Hey its me, the loon from yesterday.
It was mid February. I had consumed the books a dozen times each in the audio format, and I felt that it was time to confront my son about his room.
Konmari told me that starting with toys is a sure way to fail. She told me that starting with their clothes and books is a much better idea, because kids can easily let go of those, and they are far easier to categorize.
My son is 3 years old, which konmari says is the minimum age for learning to tidy. However, he is in preschool for learning delays.
We started by simply getting rid of things that were too small (we donate everything, don't worry) in preparation for the big day.
I wasn't sure if he'd fully understand what a discard pile entails, so we took the shirts and put them on the floor. I asked him to put each shirt on, and asked if he liked it. He would either say, “I like it.” Or “No.”
He lost interest before we could finish them all. I was able to complete shirts the next day.
Pants were harder. He liked almost all of them! Just in case, I kept all the ones he approved of.
We got rid of all his socks and underwear and bought new ones. Marvel.
Books was really slow, and I did not follow the method very closely. I wanted to attempt to read each one to him and see what sticks.
I learned what books my son really enjoys! Green eggs and Ham, 10 apples up on top, giraffes can't dance, and a lego DC comics encyclopedia. We kept some learning books he doesn't like, because I do like them.
My son doesn't have important papers, so we skipped this step. We don't have a shredder anyway.
Toys. They were in a giant chest. Overflowing. Everywhere. In the bookshelf. Under the bed. Help me.
This took me until mid March. I needed him to touch and talk about each of his old toys and express some sort of interest. Oh my God you guys it was so tedious.
His costumes were buried under everything. When we finally got to them, he was ecstatic, and wanted to put each one on and fight me. I was so happy that day. I knew we should have been giving these costumes special attention, not throwing them in a chest!
We told him that some of his toys would be going to his little sister, and some to other kids.
Konmari says not to keep spare change, but our son loves his Pikachu piggy bank. We kept it.
We had three categories of toys to put in the three drawers. Mr. Potato head pieces, top drawer, large dolls, middle drawer. Small things, bottom drawer. We decided this together.
When I tell him he needs to clean his room before I give him time on the iPad or permission to bring out the play doh, he now understands exactly what that entails.
Thanks for reading here's an imgur album, complete with pics of what I'm talking about as well as the current state of my shirts and pants.
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