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Have You Joined the Kon Mari Club?!

Janet Camilleri · 25/01/2019 ·

First there was the best-selling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”, then the Netflix series, “Tidying up with Marie Kondo” – and now, there’s the Kon Mari memes:

KonMari meme

 

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Just to clarify the above meme: apparently Marie Kondo has never said anything about only having 30 books. She doesn’t use numbers as a rule,  rather it is about only keeping the items which “spark joy” for you. For some people that might be 3 books, for others 30, 300, or 3000 … 😉

I thought you’d have to be living under a rock to have missed this cultural phenomenon – however it’s strictly a “middle aged thing” according to Miss 22, who had no idea what I was talking about when I showed her the memes.

So how has one sugary sweet Japanese lady managed to create a tidying revolution, making a tidy sum in the process?

What’s So Great about Kon Mari?

With the Kon Mari method, the initial clean out is so life-changing you will never go back to your pigsty ways have to do a big clean out again. Supposedly.

I’ve been watching the show on Netflix, and the approach involves de-cluttering by category rather than room, in the following order: clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous (think kitchen, bathroom, garage), and then you are ready to tackle the hardest category of all: sentimental.

You go through your house and pull out every item in a category before deciding what “sparks joy” and is worth keeping, and what to get rid of – and instead of casually flinging that stained and pilly old sweater into a garbage bag, you are meant to thank the item before reverently putting it aside.

Marie Kondo is particularly well known for her method of folding clothes, towels and the like, and her love of boxes to keep things organised. So far I’ve seen families swamped by “stuff”, a widow tearfully dealing with her late husband’s possessions, and a gay writer clinging to the hundreds of artworks and stories he wrote as a child. That’s a lot of mess!

Key Principles of the Kon Mari Method

I like some of the key principles which underlie the Kon Mari method, such as:

  1. Gratitude;
  2. Joy;
  3. Mindfulness; and
  4. Respect (for belongings).

If it seems almost like a religion, you’re not far wrong – it is heavily based in Shinto tradition.

While it’s interesting to see the mess other people live with (and compare it to your own), and the transformation of their homes, I take it all with a grain of salt. I wanted to check it out to see what all the fuss is about, and I may have – ahem – put a couple of tips into practice, but I don’t think I’ll ever be a bona fide card-carrying member of the Kon Mari club.

Kon Mari kitchen drawer with tea towels

I mean, if you are only going to keep the items that “spark joy” – I don’t think any tea towel is ever gonna spark joy in my heart –  and yet we  need tea towels!

konmari kitchen

Anyways I got playing around with Imgflip and made up some of my own Kon Mari memes – hope you have as much fun reading them as I did writing them!

konmari picard

 

kon mari tv

 

kon mari no time

 

kon mari fun

 

konmari austin powers

Are you tempted to join the Kon Mari club or do you think it’s all just a one minute wonder?


Filed Under: House & Home

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Liz says

    26/01/2019 at 8:03 am

    Haha !! Loved the memes! I’m with you – take it with a grain of salt.

    • Janet Camilleri says

      31/01/2019 at 10:47 am

      Yeah – don’t think it’s gonna change my life somehow 😉

  2. Victoria says

    31/01/2019 at 3:00 am

    You funny.

    • Janet Camilleri says

      31/01/2019 at 10:48 am

      Heh heh heh I had so much fun with these, glad you enjoyed 😉

  3. Sammie @ The Annoyed Thyroid says

    31/01/2019 at 4:08 pm

    No, I really can’t get on board with all the sparking joy business and I have neither the time nor the patience for all that folding! I do however love The Minimalists – they have a great documentary on Netflix and since I watched the doco and listened to their podcast, I’ve been a much more conscious consumer and think more carefully about what I need, what I want and how much value it’s going to add to my life.

    • Janet Camilleri says

      31/01/2019 at 4:18 pm

      Ooo thanks for the tip – I’ll look for The Minimalists on Netflix!

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Meet the Middle Aged Mama

Janet Camilleri is an Australian bloggerHi - I'm Janet Camilleri aka the Middle Aged Mama; crazy cat lady, award-winning business woman, and mother of two grown children. I might be a middle aged woman, but that doesn't mean I've lost all interest in looking stylish! I love chocolate, chick lit, cruising holidays and the husbear - and not necessarily in that order wink. I live in Brisbane, Australia, and I'm learning how to fashion a new life now that we have an empty nest - did somebody say "travel"?!

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