Marie Kondo: 'My dining room becomes a temporary dumping ground'
It's been more than a decade since Marie Kondo brought her message to the world about the joys of a beautifully organised home. Her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, became a runaway bestseller and her Netflix show, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, a huge hit.
Marie encouraged us to be more mindful about our possessions and to only hold on to items that 'spark joy'. As the queen of tidying up, she's obviously under pressure to practise what she preaches.
However, since having her three children, now aged three, seven and nine, Marie has gradually learned to relax when her home isn't always quite as she'd like it to look and feel. 'There are times when my house is not perfectly tidy,' she admits. 'Children leave their belongings all over the place – as every parent knows!'
We sit down with Marie to talk about life being a little messier — and why her dining room takes place as the family dumping ground.
I've reassessed my priorities
'After I gave birth to my third child – a boy – the demands of family life, coupled with the lack of sleep, meant that something had to give. I'm known as a tidying expert so, at first, a messy house made me feel frustrated. However, it was at this point that I came to recognise that even if my home was a little messy, it was more important to spend time with my children.'
Everyone helps to tidy up now
'I get the whole family involved to help ensure the task of tidying up doesn't fall to just one person. To make things easier, everything in our home has a clearly designated place, so everyone knows where to put things back after use. I've taught the children my KonMari Method [which encourages tidying by category, not location, and on an individual item-by-item basis] so they can put their books and toys away. Naturally, if they are having fun playing, they do sometimes forget! I've also taught them how to fold their own clothes so they can put them back in their closets.'
We take a whole family approach
'We share small daily chores, such as putting clean dishes back in the cupboard. Having an awareness that everyone in the family is responsible for keeping the house in order helps reduce the burden of tidying on one person – often the mother.
'Our dining table is the one place in our home that invariably gets messy throughout the day. It becomes a temporary dumping ground for everyone's things – whether that's pens for my daughters' homework, toy cars left there by my son, or a piece of unread mail that my husband or I might leave before running to the next errand. I make it a rule that everything on the table must be put away in its designated place before mealtimes. I think it really helps to create regular opportunities to reset the home back to tidy.'
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