Tidying Up on Netflix

Tidying Up on Netflix

Each year, I start the New Year purge & the ramping up of organization. Let’s be honest, it’s a short-lived process. My kids are total hoarders, we are a family of collectors & I am terribly sentimental. This lends itself to a home filled with photos, drawings, Funkos, old T-shirts & boxes of stuff that I will keep indefinitely.

Enter, Tidying Up on Netflix. We watched it, we tidied & we learned a thing or two about our house in the process. I’m here to highlight the positives about the method & also mention the things that do not work for me.

The Folding Is Legit

If you take nothing else from Tidying Up on Netflix, at least try to fold clothes the KonMari way. I grew up stacking T-Shirts in drawers, stacking pants on top of each other only to reach in & disrupt the entire pile of folded clothes. With Marie’s method, I can easily see all my pants, all my sweaters & it reminds me of my options. Also, it’s more visually appealing. Years later, I still fold my clothes the KonMari way. I really like it!

The only hang up is it the KonMari folding method does take more time. The trade-off is taking the time to smooth the clothes & fold it differently you can see if anything has a hole, stain, etc. You may be surprised your drawers have more room with this folding method. It’s so efficient! But, there is no way in hell am I folding my socks. For me, that’s a mess & a half. I will die rolling my socks into a snug little pair.

Sentimental Hoarders – You Have Permission to Let Go

In watching Tidying Up on Netflix with my daughter, I saw magic. Through Marie, my daughter learned a different way to say goodbye to things she once loved. The aspect of holding an object & being mindful about keeping it allows her introspective mind to slow down. When she makes a conscious choice to let something go, the ability to thank it makes it a positive choice rather than a sad one.

Make Do With What You Have

One thing I love about Tidying Up on Netflix is you don’t hear Marie talk about buying anything new. If you’re trying to organize, she encourages you to use what you have. For us, that means using shoeboxes in some drawers to sort pants from shirts. It also means when Jessica sends me macarons from Bouchon, I reuse all the boxes to organize my desk drawers.

With other organizational systems, I’ve purchased plastic tubs, drawer organizers, different hangers, etc. For the exception for the plastic tubs in the garage, all of the other tools have not worked and/or encouraged me to store a bunch of crap I don’t need rather than treasure then things I love.

The Energy of the Home

Now, I don’t really remember this from the book, but on Tidying Up on Netflix, Marie takes the time to tap into the energy of the home. She has the owners try to do the same and to envision your hope for the home. I find this very beneficial. “Tidying Up” can be taxing, emotional difficult & is something one can avoid endlessly. By tapping into the energy of your home, it may spur you to make changes to make your home more of what you want to see, right?

Call me weird if you want, but you know damn well when you walk into a home with frantic, messy & stressed energy, you’re not as comfortable as a home where the energy is calm & welcoming. For me, checking into the home’s energy is a motivator.

Sparking Joy is a Real Thing

After running the KonMari system through my children’s rooms, I realized one thing. After you keep things that only spark joy, it makes cleaning easier. Do you know why? Because you’re tidying up the stuff you WANT TO KEEP.

Before I rediscovered the method, I found myself cleaning going, “what is all this crap?” Well, now all the crap I’m cleaning is actually stuff we love. This makes tending to the never-ending job of tidying more positive & GASP even enjoyable at times.

It Doesn’t All Work

Let’s get this straight, if you’re impoverished, you may not have many things that really spark joy. There’s definitely a privilege factor at play in the KonMari method.

For me, my work clothes do NOT spark joy, but dammit, I need to keep them. Guess what, my can opener, tampons, Spanx & previous 7 years of taxes do not spark joy but I need to keep them too.

Now, let’s talk books! Many of my bookworm friends are up in arms at the idea of getting rid of books. There is commentary about this EVERYWHERE! My take, if the books spark joy, keep them! If they don’t thank them for your service & move on. If this leaves you with 2 or 200 books, so be it.

Photos are at a standstill for me. I have not used the spark joy method for family photos & I don’t intend to anytime soon. For our family, photos are incredibly important & need to be stored, kept, treasures & filed.

THE VERDICT

I am Really Into Tidying Up on Netflix! While I totally get this system is not going to be a winner for everyone, it’s truly altered my perspective organization & cleaning.

During the initial craze of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I read the book. Immediately, I looked up a tutorial on YouTube for how to fold my clothes the KonMari way. I also held many items in my house asking, “Does this spark joy?” I cleaned out a few closets, got organized (for a while) & forgot about it.

Tidying Up on Netflix sparked (see what I did there?) something in my kids which in turn, traveled to me. A few weeks into the year, we are all still on board with a modified KonMari method that works for us.

Have you tried this system? I want to talk about it! Let me know what works for you & your family!

While you’re on Netflix, be sure to check out some of our all-time faves, Nailed It, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend & Imposters.

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