When my house is dirty or unorganized, I get this anxious feeling of being overwhelmed. I like things in a certain place and I hate coming home to a mess. When I became a mom, I had to let a lot of that go, because let’s face it, kids are messy. Cleaning up after them really is like brushing your teeth while eating an Oreo cookie.

With that said, of course, I read this book: The life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo. Let me tell you a couple of things about this book.

1. It’s too long. I love the points made in it, but they can be made a lot quicker. (That’s what this blog is for.)
2. It makes me want to throw away everything in my house. (More on that below.)

So, here are my cliff’s notes on The life-changing magic of tidying up and the KonMari Method. There are just two steps: Discarding and organizing. (I broke organizing down into two parts because I think both are amazing!)

1. Discarding

While you are going through your things, throw away what you don’t use. In the book, she says things that don’t bring you “joy.” It sounds simple, but it’s not. If you look at something and say, “I may use that later,” you most likely won’t. If you look at something and say, “I don’t want to get rid of this because so-and-so got this for me,” who cares?! You’re not going to use it, so why keep it? It served its purpose and now it’s time to go. Also, don’t go through your things

Also, don’t go through your things by room. Most people do this and it’s not efficient. Instead, go through your things by category. Gather everything out of all the bathroom vanities in your house. By gathering things in the same category, like beauty supplies, for example, you will see you actually have a lot more than you realized. That makes it easier to decide what to keep and what to throw away.

One more thing, unless you are going to return something, throw the box it came in away (or use it for storage. See #3.) You don’t need all those instruction manuals either. That’s what Google is for.

2. Folding

You are probably folding wrong. When I say wrong, I mean not efficiently. I used to fold things and stack them in a drawer. I didn’t know what was on the bottom till I went through what was on the top first, making everything messy. Now, I fold things into little rectangles and stack them vertically. You can see what everything is and you save space. I did this first with my

I used to fold things and stack them in a drawer. I didn’t know what was on the bottom till I went through what was on the top first, making everything messy. Now, I fold things into little rectangles and stack them vertically. You can see what everything is and you save space. I did this first with my

I did this first with my daughter’s jammies… and I was shocked when I saw how much room I saved. I had an entire other drawer to spare! And, you should fold a lot more than you do.

Most of what you hang up doesn’t need to be hung up. Don’t worry about wrinkles either. As long as you fold things gently and don’t push down on the seams to create a wrinkle, your clothes will be just fine snug in the drawer.

3. Storage

We have lots of little things, whether it be kids toys, hair products, etc. Instead of opening a drawer to just seeing all of that stuff, just… everywhere, organize it.

I use my kids old shoeboxes. Sunglasses go in one box, headbands go in another box, etc. This not only looks so much better, but if gives you more room and makes it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Those are my biggest takeaways from The life-changing magic of tidying up. Now, go throw a bunch of stuff away and organize what’s left! You might feel less stressed.