Tidying "Komono" Items in the Bedroom

As you know, I've been slowing progressing through the Konmari method of tidying my home.  I'm in that big, long tidying marathon section called, "komono" (misc. things), which is such a broad category that you must break it up into smaller sub-categories.  The last time I blogged I had revisited my office supplies and done a better job of tidying them.  Yesterday, I decided to also revisit my things in my dresser drawers and on top of my dresser, night stand,  and the shelf in my bedroom.  Now that I've been tidying longer, I am beginning to hone my skills at figuring out how to determine which items truly spark joy or not.  The more I exercise this intuitive muscle, the easier it becomes and I discover that my first go-around usually wasn't enough, especially since I did a little fudging on the order of all of the tidying categories at the beginning of the process.  Here are some photos from the final results.

Here are some close-ups of my newly tidied surfaces in the bedroom...

And here is the second book from Marie Kondo, entitled "Spark Joy," which I've checked out from the library.  The thing that I like about this book is that there are many cute illustrations and she goes into more detail, especially about all of the many sub-categories for the "komono" category of tidying.

By choosing only those items that truly sparked joy and looked beautiful for my surfaces, I had to either get rid of items or else find new homes for the items which I wanted to keep, but which just made my surfaces look too cluttered.  So, this caused me to look inside my dresser drawers to reevaluate the items which I was keeping in there and to decide if all of those items were truly sparking joy or if I was just hanging on to them for the wrong reasons.  I found it much easier this time around to discard old things which I no longer use and are not a part of the present life that I want to live right now.  This made space for those items which do spark joy and gave them nice, new cozy homes to rest in.

I use fishing tackle boxes to house my earrings and hair accessories.

It also prompted me to clean out a bottom drawer in a plastic set of drawers in the bathroom to make more space for items such as a tin of buttons and items that I use to clean jewelry.  So, I moved them from my bedroom dresser drawer to the bathroom, which is really a better place for cleaning my jewelry, anyway.  It also motivated me to use one of those extra buttons to sew a button on a pair of jeans for Jay.

I was left with two tiny items which I was trying hard to decide where to keep, because they did spark joy for me, but they were so small and I just wasn't sure where to keep them.  Then I got an idea.  I remembered Kondo mentioning that it's okay to make your closet a special sanctuary where you keep special things that inspire joy for you when you open up your closet doors.  While my closet is not a huge, walk-in closet, I decided that these two items were small enough that they would fit and now they bring a smile to my face when I open up my closet doors.  One was a small teddy bear, which was handmade for me by a Japanese friend.  He is now perched on the bar where I hang my clothes.

 

The other was a framed picture of my cat. He now looks up at me from the top of the plastic drawers that are in the center of my closet.

So, here's my happy closet that sparks joy for me when I open up the closet doors.

Now that my bedroom feels more tidied and uncluttered I can breathe a little sigh of relief, as it gives me a feeling of being in a peaceful oasis.  And I am being careful to leave Jay's side of the bedroom and his closet alone, as Kondo talks in her book about how it's very important to allow your family members to have their own space and to allow them to keep their own space how they like it and not to push them into tidying, just because you are feeling enthusiastic about it.  As I am feeling more peaceful, I think the feeling is permeating the room and making our kitty, Jenny, also feel relaxed, too.