Post 9/ Komono To Home
Photo of Small Acrylic Signs, Custom to the Psyche Butterfly Method, taken by Tori Klotz
2024, Example of the PB method allowing items like sheet music, birding notebooks, and journals that are regularly used to stay useful and have a visually pleasing home.
“By focusing on the essentials first, we gain momentum to cruise through the rest of the house.”
The calculation
Days tidying: 9
items tossing: 15
items donating: 201
items selling: 67
items kept: 453
Total items tidied: 736
Total $ from sold tidied goods:
$449.12 [I sold an expensive rain jacket!]
My tidying cost equation:
(sold tidied items) - (tidying supplies cost) = net cost:
$449.12 - $653.74 = (-$204.62) [The larger costs this week account for all the paper labeling items i bought from etsy last week!]
The confidence I can complete this project:
92%. The oomph is back. And man, am I furious. Trump is president and my body is having visceral reactions. With my newfound energy, mostly fueled by rage, I’m headfirst in. Additionally, we sold one of Jared’s high quality rain jackets, helping bring our overall tidying equation closer to the green.
If it wasn’t clear in last week’s blog, I intended to give us two weeks for the “Papers” category. Did you end up needing the extra time? Let us know in the comments! “Papers” turned out to be much more draining than I expected, so I’m glad we spread it out.
Remember the optional items I suggested in the “Preparation” section last week? The biggest win was the standalone labels for my own custom made up and diverting from the KonMari Method, paper categories. They’ve arrived, and I couldn’t be happier. As seen in today’s cover blog photo, I feel they add a subtle touch that directs the eye, without making the space feel cluttered—highly recommend!
I also splurged on a Vintage-style box for papers called the Porta-File. I have no regrets. My “Needs to Be Saved, Infrequent Use” box is almost full, so I may eventually move those papers into both the clear boxes and use the vintage one for “Frequently Used” papers. More pleasing to the eye, it’ll be more of a joy to need those frequently uses papers.
As I wrapped up the “Papers” category, I noticed many items were finally finding their homes. It kind of makes sense, right? With clothing, accessories, and papers sorted, I’m starting to see the overall visual appeal of our 13 week tidying marathon take shape. For example, the top of my dresser now has a designated spot for my daily purse, engagement ring, and journal. This wasn’t intentionally planned, but I am so conscious of these items making it past their tidying review, that they only deserve a home at the end of the day. I can sense that once we move into the Komono (miscellaneous) category, the momentum for organizing will really pick up, due to this festering-beneath-the surface-desire for everything to have a home. Tackling the Komono category feels like everything might just make it home — each item and this project.
So, next up, we tackle Komono (miscellaneous items)—a big category with lots of work ahead! It includes 9 subcategories:
CDS, DVDs
Skin Care Products
Makeup
Accessories
Valuables
Electrical
Household Equipment
Household Supplies
Kitchen
I know, it’s a lot. I’m quite surprised Marie Kondo lumps all of this into one category. Maybe it’s because now that we’ve tackled clothing, books, and papers (the most personal items that protect our bodies and nurture our minds), the rest feels like “extras.” Just maybe her theory is that if we focus on the essentials first, we gain momentum to cruise through the rest of our abode. I think her approach bundles these together to speed us up before we face the final, toughest categories: Sentimental and Custom.
Here’s the Prep Plan for This Week:
Pick two evenings this week.
Night One
Clear away any leftover papers, pour yourself a glass of your favorite drink, and reset.
Vacuum and refresh your tidying canvas or floor space.
Create 9 signs, preferably on a durable paper like cardstock, for each Komono subcategory to place on your floor/canvas tidying workspace. I got a head start on these, when I realized how good my cardstock paper was when sorting the “Papers”, and just made them right away. See photos in the gallery below.
Gather every item in each category and place it by its sign.
Night Two
Make a walkway between all 9 sections so they can stay organized for up to 2 weeks!
By now, your bedroom and bathroom should be free of all skincare, makeup, and bath items—leaving only your bed, sheets, already tidied accessories and clothes, and furniture.
Add those remaining items, like your bed frame, sheets, and leftovers that weren’t clothes or accessories, to your Google sheet.
Lastly and what I think will be Most Important this week - the “first cut”: Go through each subcategory asking yourself which items you need for your daily routine, pick these items out, tidy them, record in your Google Sheet, and place them back in your daily routine spot.
Now, you’re finally ready to tidy from the inside out, having everything in your bedroom and bathroom, (down to the last piece of furniture!) not just tidied, but listed in your Google Sheet. Your protected, clutter-free bedroom, will give you a glimpse of the “new you” living in a fresh, blank slate.
Why This 2 Night Approach Will Work (at least, in theory):
By tidying our bedroom and bathroom for our daily essentials [the “first cut”], we’ll get to start every day from a tidied “you” before entering the chaotic canvas floor workspace, housing 9 subcategories, for as long as it takes. I know that my living room is about to be claustrophobic with the Komono categories. But I also know that I can keep my mental space calm and excited by gathering those very basic things I love to keep the baseline of me humming along like a purring cat. For example, my favorite coffee mug stays in the cupboard (only after tidying and documenting) because I reach for it every morning. Similarly, my phone charger gets tidied too, as it’s a daily necessity—no waiting in the electronics pile. It’s a great way to identify what you truly love, before diving back into the larger Komono tidying process.
I’d love to know what items made your “first cut”! Which essentials did you put back, right away, to keep your daily rituals going as we sort through the rest, in the coming two weeks? For me, it’ll surely be that favorite coffee mug, my few beloved daily skincare products, an oatmeal bowl I can’t go without, amongst body wash and my bedside lamp added to that household supplies category on the spreadsheet, asap.
I’m excited to clear out the excess skincare and donate unused makeup to a women’s shelter.
I’ll be sharing photos, next week, of the organized chaos as I bring together all 9 Komono subcategories in my tidying space.
Good luck to us as we gather, sort by Komono subcategory sign, and assess what truly makes the cut. Wishing you a productive week!
The "Preparation"
Optional Items to Purchase
Vintage Extra Paper Holder
Totally unnecessary, but a fancy and aesthetically pleasing paper file box. Since my two, clear Office max paper sorters ended up getting very full of, “Needs To Be Saved - Infrequent Use”, I am using this box for the “Frequent Use”. That way we can find joy in visiting such an annoyance of a category with a little more ease.
Tasks To Do
as listed in the main blog
Pick two evenings this week.
Night One
Clear away any leftover papers, pour yourself a glass of your favorite drink, and reset.
Vacuum and refresh your tidying canvas or floor space.
Create 9 signs, preferably on a durable paper like cardstock, for each Komono subcategory to place on your floor/canvas tidying workspace. I got a head start on these, when I realized how good my cardstock paper was when sorting the “Papers”, and just made them right away. See photos in the gallery below.
Gather every item in each category and place it by its sign.
Night Two
Make a walkway between all 9 sections so they can stay organized for up to 2 weeks!
By now, your bedroom and bathroom should be free of all skincare, makeup, and bath items—leaving only your bed, sheets, already tidied accessories and clothes, and furniture.
Add those remaining items, like your bed frame, sheets, and leftovers that weren’t clothes or accessories, to your Google sheet.
Lastly and what I think will be Most Important this week - the “first cut”: Go through each subcategory asking yourself which items you need for your daily routine, pick these items out, tidy them, record in your Google Sheet, and place them back in your daily routine spot.
