Back in 2015, I purchased The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo and started reading it. I think the saying thank you to my clothes was the thing that put me off at first although I was still excited to give it a go, and I’m sure at that point I did.
But that was then and this is now, I think between one thing and another I’d settled into doing the everyday jobs to keep on top of the mess but never really made it any further than that. I get the dishwasher loaded in the morning and maybe a load of washing on the go but then get caught up in looking after Jaxon or working on my business bits. When I saw that Marie Kondo’s show was coming to Netflix I was very excited – I know what a nerd! But I think between Netflix commissioning this as well as the whole hype around Mrs Hinch towards the end of last year, I was suitably excited about finally getting our house in order. Some of the work was definitely going to be more of a team effort but some bits like sorting my own clothes and sorting Jaxon’s clothes could be done while the boys were out at work/college/school and I could surprise them with the things I’d achieved. I watched the first episode around New Year’s Day and really had to stop myself from binge-watching all the episodes in one go! It was too tempting to just click that “Next Episode” button!
I thought that it might give me the get-up and go to get the house sorted properly and it definitely did. With Jaxon going back to school after Christmas, I was all prepared than on the first day of term once I’d dropped him off at school, I would come home and get started but
Chris had gone back to work and Jaxon still had a day off school. We had our breakfast and played for a little bit downstairs then I really felt like I needed to put this energy to use. I set Jaxon up with the iPad and his drawing books at the end of the bed and got all the clothes out of my wardrobe and emptied the chest of drawers too. In my wardrobe, I have some dresses that I’d bought over the years for different occasions like weddings and birthday parties, but I’m not the size I was maybe 3-4 years ago and I often gravitate to one particular dress that I pair with different cardigans and pairs of tights depending on the occasion. Maybe one day I’ll be that size again and fit in those older dresses but opening my wardrobe and seeing those dresses that I couldn’t wear did make me a little sad. It was like they were taking up space and being unloved when they could be loved in someone else’s wardrobe.
My daily “Mum Uniform” generally revolves around a t-shirt and jeans. I’d also been holding on to lots of t-shirts that were just not the right size for me any more. They would ride up while I tried to do chores around the house or I’d reach up for something in the supermarket and with the other hand have to hang onto the hem of my shirt. I got a bit drastic when it came to the t-shirts, I tried on so many and stood in the middle of the bedroom with my arms over my head, having a mini dance party and things like that to see if they were still suitable or if they were riding up around my tummy.
This was when the saying thanks to my clothes was coming into play. Still not sure I get this bit and still not sure it’s necessary but I did try to say thank you to my clothes but also a quick thank you prayer to God, that I had the opportunity to throw away the “extra” clothes because I’m fortunate enough to have clean clothes that fit me and keep me warm in the cold weather and things like that. I felt really happy like I’d achieved something really good when I saw the two bin bags but then I was like “Right what can I tidy next?”.
Well, it had to be paused that day because using all that energy caught up with me and Jaxon was climbing the walls as he was getting bored. I came back to it earlier this week when I got all the clean laundry that hadn’t made it back into the wardrobes piled on the bed. Put Luther on the iPad and worked on sorting, folding and putting away all the washing. I moved the dirty laundry downstairs ready to get on with that too. Now I’m waiting for the washing to catch up with me as it’s not drying as quickly as it might have done when we were home all day and the heating was running more. I’m thinking I might bake a cake over the weekend and move the washing in front of the oven while the cake bakes so that they can dry a bit quicker hopefully. Either that or I’ll be cranking up the heating for a little while.
While putting away the clean washing, I worked my way through Jaxon’s clothes and cleared out the items that were too small. I also ended up looking up on eBay and Amazon in case I could find two of the shirts that Jaxon has that are now too small for him. One is from Canada that Chris’s auntie brought back for him and the other is one that I found at an NCT sale. I think I might have to admit defeat on finding them in bigger sizes but we’ll see, maybe I’ll find them if I sit and properly look rather than my quick look the other day.
Now I’m off to set up my new bullet journal and write down a list of all the cupboards and other bits that need to be dealt with now. For example, we have so many mugs in the kitchen and really don’t need that many for four of us! Even when we have guests we have our white “wedding crockery” set that could be brought out instead.
Have you attempting using the KonMari method to tidy your house? Do you follow Mrs Hinch on Instagram? Are both of them not your cup of tea?
