bookshelf, but I no longer have books piled up on the floor of my closet. I keep my favourite authors—Ken Follett, Kate Quinn and a handful of others—knowing that the books I kept will bring me joy for years to come.
Papers
Surprisingly, this was the hardest category. Kondo may be on to something when she suggests getting well into the process before sorting papers.
Some backstory—for five years, I worked as an editor at my alma mater’s community paper, and I kept a copy of every issue that had my byline in it. They’ve been digitized but I despaired at the thought of recycling my paper copies. You see, the internet has no gatekeepers. Anyone can publish anything, which is why seeing your name in print is so much more satisfying. The thought of recycling my newspapers felt like parting with the last part of myself still connected to that industry.
Putting my unwillingness to part with my personal archive aside, papers as a category was particularly hard. I also went back to school in the fall, and with that comes a lot of loose paper. I reckon I went through a small forest on my quest to master organic compounds before I realized how much paper I was using and bought a whiteboard to cut down on waste. (As a side note, I knocked organic chemistry out of the park the second time around.)
Mementos and Miscellaneous
Finally, I was at the end of the road. After dropping off a mountain of clothing at the donation bin, two boxes of books at the used bookstore, and shredding papers where I had digital copies, getting rid of miscellaneous items was a breeze. I permitted myself one shoebox keep filled with mementos, including photos and cards, and another with my paints and brushes. All of the other items of an everyday sort were discarded, and I felt so much better for it.