Have you watched Marie Kondo?

Well, have you?

I wasn't going to.  Dale and I had flicked through Netflix and I couldn't believe there was a show to take you through decluttering, tidying, and cleaning.  I actually had a giggle at it ... and then after hearing so many people chat about it, I decided to see what the fuss was all about.

The minute I saw her start explaining how to sort things I was HOOKED!!!! majorly.  I even took notes on the steps that you go through and how to implement her 5 steps from the Konmarie method in my own home. 

I started the following morning on my own clothes.  I tipped them all out on my bed (I don't have many clothes due to losing weight and having clothes in different sizes while I get to goal) I went through them all and the ones that I enjoy wearing or that 'spark joy' I kept.  Ones that I wasn't a massive fan of, or didn't like the colour, I put in the donation pile.  

Do your clothes 'spark joy' like this when you wear them?  Rose is wearing her big brothers old Sunderland t-shirt and she seems to just radiate joy doesn't she 😀

I will say that I didn't quite follow her 5 rules properly:

1. Clothes
2. Books
3. papers
4. Komono (miscellaneous) 
5. mementoes

Marie Kondo says to do all clothes first in the house - well I couldn't do it like that, not with the 2 little ones crawling and running about.  As a result, I worked room to room. Starting with the main bedroom and boy am I pleased with the results.  

I went through my stuff - starting with my clothes

 I did what she said  - I piled my clothes on to the bed and I went through everything that I owned (don't forget to check the laundry piles too, to make sure you have everything.) 

I then folded everything and made it look perfect 😝

I used small baskets in the drawers to help keep everything in their places and to be a barrier too.

 I put short sleeved tops together and did the same for long sleeves.  The a basket for thin strapped vest tops and another basket for tank tops and I put my thin jumpers in here too.

The next drawer is filled with my hoodies (and I folded two that were dirty, put them in so I knew what space to leave and then threw them back in the wash) then small cardigans and then dresses and skirts (we only have drawers - no wardrobes)

The last drawer has my jeans, leggings, jammies, and workout gear in it.  Everything has a place and everything is in its place.

I sorted my makeup out too.  got rid of stuff I don't use, put all my hair things in one place and went through all the extra tiny bits that were in my drawer (and not needed!!)  

 and I just sorted Dale's clothes and books - same principals as my drawers and all nicely folded and popped away.  

I cleared the back of our bed and drawers and oh my word.  

The place is so calming right now and I have a lovely vanilla scented candle that I burn each night and the glow from it is just lovely.  

 

The second room I tackled completely was the babies room, Rose and Mattias, and it looks lovely. 

I sorted each of their drawers, got rid of things that were too small - which in Mattias's case was nearly everything! That boy will not slow down with the growing.  So all 9-12 month clothes are gone and he is now officially into 12-18 months clothes ... and so is Rose.


Shoes, bibs, socks, vests, nappies, dress up, blankets - everything went under my beady eyes

 

 The great thing about the drawers being like this is you can see everything really easily.  You can see what you need, or pick an outfit without having to throw out half the drawer on the floor.  

 Nappy area - changing bag, toy bags creams etc 

Although I may tackle the top of Rose's drawers a little too to make it less cluttered.  I have no in my head that it should be all lovely and clear ... but at the same time, I want her momentoes kept for her where she can see them.  Still, I think it will be cleared - watch this space ... okay so the picture on the left was what I had left on her drawers, the picture on the right is what her drawers look like when i cleared things for her memory box.

The top of Mattias's drawers don't have much on them.  Each child has their own cross stitch (well Jonathan's needs to be made but he has chosen what he wants and I WILL make it soon for him)  

There isn't very much in their room by way of toys, there are two buckets that have teddys in them.  They aren't filled - at the bottom, I have placed a cushion to keep the shape and then in the larger on there is a big teddy with a few smaller ones on top that Mattias can get his hands on.  The smaller one has a cushion in the bottom again but only a few of Rose's teddies in them.  Some were put in a box to be sorted into memory boxes for the kids.

Rose doesn't have a way to get under her bed so thankfully that was something I didn't have to do.  Mattias has a little space under his bed.  I have cleared it out and now there is nothing under there but a box of blankets (which I've since moved so there is nothing there anymore). Probably a good thing as Rose likes to launch her bottles out of her bed and sometimes you can't find them and then voila ... under the cot! 

I am very happy with their room.  It still feels like a haven for me.  That is what I wanted it to be like when we moved in.  I love the very light grey walls (there is glitter in it!!!) and I have little white stars and clouds on one side of the walls.  It was the only thing I was allowed to do while expecting Mattias and I love it.


The next room - Jonathan's room!  well, this one is a room that I am only partially doing.  It's his wee space and I don't want to ruin that for him. Saying that I have sorted it for him - to a certain extent.  I've sorted his drawers and given him some baskets to keep those wee tiny bits that all kids accumulate.  He has a 'bouncy' chair (as he calls it) for reading his books on.  A few places to store some books and other belongings.  One thing that he doesn't have in his room are toys - don't worry he still has toys they are just in the garage so that the really tiny pieces can't be swallowed by the little ones.  Plus it means he has space on his own, uninterrupted toy time and he loves it.  He gets to have some music on and he can go as mad as he wants when he is in there.  

One thing that never stays tidy in this house is our hot press or linen closet.  I don't know why because it is hardly used.  I think it may have been Jonathan's pyjamas that were adding to the awful mess - they are now neatly sorted in his own drawers for him to be able to see what ones that match ... and ultimately fit!  - Is anyone else like me and leave the clothes till they are literally at their knees when they should be at the ankles?

For the hotpress I got 2 plastic containers - one for towels and one for sheets, and I had a basket which was just the perfect size for the towels.  I had a little plastic basket that is just right for the face cloths that don't match any towels ... need more of these as the babies at dinner time get so dirty they need to be thrown in the wash on a daily basis!!  I decided to hang the towels that we are using on the back of the door, so they get warm and they don't lie on the floor getting dirty. (oh yea that wee bag is for wrapping paper)
 The top shelf was filled with blankets that belong to the kids ... ones that they don't use anymore but that I've wanted to keep because they've been made by granny's (or Jonathan's first cot set that I loved!!! - I just kept the blanket of this, not the cot side).  Because I knew that these wouldn't be used again they've gone up into the attic for when I get their big wooden memory boxes made (which reminds me I need to check up on those) The only thing I need to get for the hotpress is another middle-sized basket for the pillowcases - I need so many as our bed alone takes 7! so we need an extra 5 that don't match our bedspread ... does anyone else have so many? or is it just us?
when I was pregnant I had about 7 just for me.  I had them between my knees all done my back, I had one under my bump ... feet too 😀

Our living room is our toy room too so not much can be done in there.  I did buy a massive DVD case for all our DVDs and video games.  I even sorted out the DVDs in the case too.

At the back are the boxsets that we have

In the middle on the right side are the video games
on the left side are the movies that aren't for the kids - I was gonna say adult movies but it's really not what would be classified as adult movies!



And at the front are the kids' movies and TV shows (like Teletubbies and Bear in the Big Blue House) 

 This cupboard is for the kids toys, so there are not loads all over the place.

On top is just a few ornaments and above, my growing collection of family picture tiles.

The book shelf is divided into adult and baby books.  

There are also a few toys on it too so that the kids can grab something.

The kids love their books and I love that they have complete access to it.  Mattias and Rose love their books and it's great to see them pulling them out and looking at the pages.  Rose loves a Dinosaur book at the minute.  She sounds so cute when she says 'die-no-sore'




I also took on the mammoth task of sorting the photos that we have.  I have a lot of photos and love to look through memories.  We already get monthly picture books, but not all the pictures that I take can fit in it so sometimes there are others I want to keep and they have to have a place to go - I love that we have the digital cameras and the great cameras on our phones but I love to just sit and flick through my pictures too.  I bought a great photo album from Amazon.  It holds 500 6x4 pictures and I have filled one already and ordered a third to come tomorrow.  It has been so wonderful to look back on the memories that we have made as a family of three (I haven't got to the years of Rose and Mattias yet!) I found some beautiful old pictures of my grandfather on my dads side, some lovely pictures of myself and my siblings as little kids taken by my uncle.

 I sat with Jonathan and looked through the pictures and told him what was happening in each one he asked about, and he loved it.  Somethings he could remember and he told me a wee story that I had forgotten about with it.  Some pictures he laughed at his craziness.  Dale and I sat down and looked through the album when the kids were playing around our feet. It was lovely! I'm looking forward to continuing sorting through the photos and then adding them to more and more albums - I may even get my albums from when I was younger and just put them all together so all the albums are the same and all pictures are in one place.



The last place for me to use the Konmarie method is my kitchen 😟 I think this will be the hardest one as I think I use everything in it - and, even though it may not look it, it is quite organized ... I just need to sort the stuff that has accumulated over the past year or so - that shouldn't be too hard, should it? ... 😝