Happy Friday! I want to talk to you about two things tonight. 

First of all, it’s been a couple years since we tidied our home with the KonMari Method™. Since then, our home is never, ever untidy. Everything is always put away where it belongs immediately.

Yeah, right. 

If you’re in the beginning or middle of your tidying journey, or even if you’ve KonMari’d your entire home, don’t be alarmed if you sometimes have a bit of clutter. Here is a picture of our kitchen counter this evening. We just got back from the movies, and Carly was grabbing a bowl of cereal before she heads out again, hence her coat and purse did not get put away. I dumped a jacket, a badge from a speech tournament I helped at last night, the mail, some library books, my purse, jacket, and a water bottle on the counter.

But here’s the thing - it took me 3 minutes to put everything away after I sat down for a minute and made a cup of tea. Having a few things out is not the same as relapsing back into a state of untidiness, so don’t stress out if there are a few things out of place from time to time. Sometimes my family is tired - we all work and are involved in ministries and other activities, and we just set things down when we come in the door. But knowing we can quickly get the house in order brings us peace.

We typically have 10-20 people from our church over every Wednesday evening. I used to worry about getting everything ready, but since we went through the KonMari Method, everything has a place, and everyone in the family knows where those places are. Thus, any of us can get things ready in about 15 minutes so we’re able to welcome our friends with ease.

The second thing I want to tell you is that I don’t always WANT to put things away. I don’t think very many of us naturally want to pick up after ourselves. I don’t always immediately want to fold and put away the laundry, but since we KonMari’d our dresser drawers and closet, the task is so much easier, which makes me less likely to procrastinate over this chore.

Every morning when I get out of the shower, I’m tempted to leave the tote with my toiletries in the bathtub. But I know that if I take 5 seconds to put it away under the sink, the bathroom will look tidier the rest of the day. The little master bath in our 50 year old house is also the guest bath, so having it presentable all the time makes us feel better.

The same goes with making our bed. Coming home after a day of work to a neatly made bed makes me feel peace when I walk into the bedroom, so it’s worth it to me to put forth the small amount of time and effort it takes to make it in the morning. 

We put our dishes in the dishwasher because coming home to a tidy kitchen is much more relaxing than having to clean it up before we can start on dinner. 

The world is chaotic and stressful and messy, and coming home to a place that’s tidy is like coming home to a sanctuary.

If you’re like us (and most other humans) your home will get untidy from time to time, but after you’ve completed your tidying festival, you’ll have a place for everything, which means you can put things away quickly. 

The end goal of the KonMari Method™ isn’t to gloat over your beautiful home, it’s to allow you time to pursue other things that spark joy for you because you’ve freed yourself from trying to manage the clutter in your home. You may find yourself doing things you never expected. I’ve recently been finding joy in drawing and painting, which I haven’t done in years and it’s so much fun. In fact, here’s something I was working on today.

Getting your house in order may lead to something new for you too!

Happy tidying!

We have 4 more KonMari Basics workshops with the Central Arkansas Library System coming up. Check out schedule at TidyNest.net/events. We hope to see you at one of them.

Sue Fehlberg is Arkansas’ only Certified KonMari Consultant