Joyful Storage Spaces

This week I read ‘Spark Joy’ by Marie Kondo. It’s actually the companion to her first book, 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up', but I’ve seen the Netflix series so obviously I know everything already and anyway I couldn’t find the first one at the library.

As you will know if you’ve been following this blog I have been slowly clearing out my home. However, I’d not really given much thought to actual tidying, I thought things would automatically get tidier just because there is less stuff but I am discovering that this is not necessarily the case.

So for me KonMari mania has come at a good time.

I read ‘Spark Joy’ from cover to cover (all 278 pages of it) and one thing really resonated with me and that is that you should make your storage spaces look as pretty as you can.

To put this into practice Rose and I set out to organise the drawers in her room where she keeps her jewellery. We had a lot of fun.

First we went through everything and Rose chose what ‘sparks joy’ for her. She’s quite good at this process and I have noticed that now she says thank you to all the rejected items she finds it much easier to let go. This is the pile of stuff going to the thrift store.

Then we sorted all the stuff we had left by category and organised it in the drawers with little boxes and some drawer dividers I made from scrapbooking card stock (I might put up a tutorial on that). Notice how we made good use of the inside of a Ferrero Rocher box.

We are really pleased at how it looks like a little boutique and now you can actually see all the pretty things she might even wear some of it. Maybe she'll even keep it tidy.

We also did a thorough sort out of the big set of shelves so now there is room for the little jewellery box of clip on earrings from Grandma, these have been a big hit. Here she is in one of her favourite pairs.

Next on the list is the pantry which currently looks like a bomb hit it, I’m not sure I can make it look this pretty but I’m going to give it a jolly good shot.

Happy tidying
Kirstin

Folding Things Up

This Weekend I discovered Marie Kondo on Netflix.  I watched the whole first season of her Tidying Up show in 24 hours and have subsequently spent quite a bit of time looking through her videos on YouTube.  I have spent even more time folding things up.

I was a bit sceptical about it at first, greeting the home and 'sparking joy' all seems a bit unnecessarily whimsical and airy-fairy but I am now well and truly converted and will continue in my own tidying journey with lessons learned.

I was particularly struck by two of her concepts.  The first is saying thank you to the things you let go, I think this is very useful for helping to let go of items that you are finding difficult to discard.  I mean the sorts of things that you don't really want but feel like you ought to keep, for me that's things I bought or made but didn't wear.  For people like me the act of saying 'thank you' alleviates any feelings of guilt associated with throwing something out.

The second thing I really, really like is folding up clothes.  I love it, I've folded all mine, I've folded Rose's and then I folded a whole bunch of other stuff too.  Look how nice my tea towels look now...

And my quilting fabric stash looks like a shop.

Storing stuff so you actually see all of it is genius.  In hindsight it's obviously the best way to go about things, you no longer have to empty entire drawers out before you realise the item you need is at the bottom of the washing basket, also using the Konmari folding method makes everything take up much less space.

But what I think I really love is the act of actually spending time folding things.  Marie says that you should smooth out each item with love first then carefully fold it according to her method so it will stand up, this is both practical as you can be checking if the item is still in good condition but it also gives you the chance to contemplate the piece and accord it a bit of respect.  I don't know about you but I feel like I own so much that it's not a bad thing to really look at everything individually once in a while.

So at the moment I love it all.  The only thing I'm not loving is finding small boxes to compartmentalise my dresser drawers.  Marie shows up at everyone's homes with bags of lovely boxes in beautiful colours and tactile materials, where does she get them?  If anyone has any hints and tips for that I would be very grateful.