Using the Mary Poppins/Marie Kondo Magic to Improve Our Own Lives

Until you have experienced firsthand the euphoria of opening your pantry and being able to pull out the crushed oregano; putting your hands on that humidifier receipt from 2017; or finding that photo of Great Aunt Edna your daughter needs for the school ancestry slide show, you can’t imagine how good it feels to be organized.

Cleaning up is nothing new, obviously. I’m sure your mother made you clean your room on a regular basis when you were a child; perhaps you even had family spring cleaning time, when your job was to pare down some of your toys, games, and knick knacks.

Now, thrift stores are being overrun with donated items, and countless magazine articles remind you that your children will not want your “treasures.” It seems that everyone has jumped on the less-is-better bandwagon. 

Paring our things down and organizing the ones we have chosen to keep is liberating. It’s like a fairy tale come true!.

We owe a lot of this liberating minimalist trend to the modern day Mary Poppins — Marie Kondo. 

But unlike Mary Poppins, Marie Kondo didn’t just appear out of thin air to solve the world’s problems.

Or perhaps she did. 

Like Mary, Marie seems “practically perfect” in every way, and, she tells us, once we incorporate her philosophies into our routine, our lives will be vastly improved too. 

While we will never really know where (or when) Mary came from, we do know a bit more about Marie. 

She has been running her tidying up business for many years. So what is it that made her become such an international sensation that Netflix chose to give her a television show? Why has her name become a verb, as in the process that organized-wannabes across the country are using to pare down their items to those that only “spark joy?”

The answer is that she, like Mary, is needed. Right now. Our lives have become overrun with possessions. We are holding onto them for so many different reasons. 

If you have watched a few episodes of Marie Kondo’s hit series, then you realize that Tidying Up is about solving problems. About releasing emotional baggage (and carpet baggage!)  Like Mary, Marie helps you to improve the way you feel about yourself and your immediate world. 

Extrapolate that, and it makes you believe that a neat tee-shirt drawer, folded scarves, and color-coordinated sneakers will not only give you inner peace, but will improve your relationships with those around you. 

Organized people are more in control. They exude happiness. Their moods improve, and that impacts everything around them.

I get it. I really do.

Sounds like a bill of goods, but you know what? It’s true!

You just need to learn the tools that will help you figure out how to do it. Even without magic, you can live A Simpler Life Now.