Spring cleaning? The one question you need to ask yourself to transform your home (and make you feel energized and at peace too!)…

 

Ahhh spring has sprung here on the West coast and she is looking good! A ‘not a cloud in the sky’, ‘don’t need a jacket’, ‘cherry tree outside my window starting to bloom’ kinda day. It IS a perfect day for spring cleaning and I have THE question that will help you get the job done.

I don’t know about your home but after a long stuffy winter, mine is in desperate need of a spring clean. It is full of dusty surfaces and out of control piles of work notes and kids school papers so last weekend I was determined to get on top of things and for a little help I turned to a book that I had picked up last year.

I am sure you have come across this book in your travels as it has been everywhere.

I am talking about Marie Kondo’s;

‘The life-changing magic of tidying up- the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing’.

 

I read most of the book last year and it did inspire me to jump start my spring cleaning but then life happened and I ran out of steam.  As a Japanese cleaning consultant Marie takes tidying up to a whole new level and her lifestyle tips have been a global hit.

The London Times had this to say about her;

“Condo has positioned herself as Japan’s preeminent guru of tidiness, a warrior princess in the war on clutter.”

 

This past weekend I pulled the book out again for a quick review and then got to it, bagging my son’s too small clothes and passing them on to a younger nephew, gathering books the boys no longer read, recycling old colouring books etc.  I’m not even close to being done but the work I have done so far has left me feeling energized and at peace at the same time.

Marie believes that;

‘a dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective. It is life transforming…when you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order too.’

Spring Cleaning & The Magic Question

The bit from Marie’s book that has garnered the most press and the thing I love best about her de-cluttering process (called the ‘KonMari Method’) is the question she directs us to ask ourselves when presented with any item in our home;

“Does it spark joy?”

 

If it does it stays, if it doesn’t it goes, because Kondo believes that you should only be surrounding by things you love.

I’m a bit of a hoarder at times (books & memorabilia) but by asking myself;  ‘Does it spark joy?’ I can quickly come to a decision.

That book I last read in 1992? It goes.

A piece of art Oliver made when he was in kindergarten? It goes. (I know ruthless right?) but asking this question has brought me more space and what feels like better energy into our home (improved feng shui?).

And I am just getting started!

I can’t imagine how I will feel when we tackle the garage (nightmare), my kitchen cupboards (tupperware, mismatched jars and lids nightmare) and our storage room filled with dated baby items, broken computers (my husband’s) and ancient university text books (mine).

It is going to feel SPECTACULAR!

I used the ‘KonMari method’ with my kids too.

Both of them are collectors so surfaces in their room get crammed with stuff (that is Will’s bedside table collection below-pre clean up).

 

“Does this Chinese lantern really spark joy?”  I asked Will.

His answer: “Yes”. So it stayed.

After we had de-cluttered his room, made space on top of his chest of drawers and organized his clothing he said to me that his room ‘felt better’.

I also noticed that after his room was cleared out he started spending more time in it, playing with his Lego, reading or drawing. Clearly his bedroom was more inviting to him.

As I was working on Will’s room my husband heard me repeatedly asking Will, ‘Does this spark joy?” and he muttered;

“Pretty soon you are going to be asking yourself whether I ‘spark joy’ and I’ll be tossed out“

Ha ha.

And while we are on that thought one of the women in our Power Posse shared a story of a gal who asked herself that same question in regards to her husband, determined that he no longer sparked joy and soon after filed for divorce!

There is power in this method to be sure.

 

Marie also talks about-

• How you must start sorting by category, not by location
• Why tidying is a special event, not a daily chore (this is how I always have viewed tidying up -much to my husband’s dismay lol, so I am on track here)
• What to do with Komono (miscellaneous items)? You know those little objects like erasers, hair pins, elastic bands, etc. that we hold onto to and shove into junk drawers.  Her take on these odds and ends is that you should keep things because you love them-not just ‘because”, so bye-bye komono.
• Respecting money by picking up coins that are lying about and putting them into your wallet/ purse (I do this all the time now because she is right -money should be respected because if it isn’t it will stop flowing to you).
• How she believes that there should only be one spot for items i.e. only one place in your home where you will find those elastic bands, paper clips, clothespins etc.
• The best way to store bags is in another bag (Score! I’m already doing this)
• Never ball up your socks, fold them and store them on end (preferably in a shoe box)

All in all her book might be the gentle nudge you need to get you into that spring cleaning mood.

Now I just need to keep my momentum going and finish the rest of my spring cleaning- wish me luck and happy April to you!

…and if you happen to have a great de-cluttering / spring cleaning tip or just want to comment on this post I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below!

xo

Eliz

PS

I now have a YouTube channel!

So if you missed my last post (my video on Gratitude and why without it you will feel like you never, ever have enough) get it here. and be sure to give me a like while you are there!  One of my clients the uber fabulous Sam (she gave me the okay to use her name fyi) sent me an email after watching the video and said;

‘‘...loved your video on gratitude I always try to replace a negative thought with a positive one or else I end up on a rampage”.  

I thought that was priceless 🙂

 

…and don’t forget to connect with me on Facebook too as I post there regularly!