I recently read Marie Kondo’s bestseller, “The life-changing magic of tidying up.” (see info here) “This best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing.  Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results.”

 

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Office Before

I had been putting off  organizing the home office because I knew it was going to be a big job.  This room had too much furniture, too much paper, and too many books.  It took me 5 hours on a hot, humid summer day to save and organize only what I wanted.  I took loads of paper, books, and files to the recycle center. I also found three old phones to mail-in and be recycled.

 

 

Office After

Office After

This room feels just right to me.  It’s both functional and decorative.  I know where everything is  located in this room now.  I even found some things I had forgotten about that can be put to good use–a French-language reference book, a portfolio, and some books I haven’t yet read, but plan to soon.

 

Tidy Drawer

Tidy Drawer

The tidying up continued into the bedroom.  Marie Kondo advocates folding your knit shirts into thirds and tuck them in the drawer on edge to see every shirt.  Perhaps some of you have done this years ago, but this was new to me.  It is the perfect opportunity to donate t-shirts that “don’t give me joy.”   So easy to find the correct, unwrinkled shirt!

 

Being organized is different than being meticulous or anal-retentive.  The first thing a home stager recommends before you list your house is to de-clutter.

Call Premiere Home Stagers for help on organizing or de-cluttering your house.  608-345-9396.