August 30, 2018 – Revisiting Marie Kondo’s tidying book

         This is referring back to my January 16, 2017 blog about the book entitled: The life-changing magic of tidying up the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo.

         Again, a picture is worth a thousand words.

         This is my dishtowel drawer.  I have an upright secretary desk in my kitchen and I have devoted one drawer to my dishtowels.

         I tried out this theory introduced to me by Marie Kondo via her book back in January 2017.  It gives me great pleasure when I fold the towels and tuck them into the drawer.  I get just as much pleasure folding them “just so,” and pushing the group of towels to one side in the drawer and slipping the folded fresh towels in.  The drawer always stays neat.  I have some inexpensive perfumed soaps between the different colors to make them smell nice.

         I have a choice of which one I want to pull out.  The deep dark ones are high absorbent.  The red ones cheer me up and the blue ones look nice draped on the lower kitchen cabinet towel holders.

         When my brother was here in May on his vacation, I pulled open the drawer and as I was pulling out a towel, I directed his attention to my neat drawer with the cool folding technique I had learned.  “Nice – huh?” I said being very “proud” of how the drawer looked.

         I can’t remember what his comment was, it was slight derogatory disbelief with accompanied screwed up face and some sort of teasing remark like: “What they aren’t all color-coded – with the reds together?”

         Since May, the are now all color grouped – because of my dear brother, Ken’s snide remark, and I enjoy that drawer even more.

         It is one of those few instances where there is no “upkeep”.  You take one or two out, when you launder, you fold and put them back in.  It is a self-sustaining tidiness that anyone can learn.

         I also do my panties – they are color-coded – no I won’t be showing you a risqué picture of that drawer. I also do my casual clothes – pajamas, t-shirts, and grubby clothes for the garden.  I am amazed at how much more I can put in my bureau drawers using this method.

         And, sweaters are done up in other drawers.  I simply love the simplicity of it.  I love being able to pull out one and not disturb the others.  When I am done, or they are laundered and ready to be put away, I do the Marie Kondo’s special fold on them and tuck them away.

         Maybe you are ready to learn a new trick and make your life easier.

         As a side note, I sit in the day room on the loveseat and fold the laundry when I take it out of the dryer.  I fold and stack the laundry on the coffee table and then pick up each group and carry it to where it is put away.

         Often my husband watching TV mentions,

         “You sure do fold laundry pretty . . .” 

It makes me smile.  He sees me fold the dishtowels and get up and put them away only a few feet from his TV chair, but why is it he doesn’t know how to put out fresh ones when the others are tossed in the washer as he always asks,

         “Where do you keep the dishtowels,” he often asks.

         Extremely proud of my dishtowel drawer, I do not hesitate to go to the drawer and open it for him, “Here in this drawer . . . “

         For some reason he is put off by how neat it is and won’t take any towels out of it.  Maybe he is afraid of untidying my tidy drawer . . . maybe something is being lost in the translation of this situation.  Does he think only I can put them in and take them out of that drawer?

         I guess that is the next step – teaching the dear husband how to take towels out of that drawer.  I doubt I will ever show him how to fold and put them into the drawer - but half way would be an improvement.

         You too can have a tidy dishtowel drawer – just go back to my January 2017 blogs and learn about how.  Actually, go out and buy her book - it is fabulous.

         At some point I will have Marie Kondo’s tidying throughout the entire house, every room, every nook and cranny.  It is time I pull her book from the bookshelf and apply it to another region of my home.