01/13/2020
So exactly one year ago I started MY personal KonMari process with a Certified consultant by my side to help guide the process. It's fun to look back at the notes that I wrote about my experience at the end of that day.
"13 Jan 2019
KONMARI DAY 1 (INTRO + CLOTHING:)
Well. Today was amazing! I am so excited and energized and hopeful about our home. So I have to give a little background first. I read Marie Kondo’s book about 2 years ago and it really resonated with me. I tried to see if our current (at the time) professional organizer would help us implement the method in our home but she wasn’t really the Konmari type, I tried to find a new professional organizer that could help us using the Konmari method, and no luck. But. We have finally found a Konmari certified consultant and we started today. Wow! I love how spiritual and psychological the approach is. Also, Ana is a great therapist. She is neutral, she is encouraging, she asked questions that help Bryce and I to find the answers on our own. We are actually learning a lot about ourselves and about each other in this process, and we are actually happy, like, together, which is a huge surprise to me. “Stuff“ has been one of the hardest things in our 10 year marriage. Ana is really good about letting you make your own decisions about your things, when you are ready. She holds no judgment, there is no shame, she is just there to support and help.
So first we gathered every single item of our clothing (just mine & Bryce’s to start). My pile took up about half of a small couch. His pile took up most of a 9 piece sectional. But, neither of those is right or wrong in this, we are just different people who function differently. The cool thing about starting with clothes, is clothes are something that you literally use every day, and they are the only thing that are really truly JUST yours if you share a living space with other people. So, Bryce and I are feeling happy and energized and unified today, but I’m wondering how things are going to go when we start on “shared items”. Ana said you don’t have to verbally thank each item that you choose to discard, but do acknowledge, think about, what has each item taught you? Maybe it taught you that yellow isn’t the best color on you. Acknowledge that, feel grateful for the gift of that knowledge, and let it move on to bless someone else’s life!
I was surprised that my pile of clothing was very small. It was a bit of a sad realization to me, because I think the reason it is small is that I have felt overwhelmed by all of the things in our life and so I subconsciously kept at least the things that I had complete control over, to a bare minimum. Like a “shrinking”, if you will. I don’t like that! A therapist once told me of a relationship that I was in, “Don’t you be less to make him more.”
So the process is most effective when completed in 6 months or less. We are doing ours in one week (!) Ana says this is actually really good because honestly, in the process, your home will get worse before it gets better. You “tidy” by category, not by room, so EVERY article of clothing gets pulled out from all around the house and gets put in one pile, EVERY book, every PIECE of paper, etc., and so, your house gets a little up-ended and a bit hard to live in and function in. She was talking about the benefit of doing it in one fell swoop rather than starting, and stopping, and starting, and stopping, etc. Keep a momentum going, you know? Bryce & I have “decluttered” our schedules for the week. We have cancelled at LEAST 12 of our “regular commitments” for the week."
