Marie Kondo’s new tv show, Tidying Up, debuted on Netflix on the first of the year. Of course I was interested in it. I read most of her book and tried the KonMari method. Sadly, it didn’t work that great for me.
I remember piling up a bunch of my clothes in the basement. I think I was on maternity leave. Anyway, I had a hard time figuring out if items sparked joy and ended up with just another pile of clothes on the couch in the basement for kind of a long time. So I wanted to see how it worked out for other people.
I’m only a few episodes in and I like the show, mostly, but I have one big problem with it –
I want more of it!
The episodes are short. In 35-45 minutes they are covering more than a month of these people’s lives! I know this because I’ve seen Day 41 pop up on the screen while I’m watching.
I’ve never even seen them talk about the 2nd or 3rd categories of items.
I get that it’s a tv show, but I want it to be more in-depth. We only get a glimpse of what is really going on.
I’m all for encouraging people to tidy their homes. I want everyone (myself included) to experience more joy in their homes and in their lives and I firmly believe that if your house is tidy, it has a positive effect on you. I just think it’s almost like false advertising in this format. Picture this:
You’re just going through your life and one day Marie Kondo shows up at your door. 30 minutes later you’ve confronted all your issues, figured out how you want to move forward with your life and tidied up your entire house.
Nope. Not really. Even with professional help it takes the people on the show more than a month to do it.
You see, I know this from experience. I know how much work it actually takes to do it because I’ve tried many things, and we basically just went through it again when we got our house ready to put on the market.
It took about a month and it was a lot of work, and we had help too. It was a big commitment and we didn’t even do the folding! Just moving stuff around and deciding what to get rid of.
It’s a great show to watch to get inspired, by the fact that other people have the same problems as you, other people have more stuff than you, it takes time to become good at it. It’s a little bit like Hoarders that way but there’s a much better outcome.
If you want to watch it just to get a better idea of how to actually implement the stuff in Marie’s book, do it.
Just be prepared to want more.
To a great extent, I like the KonMari method, but it has to be adapted to your own needs, energy level and time.
Yes, it takes a lot longer than a day or a weekend, and I notice that a lot of the people she talks about in her “Magic” book lived in very small apartments with one main room.
There’s a lot of emphasis on clothes, yet clothes are the easiest to sort and decide about (I did make a second pass and eliminate more, some months later). What we *really* need help with is the paperwork, the sentimental items, the bits and pieces that don’t easily fit into a specific category, the things we really do need but don’t use very often.
I do have a gripe with the idea of getting rid of spares. The main item is going to break or wear out at some point: wouldn’t it be better to have good storage for the back-up versions? It is wasteful to get rid of things you know you will eventually need, and contrary to what she says, it is not “fun” to find you need something you eliminated and have to buy one right at the moment you ought to be able to use it.
Having said that, I have benefited greatly from applying her method for about 2 years, with adaptations, even though I haven’t finished yet.
I realized I actually hated a huge picture that had pride of place for years because it was a gift, and we now enjoy a lovely peaceful framed photo that previously was squashed in a corner. It’s been worth going through the process just for that!
I agree and love the way you phrased this part – it has to be adapted to your own needs, energy level and time. So true! I also find that clothes are generally the easiest category.
I’m glad to hear it’s been working for you!