Confessions of a “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” Dropout

There’s a good chance that you’ve heard the following buzz words to help you declutter your home this year, including but not limited to: Marie Kondo, Konmari Method, Spark Joy, Tidying Up, and various combinations of those buzz words in articles and memes everywhere. Netflix is pure genius {or evil} to release the reality television series “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” on January 1, 2019 to exploit vulnerable moms everywhere just in time for New Year’s Resolution time.

Although I know the show isn’t aimed at just moms, I have no doubt in my mind that Netflix had moms in mind when they released this show, considering that the first episode features a young family of four {whom just happens to share my last name, but that’s neither here nor there}. I mean, moms have SO. MUCH. STUFF.

We are living in a Pinterest world, where we are told everything needs to look beautiful, and Marie Kondo has created a show to give you a step-by-step guide of how to organize your home to the highest Pinterest standard. So naturally, we all need to know how to do this, because it will solve all of our problems and probably world peace at the same time.

When I first discovered the show, I’ll admit that I actually said aloud, “I need to binge watch this show immediately.” Along with moms everywhere, I tried to dive head first into the Konmari method with the hopes that it would change my life. Yes, I’m basic and I’m proud of being so. But it turns out, I’m not basic enough to Konmari my house, at least not in the strict sense from Marie’s show. Maybe Marie’s advice works really well for you and that is awesome! I just don’t think that it can work for everyone {so don’t feel bad if it doesn’t for you}.

It turns out, just watching the show brought me more stress than the clutter in my home. Here are my confessions of being a “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” dropout:

The show stresses me out. Binge watching shows on Netflix definitely sparks joy in me, so this seemed like it would be an instant success. I wouldn’t only get step-by-step instructions, but I’d also have a visual of before and afters, to help get me motivated to start the process. I was WRONG. I quickly discovered that I would not only have to read subtitles {can’t really watch the show mindlessly}, but I’d also have to be stressed out by other people’s clutter AND DRAMA in every episode. 10 minutes into the first episode, I started questioning why I was spending time watching a show that was stressing me out and definitely not sparking joy {isn’t it ironic?}.

The process is CLEAR AS MUD. Tidying up seems like an easy enough process, because all you have to do is get rid of everything that doesn’t spark joy. But there are a lot of things you need that don’t bring you joy {bills, pantyhose, bras, vegetables}…what about those? I found it especially difficult to go through this process in my daughters’ closets, because a Princess Sofia t-shirt doesn’t necessarily spark joy for me, but it may bring my 5-year old joy. However, if it were up to my 5-year old, everything brings her joy…including everything from disposable cups from a restaurant, the 1,095 papers she comes home with from Kindergarten everyday, to the tissues she used to blow her nose with last week. So clearly, my 5-year old won’t be making the calls on whether it goes or stays under this process either. 

Inanimate objects don’t have feelings. Sorry not sorry, I just can’t get on board with this. I’m not going to have a heart to heart with my socks to find out if they spark joy in me {do they need to, to fulfill their purpose!?} or if they’d prefer to be folded rather than balled. #balledsocksforlife

I’m not a minimalist at heart. I enjoy shopping and having options in my wardrobe. No matter how much I say that I would love to have a minimalist wardrobe, I will never be someone who can rotate between the same 10 clothing items. I like variety. The idea is good in theory, but it just wouldn’t work for me. If anything, now that I’ve cleared some old clothes out of my closet, I realized that I now have room to buy more clothes. Whoops!

I’m a hypocrite. Or at least I must be because clutter stresses me out, yet I failed at decluttering. You can find me at any given night, angrily straightening my house because I’m stressed from mess, but I’ve discovered that I’m not a particularly neat person. Add two kids on top of that and it’s likely that no matter how many clothes I fold with the Konmari method, there will always be something that needs straightening. Marie Kondo and the Konmari Method is not the miracle cure that I was hoping for, so maybe I just need to #embracethemess for now and move on.

It wasn’t all bad. Even when something isn’t for you, I think you still learn some valuable lessons through the process. I only made it as far as my closet and my daughters’ closets, but it did help me realize that I could do a better job of displaying our clothes in closets and dressers to make them more functional. I’ve probably spent way too much money on storage bins to organize the clothes in my dresser as a result of this show, but all in the name of sparking joy, right? But in all seriousness, the show has made me more aware of how I could organize areas of my house, even if I don’t follow the methods to an extreme. While the Konmari method isn’t totally for me, I can see how others may love it and that totally works for me.

Have you watched “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo?” What are your thoughts?