Seven Years Later

I used to have problems with clutter and “too much stuff.” I can’t say I’ve entirely sorted out the issue, but I think I’ve improved by at least 75%. I’m a lot more careful now about what I bring into my home, and I get rid of things a lot more easily. 

As much as people poopoo her, I have to give a lot of credit to Marie Kondo. In 2019, I “KonMaried” my entire house, and it genuinely changed my life. 

Here are the posts I wrote during that time (should you be curious):

Episode 1 

Episode 2 

Episode 3 

Episode 4 

So where do things stand seven years later? Well, for one thing, I don’t know what happened to Marie Kondo. I was hoping for more seasons of her show, but that didn’t happen. It seems like I heard somewhere that she had children and learned that her methods weren’t exactly practical with a house full of kids… but maybe I made that up (I could google it, but I’m busy blogging and being a passenger princess on a road trip). 

Regardless of the fact that kids (and husbands) make the KonMari method a bit hard to keep up on, I still benefitted greatly from what I implemented in my own house. Like I said, I still have some problems with “stuff,” but not nearly as bad as I used to. My house could use another mega tidy session, but it would be much easier now than it was in 2019. 

The other day I saw a list of questions to help you declutter, and I thought some of them were very helpful. Figuring out if something “sparks joy” has its relevance, but there are some things we have to keep for other reasons (for example, my broom doesn’t spark joy, but I still need a broom). So here are a few helpful questions to ask when you're deciding whether to keep something: 

Have I used this item in the last year?

Does this make my life easier or harder?

Am I keeping this out of guilt? 

Does owning this item cause me stress in any way?

If it disappeared, would I notice?

Does this item have a proper home?

Is it worth the space it takes up?

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This one is a new idea for me and something that will be very helpful to me moving forward:

Is this for my real life or a fantasy version of me?

(This question is also a really good one to ask myself when I’m about to buy something!)

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And I’ve seen this one circulating for a few years in social media, and it’s always a good one:

If this item had poop on it, would I wash it or throw it out?

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My girls have been getting their rooms clean for the new school year, so I've had decluttering on the brain, and I've tried to encourage them to let go of some things. It's always a battle I have to fight carefully, but every now and then something sinks in and they recognize that they can get rid of something. 

One of the biggest takeaways for me, personally, with Marie Kondo's method is the idea that if something has served its purpose, it's okay to let it go. I was able to part with a lot of things I'd held on to for too long once I adopted this mindset. I no longer needed to hold on to things for sentimental reasons (with only a few exceptions). 

I wondered if, years later, I would regret anything I got rid of. Now that it's been seven years, I can say with all honesty that there is only one item that I wish I'd kept, but even with that, I don't lose sleep over it.