The Short Story
For over a decade, I worked full-time as a stay-at-home mom of four, trying many different ways to manage and maintain the house without much success.
In 2016, after reading Marie Kondo’s transformative book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”, I completed a full tidying festival of my home.
During the experience, I was exposed to a holistic way of organizing one category at a time, shifting my mindset of what to keep with joy, let go with gratitude, and a new way of interacting with my house and everything in it.
The changes brought about great feelings of freedom, lightness, and purpose which sparked my passion for helping others create organized, joyful spaces using the KonMari Method.
Although the timing wasn’t right to pursue certification immediately, I remained dedicated to my goal. In the spring of 2023, I became a certified KonMari Consultant.
Today, I am committed to helping others discover what sparks joy in their lives, guiding them through mindful decluttering to build spaces that reflect their true selves. I support and empower people of all ages and in different seasons of life to simplify and experience the magic of tidying!
The Long Story
My tidying journey began in 2016 when a friend shared Marie Kondo’s book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”.
During that time I was an overwhelmed stay-at-home mom who felt stuck. I was living in a modest three bedroom house with my husband and our 12, 9, 7, and 4 year old children. Although I had been trying for many years to get my house organized, nothing worked for me.
Organization is not something that comes naturally to me. At this point, I had been a homemaker for over a decade and repeatedly thought, “My kids are growing up, why haven’t I figured this out by now?”I spent so much of my time and energy looking for things, agonizing over whether I should keep something or not, where to put it, managing everyone’s stuff and tending to our home felt like a never-ending chore. I was unclear about who I was, the direction of my life and felt caged in my own home.
Then I read Marie’s book and a magic seed was planted. She revealed a plan to holistically organize my entire home, one category at a time instead of one room at a time. My mindset shifted and I began creating a new relationship with my home that never before had existed. My mind was opened to a new way of interacting with my home and everything in it.
The book became my companion and guide throughout my entire six month tidying festival as I discovered what sparking joy meant to me and how to let go of things with gratitude. I felt a freedom and lightness in my home I had never before experienced.
I eagerly wanted to help tidy all of my friends' and family members' homes and spread the magic. I discovered there was an in-person training program to become a consultant, however, during that season of my life, I did not have the resources available to make the investment of time and money.
The energy in our home shifted. We were ready for a new adventure. My husband accepted a new job and our house quickly sold after being on the market for only three days. We moved our family to a new town and started over with a new house and new community.
I believed this would be a fresh start for our family, but right away there were struggles. I wasn’t able to move our joyfully tidied home into our new home. The two bedroom house we purchased needed a lot of updating as well as building more bedrooms to comfortably fit our family of six. The new job my husband took was not the change he was looking for and his mental health suffered. My children had a hard time making new friends and we all felt our community support disappear. For the next five years, my home was no longer a cage, but a cocoon that held my evolving family through all the challenges of change, growing pains of adolescence, aches of starting over in an unfamiliar place and the fears and hopes during a global pandemic. We did our best to feel all the messy feelings.
A major shift began to take place in our family. My oldest child entered her senior year of high school. I wanted to prepare her for this transition from childhood to adulthood so I did what I thought would be most helpful. We tidied her room. I took her through the entire KonMari process of joy-checking each and every one of her items. I felt the magic return to me and I was inspired! I remembered how much I loved tidying and wanted to rekindle my passion. I searched online to discover the entire consultant certification course was now virtual and I felt this was the next step on my journey. I started another tidying festival in my new home, this time moving through the process with greater ease and less resistance than my first time. Over the years I had been practicing the skills and mindsets in relation to my house and all the items in it. Once again, our home had a sense of lightness and direction to support the changes occurring in our lives.
Since tidying my home I have grown in so many ways. Not only have I gained time and energy knowing where all the processions in my house belong, I have a better sense of who I am. I know what sparks joy in my life and what makes me happy. I take the time to listen and let myself process the emotions that come to the surface. I am more mindful about what comes into my life and whether the timing is right. I allow the seasons of my life to change with anticipation instead of dread. I’m better at knowing when to let things go with a sense of gratitude and no longer feeling controlled by scarcity or the need to control other people’s things. I enjoy the daily task of putting items back in their homes and feel great when I see my family members implementing these same habits. My home feels intentional, functional, and more joyful.
Through this tidying process I have transformed my way of thinking. The book helped me to shift my questions of, “Why can’t I get my house in order? What’s wrong with me?” to “Who do I want to be? What is my ideal life?” It has changed the way I think about the lifeline of objects and how I interact with them. I have developed a maturity in regards to how I choose to decorate my home and my ability to take care of everything in it. The themes and skills of tidying my objects have spilled over into how I tidying my time, energy, finances, relationships, and spirituality. I am better able to sit with my uncomfortable feelings and find healing. Fully engaging in a tidying festival has taught me life is an event to be celebrated and a continual process of change.