I first came across the 'Konmari' method of tidying on facebook. A friend put up a picture of a mountain of clothes she was throwing away after reading Marie Kondo's 'The life changing magic of tidying'. I had two thoughts. 1) wasn't she going to regret throwing away those clothes? I know I always throw something away and then wish I hadn't a year later, and 2) why are the words 'magic' and 'tidying' in the same sentence?

I'm not a tidy girl. I love mess. I take things out and don't put them back. Things are jumbled in different places. I kind of think my mess defines me. I think it's artistic and creative. Tidy people freak me out. So me buying and reading this book was either going to be the best thing that ever happened to me (in my husbands eyes) or the biggest pile of turd I ever paid 8 quid for.

Here's why I bought it. My husband is very tidy. We don't argue much but when we do it can 90% of the time come down to the fact that I'm being a messy cow. In my eyes all of the mess makes sense and in theory, I'll get to it later. But I can see how being on the receiving end of that would be bloody annoying. He has a pet peeve hate of mine which is not putting his clothes away after they are washed. It pisses me off, so I get why my messiness would annoy him. At least his annoying habit is confined. Mine's ALL OVER THE FLAT. Now, of course I love my husband and I want him to be happy. If being a little bit tidier would make him more happy then I was sold. I thought it could also be great ammo for when I need him to learn to do something in return, like, oh I dunno, boil an egg?

Anyway back to the book. I loved the idea of chucking away stuff I didn't need, and I liked the ethos of only keeping things that 'spark joy'. I'm down with that kind of thinking. I started reading and after about one chapter I of course jumped the gun (delayed gratification is not my strong point) so I spent a weekend trying out the Konmari method to see how I got on.

KITCHEN

I went into the kitchen and started trying to hold and feel each item - this is a major thing in the Konmari method - and asking myself if they sparked joy. Already up against issues. How can a tin opener spark joy? It doesn't. But I really need it. Like, really. So it stays. On the plus side I get rid of a bunch of bottle openers that I didn't even know we had and some shit broken graters. And crap cutlery. I clean out the drawer. Next I tackle the 'plastic bag drawer'. Everyone has one. But now the old 5p bag charge has come in plastic bags are being taken a little bit more seriously so I threw away all the crap ones and only kept the nice ones. I don't think they necessarily sparked joy, but whatever. I folded them to stand up as she recommended. Which seemed really stupidly time consuming but in fairness it's 2 weeks later and I've still been folding them up and putting them in there. I didn't start on the cups and bowls etc cos' I was bored by that point.