There’s a new show on Netflix that I couldn’t resist watching; Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.

Marie is a petite soft-spoken Japanese woman, with two young children, who’s mission is “to spark joy in the world through tidying”. I have never heard the words ‘joy’ and ‘tidying’ in the same sentence, so I had to watch. In each episode, Marie works with an individual or family, to organize and tidy their entire home, and each home is a serious undertaking!

The good news is, Marie’s method is a five-part process, that begins with sorting through clothes. To start, each adult had to dump every piece of clothing they own into one big pile. Every piece of clothing. The wife filled a room with clothes. The husband filled a different room with clothes. Then Marie gives them instruction on how to decide what to keep, what to give away and how to fold and store things. I was completely stressed watching the show. The first episode I watched was a couple with two young kids, who were napping when they started. I felt so panicked about them getting all their clothes put away before the kids woke up!

Marie recommends doing this kind of house tidying as a couple. It seems to work because both people have a vested interest in the process and seem more likely to maintain the order once complete. We’ve experienced the same phenomena with organizing kid spaces. When kids are part of the process, they’re more likely to maintain it. These episodes are fun to watch to see relationship and family dynamics. Some people are more ready to let go of things than others are. Some kids are more ready than others to let go.

As a mother of four kids, the idea of dumping everything we own into a room terrifies me beyond belief. Dumping everything one child owns terrifies me. So, don’t feel guilty if you’re not chomping at the bit to get started. But you can get started by reading Tidy Space, Happy Face and picking one thing to tackle. You can send me before and after pictures at [email protected].  I love colorfully organized spaces!