Marie Kondo-ing in the time of Quarantine

After binging all of the essential quarantine Netflix + Hulu Originals (Tiger King, Too Hot to Handle, Never Have I Ever, Little Fires Everywhere… you get the point) I was a) embarrassed that had happened and b) ready for more. This is when the sweetest little Japanese woman popped up on my recommended page. I know I’m very late to the Marie Kondo bandwagon, but to be honest I never had the time to learn about tidying up, or more realistically the desire to clean up. However, in my current situation I thought it might be a good “quarantivity” as we call it. 

To give you some background on my relationship with tidying up, it has never had to do with long term organizing at. all. My previous M.O. was putting away my dirty clothes and coffee mugs about once every two weeks or when I couldn’t see my floor or counter spaces. It was never really about maintaining organization, and I always felt annoyed by it but not enough to actually do something about it. So after watching a few episodes of Ms. Kondo, I was feeling pretty ready to tackle an area of my space and see what “brought me joy” and what I had to toss. 

I think that any past endeavors I had with organization went wrong due to my lofty goals and daunting ideas of what that meant. This time, however, Marie inspired me to start small - her method follows a specific series: clothing, books, paper, misc. and sentimental items. To be perfectly honest, even that sounded a bit much for me (I think quarantine has taught me to be more gentle with myself and my expectations) - so I downsized from there. 

My biggest trouble area has been my bathroom drawers, so that is what I decided to tackle first. Like most of the STIK team, I am a skincare junkie and my drawers were FULL of stuff. Face masks, moisturizer samples, exfoliating brushes and makeup - basically a bunch of half-used junk that didn’t fit my current skincare needs and that I hadn’t used in years (gross). My process was quite simple. I took everything out of the drawers and separated what I’m using in my current routine, things I’ve used in the past month, and whatever was left. That third section was so embarrassingly large I couldn’t believe it. 

And at first I felt really wasteful about throwing it all away, but then I came to a couple conclusions:

a) skincare EXPIRES and most of that stuff I should NOT be using even if I wanted to.

b) our skin type changes as we hit different life stages and move to different climates. For example, using a heavy moisturizer from the Boston winter I was in just doesn’t make sense for the current California summer I’m in now. 

In the future I will definitely make an effort to use up whatever I have before switching to a new product, but I can’t change the past!

Okay, so after my sorting and trashing, I put on my daily skincare products on the counter and organized them into more specific sections. I had an area for facemasks, one for eyeshadow, one for mascara and eyelash curler, one for brushes, one for concealers, etc. And let me tell you it is LIFE CHANGING (as Marie’s book title would suggest). I know exactly where to go for what and to put it back right away. I think in the past my organizing didn’t work because I wouldn’t throw anything away. Even though it appeared organized on the surface, It was so crowded that it could never stay that way. 

This is all just a very long winded way of saying that organizing a little section of your space is so satisfyingly easy, and it makes you feel productive during a time where there is so much pressure to do all these great things with your time. Take it easy on yourself and start wherever feels right for you! Maybe I’ll start on my sock drawer next… what do you want to tidy up?