Hayden’s Bedroom Starting with Clothes
So, the KonMari Method directs you to start with clothes, particularly your own. I did this a little differently and started with my oldest daughter’s collection. I do appreciate that it is easier (well actually harder) to pair down your own belongings but tackling the most disastrous area first was a priority for me (and moms always come last, right!?!?)
Step 1 – Gathering ALL the clothes
We literally gathered up all of her clothing, shoes, and accessories and piled them on her bed. I had originally wanted to take all of the items out to another room but decided against that because of her younger sister and dog running around the house. We emptied her closet, dresser drawers, and searched the laundry for every piece we could find and pilled everything together.
Step 2 – Does it “Spark Joy”?
Hayden has been reading through the KonMari Method book with me so she knew that this was where her part starts. She took each item, one by one and asked herself, does this spark joy? We made three piles, one that sparked joy, one to be donated and one to be thrown away. This process went fairly quickly through the first half of the pile but started to slow as time went by. It was almost as if she was being drained by the number of decisions she was having to make. I made her push through it because I knew if she stopped, we wouldn’t come back to finish it.
Step 3 – Everything in its place
After we reached the end of the pile the organization begins! First I had to figure out what I wanted her clothing storage to look like so I first opened up her closet and dressers…like that was going to suddenly tell me where to put everything! I did decide that my goal was going to make her dresser her main clothing storage. Two reasons lead me to this decision, first, she is terrible at hanging her clothes up and pulls them to get them down causing them to stretch and second, I want to incorporate a bin storage area in her closet for her odds and ends to hide the messiness(I’ll share this later!). I know the point of using the KonMari method is to rid your life of messy clutter but let’s face it, an 8-year-old is going to be unorganized no matter how hard you try.
Final Thoughts
Overall this process worked pretty well. The redundancy really drilled in the “Sparking Joy” theory and am hoping it will stay with Hayden going forward. I can see this easily being made a habit and ultimately a lifestyle with some effort. The concept that is being conveyed is awesome but I have a feeling we will do some tweaking down the road. I think for a child, it’s a great tool to teach them about the age old concept of “Less is more” in a very literal way. For a parent, it is very time consuming and I’m not sure if my daughter will be able to maintain the organization, especially the way items are folded (I’ll be talking about this in another post) and set in the drawers. Only time will tell!
