I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing about six months ago, and wrote about it briefly here.

Since I wrote that post I’ve been thinking a lot about the KonMari method. Marie Kondo claims that if you use her method you’ll tidy up once and never need to tidy up again.

I liked the book, but I was sceptical. The claim that you could tidy up once and be done with it seemed on a par with “drop a dress size in a week”. I didn’t believe for a moment it could ever be a permanent solution, but I decided to try the method with our clothes. I gathered all the clothes in the house together, and sorted them according to the KonMari method. I got rid of a crazy amount of stuff, and organised what was left. My wardrobe looked amazing, my drawers were a delight.

Six months later there are probably a few things which the kids have outgrown which I need to move on, maybe an item or two I could retire, but THE CLOTHES HAVE STAYED TIDY.

I never worked through any other categories. I did the clothes, then I got distracted and never got round to doing more. Thinking about this, realising that I’ve had clutter-free clothes for six months, makes me realise I need to work through the rest of the house NOW.