This episode was supposed to be about the last day of our Kondo-ing process, but it was extended since we didn’t complete everything on the 3rd Sunday.
Our 3rd Sunday of Konmari Method was a struggle! The “Komono” (miscellaneous things) Category was pretty tough. We decided to do the last category “Sentimental Stuff” and the final review on the following Sunday.
I guess if you are here you've read Episode 1 and Episode 2, but if not, please check out!
Report On What We Got Rid Of
I update you about the things we got rid of on the 1st and 2nd day of our Konmari-ing:
Wearable Clothes - The didi in the neighbourhood who cooks for us once a day took all the sarees and some Western clothes for her family. We donated the rest to Goonj.
Books - I sent photos of the books to Thrift Waale and priced only the courier fee (across India) or free if the buyer comes and picks them up. They’ve been posting them on their Instagram Stories, and four books have been adopted so far.
I also posted some on Instagram Stories of MIRCHI KOMACHI Instagram account on World Book Day and 12 more were adopted.
I still have some books which really deserve loving owners, so I try to reach them.
A Little Thought About Gender Roles And Differences
During our tidying up, I kept instructing what to do to my guy before doing mine. Otherwise, he’s lost.
The main reason is that I’m the one who initiated "tidying up with Konmari" in our flat. Although he learned the rules and category orders of Konmari Method, he would still ask me what to do next.
About Marie Kondo, some people criticise that she doesn’t suggest any change in the typical roles in the family - wife is in charge for cooking, cleaning, etc etc, and husband plays only a supportive role (if not none!) except for mechanical things.
Maybe it's valid as far as I saw... For example, in one of her clients' place, Konmari told them like “OK, now you (wife) can tidy up the things in the kitchen while you (husband) can do the garage”. She didn’t suggest them to do these together.
And as I mentioned in my previous post, it seems that many of those who initiate Konmari Method in the house are women.
But wait. Is it also valid that mostly women initiate Konmari Method because we're more eager for drastic changes in life than men???
In one of the videos, the husband showed reluctance in midway to throw away still-usable things. He thought it was a horrible thing to do. Yes, it is so if you focus only on that, and we need to make a maximum effort to give things the second life. But I guess he didn’t fully understand about this one-time huge “sorting festival” (to him it looked like “discarding festival”). Is there a possibility that he was afraid of the big change as well?
Our Miscellaneous Things
Well.... Let’s get to work!
Our miscellaneous things consist of:
- My miscellaneous things
- My guy’s miscellaneous things
- Common miscellaneous things (e.g. utensils)
- My work-related things
- My guy’s work-related things
Since these were actually separated in locations in our flat, we hit the bedroom first.
These are my guy’s miscellaneous things and our common things (i.e. bedsheets, tools, medical kits) in our bedroom shelf:
We discussed the common things while he was doing his miscellaneous things.
Again I forgot to take out the stuff from under the bed, but there were some from there, too.
After doing these, I told my guy to raid his mysterious things on the upper shelf in the kitchen where he put everything he wanted to happily delete from his view. Receiving 'OK...' from him was my tiny win, hehehe!
This part was the toughest for him since they're the things which he didn't open for years. He sat in the kitchen and finally opened the bags one by one, and found many things which he didn’t even remember existed.
This is not a great picture to see, but on his struggle with a part of “up there” stuff.
While he was sweating and groaning in the kitchen, I started doing my miscellaneous things.
It looked like this:
After doing mine, the shelf in the bedroom has become like this:
I know, the view of these carton boxes is ugly. But little by little I will DIY cute storages!
And after my guy completed his “up there” stuff, the upper shelf in the kitchen has become like this:
God knows what they are, but he was very happy he finally organised them. I think that's exactly the point, so it was great.
Common Miscellaneous Things
I went through the very few things we have in the bathroom and around the wash basin. It didn't take more than 10 seconds.
Now we tackled together with our common things in the kitchen - plates and utensils, pots and pans. After quickly checking all the containers with grain, spice, etc., we tackled these:
It was surprising that he agreed to get rid of many stainless utensils which he/his mum brought. I’m sorry but my heart sank every time I used them. And I also purged ugly plastic containers and swore not to buy any more.
And after that, the kitchen shelf looked like this:
Our Work-related Things In The Living Room
I’ve realised that most of the things in our living room are my work-related things except for those on/in his desk.
My guy was pretty exhausted at this point and didn’t go on with the things in/on his desk.
And I realised that there are very little to get rid of among my work-related things. They’re pretty organised, too. They just need proper storage places. I will tackle/enjoy after Konmari Method, like DIY cute small drawer etc.
After Our 3rd Sunday
We wrapped up our 3rd day at this point. We had this much to get rid of:
Most of the utensils and usable things went to the rag-and-bone guy (he said he would use many of them at his house), so I don’t think we wasted lots of things.
An Embarrassing Confession
I have an embarrassing confession.
I had been keeping a note of clothes and shoes I discarded, for many years. When I threw away anything, I would add to the list.
The purpose was to avoid searching for the things which I had already thrown away.
Sometimes I get an idea “Oh, I have a yellow shirt somewhere… I can match it with these pants” or “I know I had some very old socks. I can take them for this trip and discard after wearing one last time” about non-existing stuff. I forget that I threw them away. And I am a person who gets veeeerrrrry irritated when I can’t find certain things.
I didn’t like myself keeping such note, I didn’t like myself being so nitpicky, I didn’t like myself being so “small”.
On the first day of Konmari Method, I finally stopped doing that.
I know I will forget discarding many things, but since things are organised category-wise after Konmari, I wouldn’t need to search for things. If it’s not there, it’s nowhere in my life.
This is the tiny and uniquely-me achievement in my Konmari experience.
The Feeling After Completing 90% Of Our Konmari Method
My guy was happy. He thought he got rid of a lot of things, which is pretty much true.
As for me, I didn’t feel so fresh. And I was not happy I didn't feel so.
I wonder, is that because our livingroom-cum-workshop (where I stay most of the day) hasn't changed at all? Because I still have a lot more things than other people (other expats of a similar financial status?!) and I don’t feel light at all?
This is my honest feeling I'm sharing with you.
Let's see how I will feel on the following Sunday, and after sometime post-Kondo-ing.
Bonus Video
Today's bonus video is about my dream house.
If you have ever visited MIRCHI KOMACHI Pinterest Page (thank you, you're a rare species!), you might have seen the board "HOUSE" and found my odd love for cob houses.
I love them because every line in the house is curved. No straight lines. I get fun and liberating feeling as I feel in Antoni Gaudí's architecture.
My reason is not an ecological one, but many people consciously choose cob houses for ecological living.
This is one of the examples of cute cob houses. I will discuss further in the next episode.