How I'm Sparking Joy & Tidying Up My Kitchen

It will come as a surprise to nobody who knows me that my kitchen is more post-explosion than tight ship (creativity begets mess, my mom always told me). My roommate Justine, whose idea of cooking begins and ends with buttering a bagel, and I do a good job of keeping dishes moving through the sink, the counter wiped clean, and the cabinets...closed. Beyond those doors is a situation that would have Marie Kondo screaming.

That doesn't have to happen, however, because Marie Kondo's new book Spark Joy just hit shelves! Even if you didn't read her first, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, as I did not, you probably know the gist of the method: Tidy your belongings by type, rather than by room, and get rid of anything that doesn't spark joy.

Book 2, like any good sequel, answers the questions raised by the first. In it, Kondo delves into her much-chattered-about folding techniques and answers the questions that her clients commonly ask—such as, and I quote: "Just tell me how to store things in my kitchen!"

We Tried It: the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

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Which leads me here. My kitchen is in desperate need of tidying: Justine and I have so much unused stuff, very little storage space, and almost a complete lack of order—did I mention that after two years of cohabitating, we only recently got a trash can in the kitchen? I'm going to tackle our food containers, our dishes and flatware, our cookware, and our pantry.

Starting tomorrow, I'll tackle one part of my kitchen at a time, starting with the black hole that is my storage container cabinet, according to Kondo's ways. For the next few days after that, it will be new day, new drawer, until it's all tidied up!

Any tips for becoming a KonMari pro? Let me know in the comments!