THE KONMARI METHOD: BEDROOM BEFORE & AFTER.

Interiors

26 Feb

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THE KONMARI METHOD: BEDROOM BEFORE & AFTER.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been horrendously messy.I’m the clean kind of messy – you know the sort. I wash up; I don’t leave mugs rotting on the bedside table. But I do throw my clothes on the floor and hope they wont be there in the morning. Except, they always are.I own so many clothes, predominately because I’m a massive hoarder. For the longest time I kept clothes from when I was merely a teenager, just because ‘I might wear them again’ – of course, I never did. I’m also cursed with the unrequited skill of being an impulse shopper; I’d see something and (if I could) I’d buy it. Little to no thought would go into whether I actually needed a piece of clothing. Which in hindsight is pretty shameful.Throughout my years, I’ve done huge tidy ups; but always wind up back where I started - with a pit of belongings swimming on the floor.It wasn’t until I watched Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up (and subsequently read her book the Magic of Tidying) that I realised I was doing it all wrong.Tidying isn’t just putting your clothes back in the drawer, or shoving everything in storage under the bed or in the loft. It’s a process of learning how to love and appreciate what you own. It takes time, but if you do it properly, you’ll only have to do it once.That’s probably the wankiest sentence I’ve ever written down. And had I not heard of, seen or read anything by Marie Kondo, I’d probably scoff at that statement, too.But this beautiful Japanese lady has taught me a valuable life lesson in less than a week – something I hadn’t ever been able to master alone in my nearly thirty years on this earth.I’m not going to shove the process down your throat – hop on over to Netflix or buy her book and find out about the KonMari method for yourselves. But I do want to show you what an incredible difference it’s made to my home and life.

BEFORE

My bedroom: when tidy, the most tranquil and peaceful room in the house. Except it more often than not, looked like this: [gallery columns="2" link="file" size="large" ids="7052,7051"]I contemplated for a good while whether I would dare show you this, because quite frankly, it’s embarrassing. (And whilst we’re being honest, this was a good day).No matter my intention for keeping it tidy, the sheer volume of belongings meant I’d never succeed.To be clear: I don’t enjoy being untidy, I just love stuff. The KonMari method involves you taking every item of clothing you own and putting it in one place. That includes everything from your laundry basket to storage. That process in itself was incredibly eye opening. Never before had I seen all my clothes in one space – honestly, it made me feel a little ill. No one needs that much stuff.Going through each item one by one, you decide whether it sparks joy. By definition: if it makes you feel happy to hold in your hands you keep it. If it doesn’t? You don’t need it. Obviously there are items of clothing that might not necessarily make you feel joy, and you need them for more practical reasons – that’s fine. It’s just to enable you to look at what you have and make the decision of whether it’s really serving a purpose.It took me two whole days to sort through all of my clothes. I got rid of sixteen bin liners, which consisted of over half my belongings. I took them to the charity shop the next day and began the process of putting away what was left.THIS is the bit that really changes how you tidy.

THE FOLDING METHOD

The idea is that you clear enough space to have each item of clothing rolled compactly into your drawers. No pieces should be stacked on top of one another, meaning you can see everything you own at one glance. And wardrobe space should be limited to jackets, shirts, skirts etc.It’s totally changed the way I put my clothes away and it really feels like everything now has a place, which is so refreshing and an absolute first!

AFTER

This is how it looks now; literally worlds away from what it was before. So far it’s been over three solid weeks with no recurring mess (or chaos as Jamie likes to call it). [gallery size="large" link="file" ids="7042,7040,7041"] I so hope that it lasts and I can keep it up – Marie states that once you’ve followed this method it’s not likely you’ll ever go back, so here’s hoping!Love,