Tuesday, January 19, 2016

KonMari --- At My Pace

Like a lot of people I've enjoyed reading through Maire Kondo's books on tidying up, however I'm not ready to jump in at 100 mph and toss half of my possessions (although I'm sure I wouldn't miss some of the things I'd toss).  I've also read comments where people who thoroughly took the plunge later regretted thanking some of their possessions then passing them onto another life.  So I'm approaching it at my own pace.

Today's task --  those ubiquitous plastic grocery bags!  At our house we really try our best to repurpose them and one way involves cleaning the cat litter box (such a fun job).   With three cats, we clean/scoop the litter box everyday and sometimes twice a day, and those clumps have to make it from the box to the outside trash somehow.  In the past, those plastic bags were wadded up and stuffed into a wicker basket - at least it was a decorative box.  But today I decided to follow the KonMari folding method for those bags to make that area look better and make it a happier place (for me and those darn bags).  I found a small plastic box (I think it held index cards in a previous life) and as my morning tea was steeping, folded enough bags to fit snugly in the box.  I cleaned the shelf and placed the newly repurposed container and happy folded bags in their place and it really did make me feel better just knowing I could easily access a  bag without dragging the entire wadded mess out.  Also, going through the bags to fold I was able to use those that didn't have holes in the bottom (holes in bottom to hold cat litter = not a good choice).

I may be slow to fully implement her ideas and may not go as far with it as many others have, but I've done something productive, useful, and improved that one small area in the house and it will definitely make that chore go more smoothly in the future - definitely an accomplishment.

In the time it took for my tea to steep, I was able to turn wads of bags into a neatly folded, contained stack of bags - ready to be used.