Minimalism With A Family
Otherwise known as the impossible journey to keeping your life clean and simple.
Like most people, I have read Marie Kondo's book The Life changing Magic of Tidying Up. And like most people, I became inspired. I wanted my life to change! I needed the magic that she was experiencing. I loved the look of comfy minimalism and I wanted that hygge feeling that it inspired. Plus, I wanted to do less house work and the fewer things I had to clean the better it would be!
But in all my excitement I completely forgot that I had a family. Yes, for one brief moment, I forgot that I had kids. I was so excited about having a clean and simple life that I forgot that children create mess; that is their job. They create chaos simply by being alive. And you can't really fault them for it, but it can still be quite frustrating.
I jumped onto pintrest and looked up "KonMarie with kids" and i found pages and pages full of tips and ideas on how to manage the method with little ones. I also found pages and pages about why this was more beneficial to their mental health and well being. So naturally I dove straight in! Of course I started with my youngest because she is too young to know the difference and she would rather play with her sister's toys than hers anyway. I made quick progress by moving some toys to the "baby box", more to the donate box (because who really needs 10 stuffed rattle toys), and even more to the garbage. How does one family accumulate so much CRAP? The room looked great, but there was still plenty of crap for the kid to play with.
Before tackling my oldest daughter's nightmare (ie: room) I KonMarie'd my own stuff. That went pretty fast because there wasn't all that much to go through. I regularly toss half my stuff because I always seem to have too much - way more than one person would need. I also went through the kitchen pretty easily, but I didn't get rid of nearly as much stuff there. I have too many kitchen gadgets that sit brand new in their boxes, but they were gifts, and were quite expensive so I found it really hard to part with the majority of it. I have tons of kitchen cabinets so there really isn't a need to get rid of stuff I might one day need. I know this completely goes against the whole KM method, but it's where I am at. Linen closet came next. That was pretty easy as well because we have way too many sheets, towels, blankets, etc. I donated a ton, but I still have way more than we will ever need, but with kids and animals I have learned that you sometimes use everything you have (que the new years stomach bug nightmare where everyone was throwing up on everything. Every towel and blanket and pillow had vomit on it. Had we not had so much extra we might've ended up throwing up on the floor.)
After going through all that, and making so much progress, I decided to quit before starting my oldest daughter's room. Yep, I'm a quitter. We have SO much JUNK as a family and I feel so defeated that the house will never get to the state that I would like it to. There are too many people with too many things that they love for the house to ever be as minimal as I would like. That isn't stopping me from doing a bit here and there. I have done some small batches of my daughter's room. We donated an entire garbage bag full of toys, and I regularly toss a box full of old/broken toys. I also went through the linen closet again. And a box of my own stuff again. And I just tossed a few more toys that the kids never played with. I really, really want to go through the kids clothes because we are storing way too many baby clothes and because we are getting close to changing seasons again so I need to figure out what we have and what we will need.
But I still have the dream that one day my house will be tidy and will stay clean. But that probably won't be until I'm really old and living all alone. And I will probably look back on these days and miss my chaotic house. Or maybe I will just miss the kids, because who actually misses the mess?
Like most people, I have read Marie Kondo's book The Life changing Magic of Tidying Up. And like most people, I became inspired. I wanted my life to change! I needed the magic that she was experiencing. I loved the look of comfy minimalism and I wanted that hygge feeling that it inspired. Plus, I wanted to do less house work and the fewer things I had to clean the better it would be!
But in all my excitement I completely forgot that I had a family. Yes, for one brief moment, I forgot that I had kids. I was so excited about having a clean and simple life that I forgot that children create mess; that is their job. They create chaos simply by being alive. And you can't really fault them for it, but it can still be quite frustrating.
I jumped onto pintrest and looked up "KonMarie with kids" and i found pages and pages full of tips and ideas on how to manage the method with little ones. I also found pages and pages about why this was more beneficial to their mental health and well being. So naturally I dove straight in! Of course I started with my youngest because she is too young to know the difference and she would rather play with her sister's toys than hers anyway. I made quick progress by moving some toys to the "baby box", more to the donate box (because who really needs 10 stuffed rattle toys), and even more to the garbage. How does one family accumulate so much CRAP? The room looked great, but there was still plenty of crap for the kid to play with.
Before tackling my oldest daughter's nightmare (ie: room) I KonMarie'd my own stuff. That went pretty fast because there wasn't all that much to go through. I regularly toss half my stuff because I always seem to have too much - way more than one person would need. I also went through the kitchen pretty easily, but I didn't get rid of nearly as much stuff there. I have too many kitchen gadgets that sit brand new in their boxes, but they were gifts, and were quite expensive so I found it really hard to part with the majority of it. I have tons of kitchen cabinets so there really isn't a need to get rid of stuff I might one day need. I know this completely goes against the whole KM method, but it's where I am at. Linen closet came next. That was pretty easy as well because we have way too many sheets, towels, blankets, etc. I donated a ton, but I still have way more than we will ever need, but with kids and animals I have learned that you sometimes use everything you have (que the new years stomach bug nightmare where everyone was throwing up on everything. Every towel and blanket and pillow had vomit on it. Had we not had so much extra we might've ended up throwing up on the floor.)
After going through all that, and making so much progress, I decided to quit before starting my oldest daughter's room. Yep, I'm a quitter. We have SO much JUNK as a family and I feel so defeated that the house will never get to the state that I would like it to. There are too many people with too many things that they love for the house to ever be as minimal as I would like. That isn't stopping me from doing a bit here and there. I have done some small batches of my daughter's room. We donated an entire garbage bag full of toys, and I regularly toss a box full of old/broken toys. I also went through the linen closet again. And a box of my own stuff again. And I just tossed a few more toys that the kids never played with. I really, really want to go through the kids clothes because we are storing way too many baby clothes and because we are getting close to changing seasons again so I need to figure out what we have and what we will need.
But I still have the dream that one day my house will be tidy and will stay clean. But that probably won't be until I'm really old and living all alone. And I will probably look back on these days and miss my chaotic house. Or maybe I will just miss the kids, because who actually misses the mess?
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