I blogged a whole bunch of times about
KonMari in the previous months. My motivation kind of took a nose dive when we moved in the middle of my process (at about 4 and half months). For a month I had to focus on packing and unpacking instead of Konmaring. But moving was itself interesting in the middle of the process. When confronted with having to move the object to a new house there was a point in favor of discarding the item rather than the usual default of wanting to keep it. I also handled everything we own twice because I packed and unpacked almost everything.
Unpacked new smaller house- Love all the free space with less stuff!
But then, I thought I was in sentimental items, and when we got to the new place I realized I had totally blown the Komono step. This is what Marie Kondo calls the step where you do all the "miscellaneous" items that just aren't clothing, books, papers, or sentimental items. Well, that's the biggest category and I really didn't push myself very hard on it. So a lot of my unpacking time was been trying to deal with all these items that don't necessarily fit into my life now. For example all of our CDs... really torn about whether to keep them when I rarely play music off them. I don't know why I had less trouble discarding clothing and books which I care a lot more about, than I'm having getting rid of CDs, but there it is. Also, the solution to convert our VHS home movies into DVDs will take time and money, etc. So I'm back to dealing with all that.
Some additional things have found their way into the house in the meanwhile, though we try to control that, but the new house had some new needs. Then once I lost the momentum of having a regular time to work on it each week, it's been hard to get back in.
Also, when I saw the huge positive effect Konmari was having in my life and in my way of thinking, I decide to find and apply similar processes to other problems in my life. So I discovered
Dave Ramsey, and it's totally changed how I view and handle finances in my life-- for the better. Much better!
Next I decided that the weight I was dragging around wasn't sparking joy (duh) and there had to be a more motivational way of getting rid of it. So I discovered
Alternate Day Fasting, which is supposed to make it easier to lose weight, and more importantly, reduce your chance of getting cancer or weight-related illnesses like diabbetes. The diet costs nothing (actually saves you money) and I've lost 17 pounds since the end of June. (I started on 5:2, but now I do 4:3 or 5:2 depending on how well the week is going.) But my focus on these new projects distracted me from Konmari. It's difficult right now to keep myself from moving on to even more projects before having finished this one.
This is a chart of my weight (and averages) since November 2008, and the correlation with some big projects I took on. Almost back to a healthy weight now. (First time since 2007 which isn't even on this chart.)
Seven-Year Weight Chart (11/2008-10/2015)
So now it's been a bit over 7 months since I started, and I still plan on finishing my Konmari "festival" by the end of this year. It will be amazing to know I am surrounded by what I love. But no matter what, Konmari has already changed my life a lot (just like Marie promised) and changed how I approach and surpass challenges.
I found this video by a blogger I already knew and like, Laura of HowToGYST.com, and yes, totally agree with almost everything she says, except the less shopping is a huge plus for me, not a con.
