During my Year of Mindfulness, the Konmari process is always… on my mind. I divvied up the Konmari categories by month and chip away at it whenever I have a moment. Since I share a home with other people, I need to involve them in Konmari-ing our household. The kids have been awesome, and my husband tackled his quarter side of the closet like a boss, but that was not his clutter zone. Nope, his battle is in the garage, and I don’t think he’s the only husband in that situation.
My husband is awesome. He is a great father, works hard to provide for us, puts up with all my everything and creates memorable scenes for our family all the time. I need him and his different way of doing things. BUT I also need to park in my garage in the winter. So, with great encouragement and assistance to clear his schedule, he finally cleaned the garage, and this time, he did it Konmari style!
What does Konmari look like in a man’s garage? Well, with firm insistence gentle nudging he agreed to donate duplicate parts and tools and stuff that takes so much energy to organize and keep organized. In Marie Kondo’s book, she talks about what we usually do – hang onto stuff then end up buying new stuff because we can’t find the stuff we have. I helped my husband understand how this applies to screws. Etc.
He ended up keeping things that have a specific use and were in good condition – things like camping gear, sports equipment, seasonal yard stuff. He took time to test all the Christmas lights and repair the inflatables (which spark joy in him, go figure). He also kept things that spark joy, like his wood lathe and outdoor movie screen. As he replaced items in the garage, I insisted as per the Konmari method that every item have a home. And just like Kondo claims happens, he ended up with just enough space for the things that he kept!
The garage Konmari took the better part of a day. I am THRILLED with the state of the garage and you know what? He is walking lighter, in a better mood and noticeably more relaxed now that “his” space is in order. Now, if you’re lucky enough to have a tidy husband with a tidy garage, you go girl! For the rest of you, show this to your hubbies and cheer them on!
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SpiritedThriftr wow! That is amazing, what a transformation for the garage!
Question for the Man who Did This: I am needing to adapt the KonMari categories to outside the house household decluttering. What categories did you use?
I can’t recall if he had specific categories, but I think he started off by emptying everything out, then recycling/donating surpluses of supplies – that was a biggie: recognizing that it’s more time and cost effective to just go and get what you need when you need it rather than storing a bunch of stuff in case you need it. He never really mastered his garage though, unfortunately and ended up down-sizing yet again when we recently moved to a much smaller garage. It has been too hot to organize the new garage but I’m hoping that there will be another round of purging and careful organization of what sparks joy and what he needs to keep. Stay tuned!