Editorial Team
This post was written by Amy Chinitz.
I recently saw a post on a Facebook Moms Group. Which pictured an apartment living room with a floor that was completely covered in toys. Wall-to-wall toys. The post was framed as a sort of confession. That this Mom lets her young child destroy the house every day while she is working from home. She was asking if anyone else could relate? The post got tons of Thumbs Ups, Hearts, LOLs, and a huge number of Comments. Empathizing with the Original Poster and admitting that their houses were also out of control!
Being confronted with the clutter in our homes concurrently with our usual workload has added a whole new source of stress, frustration and overwhelmed feelings for so many of us. Like that brave Poster on the FB Moms page, so Don’t Stress out. As a Working (from Home) Mom, myself, I am totally there with you, fellow Moms on the FB Page! As a Certified KonMari Consultant, I would like to offer you a new, guilt-free perspective on that mess.
Now is a great time to dive into the KonMari Method.
Even as just a joy-focused mentality, and even if it doesn’t immediately translate into physical tidying! The mission of KonMari is to choose joy. And that is my mantra with my professional work when I’m organizing a drawer. Only keep what you look forward to using; as a KonMari Consultant -I try to fill my calendar with projects that make me feel excited to show up; and as a Mom -I can overlook a toy-laden floor easily if my girls are playing together instead of fighting.
I let my kids completely overrun my house during the quarantine, and I’m proud of it! Since we couldn’t go anywhere, I wanted them to have as much fun as they could at home. They tagged up their bedroom walls with markers and stickers, hung up art projects that they made, tied strings around everything, and one of my daughters camped out in almost every room! Yes, unfortunately, they completely ruined one carpet with slime. However, in general, they didn’t do too much permanent damage. And we were able to reign all (most of) the playthings back in when we wanted to.
Provides Road map
The KonMari Method provides a roadmap for clearing the clutter in each category of possessions in your home, but that is only the practical application for the positive mindset shift that it can help you to achieve. KonMari is really a practice of decision-making using your values as the benchmark for the way you want to live, so Don’t Stress out. When you evaluate your socks in the KM Method, for example, you have a chance to appreciate your comfiest, coziest favorites.
The method can also be applied to cultivating an attitude of gratitude for every moment that you encounter. This may not be the right time for everyone to empty all their closets into a pile, but it is definitely a good time to enJOY and keep close the little mess-makers who are most important to us. When you look around your home, try to see the joyful moments and memories that went into making that creative, impressive, and precious mess!