Happy New Year! So I made a new discovery a couple days ago that I HAVE to share with you. I was planning to not release a new blog this week but I just had to tell you about this show. Disclaimer: Admittedly I don’t watch THAT much Netflix, to begin with (at least with shows that interest me due to the fact that I have young kids and a limited amount of personal time.) I might watch a movie – or two – a month but it’ll take me a couple of sittings to finish it. That being said, I’m still going to recommend this show to you. It’s such feel-good television. There are some things that I like to watch but if I watch too much of it, it bothers my spirit. (Like true crime programs). Back to the point. So my favorite Netflix show right now is Tidying Up with Marie Kondo!!!
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Condo is also a book – which I once put on hold at the library but never picked it up. š Anyway, this show is amazing.šĀ Its Hoarders (mildly) meets HGTV, meets real life. Hoarders was one of my guilty pleasure shows back in the day but I could only watch so much of it because I’d inevitably want to take a shower afterward. Some of those homes were the WORST. š¤¢
Something about the narrator’s voice at the beginning ofĀ House Hunters on HGTV. Similar to the House Hunters voiceovers:Ā Tom and Cheryl are looking for a home in a ritzy area of Houston, TX complete with large yard for their 4 dogs and large office space for Cheryl’s love of scrapbooking. Their home needs to be close enough to Tom’s job as an architect but has enough acreage for their two horses. (I just made that up.) Anyway if you watch House Hunters, you know that voice. The style of filming on Tidying Up is also HGTV-esque.
Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizational consultant and author. Differing from minimalism, in which the goal is to live with less stuff and not be as materialistic minded, Kondo understands that people have stuff and is okay with that as long as it’s organized. Her mantra is keeping things that bring you joy. In the opening of each show, she says, “…your house is not clean by item but by location.”Ā She focuses on 5 general areas: Clothing, Books, Paper, Komono – kitchen, bathroom, garage, and everything miscellaneous – and Sentimental items.
One of my favorite things about this show is Kondo’s cheery personality and methods. You can tell she genuinely cares about the families she’s helping and wants to spark joy through cleaning. Not to mention the KonMari method, what she teaches, is logical and practical. Going through a house full of stuff is a lot of work and I like that Tidying Up shows the actual time it takes to get organized aside from the family visits with Kondo where she will teach them tidying up principles. Ultimately it is the families on the show that determine how much progress they make by the work they put in. The episodes are about 45 minutes long and at the end, you are glad that the homes are more organized and inspired to tidy up your own home. I watched the first episode folding laundry and by the time it was over, I had cleaned my bedroom. There are only 8 episodes in the show and I’ve already watched the first three and fallen in love. It’s also family friendly and I can watch this with my kids. My 4-year-old got up from his rest time the other day and ended up watching anĀ episode with me. He loved it.Ā š
I have done a couple of minimalism challenges over the last year, Project 333 and Minimalism Game. I have a type A personality by nature and LOVE order and organization. When I was a kid, my mom watched a LOT of The Oprah Winfrey Show and I can remember she got a book by Julie Morgenstern (another organizational guru) and I got the companion teen edition written by her daughter. I was maybe 10 and after that, I was all about being organized. Anyway, now you know an underlying reason why I love this show. Being tidy is a part of me (although a lot of my Type A-ness has died with the birth of my two kids. That’s a whole other blog.š)
If one of your goals for 2019 is to be more organized or you just have a weird fascination with organization like I do, you should give Tidying Up a try. Have you guys heard of or watched this show yet? Does it sound interesting to you? Let me know in the comments.Ā ā¤ļø