Tidying Up with Marie Kondo has taken the world by storm. It has generated a whole host of memes, sparked debate, and prompted people to take an honest look at their current living situations. If you haven’t seen the show yet, I highly recommend it.
In a nutshell, Marie helps people whose homes are in serious need of organizing and guides them through it with the KonMari method. The KonMari method is basically going through your things and keeping the objects that “spark joy”. The objects that don’t spark joy are thanked and then given away.
The KonMari method calls for going through your things in the order of clothes, books, papers, Komono (which is basically kitchen, bathroom, and miscellaneous things), then finally, sentimental items.
I’ve known about the KonMari method for a while now, but I’ve never seemed inclined to try it. Well, up until recently.
I am usually a very organized person. I know where everything is and where everything should go. The problem is that my version of organization doesn’t necessarily mean tidy. To be frank, my desk space is orderly, but my drawers are a mess. I’ve also been in somewhat of a slump recently. I can’t focus for very long, I get easily distracted, and I just can’t seem to find anything. I figured the best way to move forward is to start over with a clean slate, and more importantly, a clean and organized drawer.
So here’s are my drawers pre-KonMari:
The first drawer is where I usually keep my office supplies and any pending documents. The second drawer is where I keep my other important documents, other office supplies, and miscellaneous items, and the last drawer is where I keep my backup outfits, paper bags, and other miscellaneous items. So based on the above evidence, I truly have some cleaning up to do.
I don’t have a kitchen, bathroom, or closet hidden inside my drawers, so my work is cut out for me. All I have to do is focus on my papers, books, and other miscellaneous items.
I decided to start with the papers, because they were the ones taking up the most room:
There are some items that obviously sparked joy immediately and other items that were clearly meant for the goodbye and thank you pile. There were also some papers that required a little bit more thought than others. But in the end, only the papers that truly sparked joy (and were truly necessary to fulfill the duties of my job) stayed.
My miscellaneous items didn’t take so long because they were mostly just odds and ends that didn’t really spark any joy, so to the goodbye and thank you pile they went.
After an afternoon filled with tidying up and saying goodbye to things that have helped me with my work, the fruits of my labor finally showed:
To be honest, this experience has really helped clear my mind. I always knew that a cluttered home – or in my case drawer – gave rise to a cluttered mind, but I never really thought that applied to me. I feel a lot lighter now that I’ve decided to only hang on to the things that matter, even if it is just some paper and a few office supplies.
Tidying up, even if it was just this small corner of my life, made me feel leagues better. It may sound a little dramatic, but a part of me can breathe a little easier now knowing that there is order present in my immediate surroundings.
Naysayers may call the method just a passing fad, but I’d say give it a go. After all, you only have clutter to lose and order to gain.
Andreiana Yuvallos is an Editorial Assistant at Familywise Asia. She loves reading, writing, theatre, and baking on the weekends.
