Magic of Marie Kondo

Today was women's day. The day where we are supposed to look up to an amazing woman that changed your life and say thank you. There are many celebrities that we can look up to, the typical ones include; Oprah, Mother Theresa, Michelle Obama, and Marie Curie. I wanted to write about someone that inspires me, but not someone that pops into my head right away. That's when I spotted Marie Kondo, she is the one that came up with her method of de-cluttering your room and home. The idea behind her philosophy is asking yourself "does this bring me happiness?" and if the answer is no, you simply get rid of it. Many people can be confused and think that it is a minimalist way of living, but in fact, it is surrounding yourself with the things you love. I recently visited her web page and it states "As a young girl fascinated with tidying, I thought the goal was to get rid of as many things as possible. This single-minded focus on discarding had a negative impact on my health – one day I actually fainted from all the stress!" so you see it is not about getting rid of as many things as you can, it is simply getting rid of the things that do not bring you joy into your life. I recently, started focusing on decluttering my room, and I have so many "stuff" and I am never sure of what to get rid of. I grew up with my father, who likes to take stuff that is free and likes a good deal on anything. My dad's motto is to never throw it or it will come to use one day. My oldest sister says "every time, I think that one day it will come to use", she tosses it straight to the garbage. Unfortunately for me, I have the same mindset as my dad, so I tend to keep all this stuff, which I do not need. Then, I heard about Marie Kondo first from my oldest sister that said something about her method when she first started to move out and then again, from my other sister. This has been the hardest task for me, is getting rid of things that I do not need, so I have been asking myself "does this bring me joy?" if not, then straight to the donation pile. According to Marie Kondo, she had an epiphany where she wrote: "tidying is about what you want to keep in your life, not what you want to eliminate." This quote has changed my life in an instant. From reading that simple sentence and it brought everything to light.

Clothing is one of the things that I love. But from time to time you need to pile it all together and you see how much of it we need and how much of it you don't, you can only do that once it is in a huge pile and you realize that you do not need all of it, you only need the ones that bring you joy. Already with the simple step, it makes life a little bit easier. Using boxes for jewelry can be easier, folding your clothes can make your closet seem smaller. Getting rid of things that do not bring you joy makes everything seem so much easier.

Now, let's get back to why she is an inspiration to me. She has written a novel on this subject and she has changed the mindset of many people who live with clutter, she has her very own Netflix show. Marie Kondo is one of the most successful women and it is over a simple idea of "what brings you joy?" it is a way to live in a happier life. She helps people get rid of stress as well, clutter brings stress into your life, and if you get rid of the clutter, you can get rid of the stress. It seems that a lot of people do not have time these days, everyone is overworked and still wants time to have fun, so cleaning because tedious. Marie Kondo, helps people and couples organize their lives to make it easier to manage to tidy every day. We need someone like Marie Kondo is our daily lives. She is also not perfect and she knows, she admits that everything gets a little messy at her house too, which is what makes her relatable. We can relate to someone like Marie Kondo much easier than Oprah Winfrey because she is more on the level of us rather than a celebrity level, who we know has money. Yes, Oprah is a good person because of the charities that she has contributed to, but she is a little intimidating to be setting your standards too.

Clothing is one of the things that I love. But we need to pile it all together and we see how much of it we need and how much of it we don't, we can only do that once it is in a huge pile and you realize that you do not need all of it, you only need the ones that bring you joy. Already with the simple step, it makes life a little bit easier. Using boxes for jewelry can be easier, folding your clothes can make your closet seem smaller.