Are you a fan of Marie Kondo and the KonMari movement?
Do you try to have your tidying up moments “spark joy?”

To be honest, I have not read the book. I’ve looked at it. And lately I have watched sections of several of the episodes on Netflix.
Again, to be honest here, I am amazed at the tidying up “fever” that has swept over us!
I am not a fan. There. It is all so prettified; so canned; so perfect. We are led to believe that by tidying up…I know, there is so much more to it than just that…we will lead better, happier, more focused lives. I totally agree that most of us have just plain TOO MUCH stuff. Shopping is a national pastime; malls have become our mode of recreation; and often it is quantity over quality.

But her version of “tidying up” is much more than that and requires a huge life shift. It’s just not that simple, folks.

So, now that you know how I feel about all this let’s get to the heart of my post. My takeaway from watching the bits that I did yielded one very good experiment. I tried it! I tried the very simple, physical way of rolling things before placing them in a drawer. My house is generally pretty organized but of course we can all improve! I started in the kitchen with napkins and tea towels. Pretty easy start, right?

In our kitchen we have several sets of two drawers behind white doors. One set has always been for placemats, cloth napkins, tea towels and candles. But stacking those cloth napkins is a pain. They never stay where they should, you have to unstack them to get to the bottom set and because I am an ironing addict, it would drive me crazy to have them wrinkled or a corner turned up.

Ok, so I tried rolling them, a la Marie Kondo. Well, guess what? IT WORKED!!!

Look at these, will you? So neat and clean! I love love linen and/or cotton tea towels; I may have to buy more as they are so organized and neat now…

 

As for all the napkins…they are easy to see and fit in here perfectly with the mats.

 

Having seen that it just might have some merit, I moved on to my closet. Again, it is generally pretty well organized. I don’t have a ton of clothes and years ago we had The Container Store install some much needed drawers and shelves.
Here is one of my three shallow drawers I use for scarves. These are the lightweight cotton scarves.

It doesn’t look too bad here…but it would become a jumble of half folded, unidentifiable prints in a moment.

And here it is with each scarf rolled and neatly placed. It really doesn’t take any longer to roll than to fold, and now I can see everything here.
Yes, it works!

 

Here are some of my wool, cashmere and general winter scarves and pashminas:

 

On to the dresser! Yes, these are t-shirts and long and short sleeve cotton tops. The one thing about rolling is to keep the label visible: if you are like me you may have numerous black tops and it’s difficult to know which is which without a label showing.

I realize she doesn’t actually “roll” but folds gently into thirds or quarters. I find rolling easier to do and easier to store. It’s a choice!

 

In conclusion I will say that the techniques DO work. I especially like the napkins and the tea towels!
Maybe it’s her presentation that bothers me. Too much giggling and smiling and lack of genuine-ness in the shows. I wonder what some of those homes will look like in six months or a year?

Ok. Ok. I might be a bit of a Debbie-downer here. So let me know what you all think, yes?