Finding My Way Back To “Enough”
If you’ve read my column before, you probably know me as the professional home organizer who talks about tidying, organizing and finding more joy in our homes. But I thought you might like to know a bit about the person behind the advice.
I’m Michelle. I’m a mother, wife, daughter, friend, entrepreneur and pet mom. Like most of you, I wear a lot of hats. And for a long time, I also wore the hat of someone who was constantly trying to keep up with her stuff.
My story with “stuff” actually goes back to my childhood. My family came to Canada in the late 1970s, and I was raised with a strong appreciation for what we had. We didn’t have an abundance of things, and I learned to take care of what I owned and be grateful for everything I had. As an adult, I had more disposable income and, with it, more opportunities to buy things. Somewhere along the way, shopping became a little too easy and, honestly, a little too much of a go-to activity.
Good day? Go shopping. Bad day? Shopping. Bored? Shopping. Need a pick-me-up? Yup.
About 10 years ago, I read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I loved the idea of folding my clothes differently, so I started folding. And then…well, that was about it.
I hadn’t really embraced the philosophy of a KonMari-style tidy. I simply got better at moving things around. Clutter would migrate from one room to another. Things I didn’t know what to do with would find their way into boxes in the basement. Everything looked a little better, but nothing was really “life-changing.”
Then the pandemic happened, and like so many, I had to spend much more time at home. And when I was surrounded by my belongings day after day, I started noticing them differently and my clutter became harder to ignore.
So I picked up that book again, and this time, I really read it. I started my own Tidying Festival with a simple attitude: Why not? What happened surprised me. As I went through my belongings, I realized just how many things I owned that didn’t really bring me happiness or feel like they belonged in the life I was actually living.
And somewhere in that process, I found myself thinking about the girl I used to be. The girl who didn’t have too much, but appreciated what she did have. The person my parents had raised me to be; someone who understood that having more stuff wasn’t necessarily the same thing as having more happiness.
It felt like the KonMari method had brought me full circle. I had spent years accumulating things, only to discover that what I really wanted wasn’t more. Over about three months, working around my career, family and everyday life, I went through my belongings by the KonMari categories.
It was a ton of work. But when I finished, something really had changed. I enjoyed my home more. I could find things more easily. I stopped buying things I already owned because I actually knew what I had. And perhaps most importantly, I realized I had been using the wrong yardstick to decide what belonged in my home.
I had been asking, “Should I get rid of this?” KonMari encouraged me to ask a different question: “Do I want to keep this?” That shift made all the difference.
I ended up with fewer belongings, but what remained brought me more joy. That experience ultimately led me to become a certified KonMari consultant and to help other people through the same process.
What I love about KonMari is that I don’t simply do something for someone. I help them discover what works for themselves. My job isn’t to judge or tell you what you should keep. It’s to support and guide you toward creating a home that reflects your life and the things that are meaningful to you.
I’ve been there. I know what it feels like to open that basement door and wonder how all that stuff got down there. I know what it’s like to think you’re organized because everything is tucked away in a box. And I know the wonderful feeling of finally looking around your home and thinking, Ahhh. This feels good. But perhaps more importantly, I know what it’s like to rediscover something I thought I’d lost along the way: the ability to be happy with what I have.
That’s really why I do what I do. Not because I think we need more perfect homes, but because I believe our homes should be places where we can joyfully live our lives.
Want to chat? Reach out. I’m always up for a cup of tea!