Week 8 of the Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge was to bring joy into your home.
This week is all about showcasing the items that you love that you found in your home. It’s about finding pretty ways to store some items.
And it’s about whimsically trying to find a way to use your old items that bring you joy to continue to do it every day.
Walkthrough of Week 8 of the Tidy Challenge
Spark Joy
For the first day of Week 8 of the Challenge, Marie suggests going back to Week 1 and revising the vision board you created.
Today is all about re-remembering what brings you joy and what of that you want to bring into or accentuate in your home.
Plan out what you’d like to do so you can put it into action over the course of the week.
For me, I had this in mind the entire time we were tidying. I started finding items that brought me joy.
Most of all, it was realizing how much the décor around my home no longer brought me joy. So, I took a lot of them down. I was able to find a few new items to bring into the house.
My biggest purchase was this beautiful picture of a highland coo that I got for our living room. When my husband and I went on a trip about 3 years ago to Scotland and while there fell in love with their cute, hairy cows.
We get great joy out of seeing one hanging in our living room every day.
Closet Joy
Day 2 of the tidy challenge focuses on bringing joy into your closet.
One key item here that you may remember from when you tidied your clothes, is to make sure your clothes rise to the right.
Marie says to do this because it is calming and I find that it works for me.
The other thing she suggests is finding a way to personalize your closet. Make it a shrine of sorts to display things that bring you joy that you might not want out in your house.
For me, this is where I hung a poster from my childhood bedroom so I could smile at it every day.
Books
Over the course of the 8-week tidy challenge, Marie Kondo suggests several ways to organize books.
One way is to organize them by category. The one she suggests this week is to organize them by color. This can create a pleasing view to look at.
I’d suggest organizing whatever way works best for you. I have my books organized by category and then by author.
Power Spot
A power spot is a special spot just for you where you can go and recharge. It can be an entire room if you have space, or something small, like a shelf.
The goal is to fill it with things that bring you joy. Then, make sure you continue to take care of the space by dusting and cleaning it regularly and swapping out items when old ones no longer bring you joy.
The theory here is that it is nice to have a place all your own when you live with other people.
My power spot would be my desk space where I work every day. I have a few pictures that I love and then a few other items that bring me great joy on my desk.
Cleaning Supplies
In the Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge, she suggests that as a way to bring in joy to spruce up your cleaning supplies.
Her suggestion is to move cleaning supplies into nicer containers that are pretty and to spruce them up with ribbons.
Personally, I didn’t think that the hassle of moving cleaning supplies around would make up for the “pretty” containers. I skipped this step.
Pantry
Similar to cleaning supplies, Marie Kondo recommends switching pantry items into clear, reusable containers.
She then notes to add a label for the product and expiration date.
Again, this is a step that I skipped. I didn’t want to purchase new containers just for this purpose. Plus, I didn’t want the hassle of always having to switch containers and labels on a regular basis.
I’m fine with the usability of these items bringing me enough joy versus the looks of them.
Joy Spotting
The idea behind joy spotting is to look for things that bring you joy every day all around.
For me, this reminds me of mindfulness. One of the ways I practice mindfulness is to go on walks and notice parts of nature that bring me joy.
Create a Home That Sparks Joy!
In her books, Marie has some additional tips on how to bring joy into your home. These are the tips that jumped out the most to me.
Entryway
Keep the entryway as clear as possible. There are a few items that Marie suggests are okay to keep in the entryway.
- 1 pair of shoes for each person in the house
- Baby carrier
Everything else should be kept in its designated “home”.
Living Room
One of the big tips for the living room is to focus on the largest items – the furniture. Make sure you have furniture pieces that bring you joy.
The other tip I picked up that will help make the living room feel better is to keep the remotes all in one spot.
We do this and keep them all on one end table. The ones that we don’t use regularly, we keep in the drawer of the end table where all the others are.
Kitchen
Marie’s exact words in her books on the kitchen are “cleanliness is crucial”. I’d have to agree with her on this.
To help with this, she notes to keep the areas by the sink and stove clear. That will make it easier to wipe up when necessary.
Her main notes on tidying the kitchen are to store things keeping ease of use in mind along with ease of cleanliness.
Office
If you have an office, Marie recommends keeping the desk clear. I would agree with this. Mine is fairly cluttered with various items I need.
Every time I do have more empty space on my desk, I feel so much more joy.
Marie Kondo also recommends bringing in a “playful touch” to personalize the space.
I do this with a few items – my turtle beanie baby and my old hacky sack ball. Just a few extra things that are a little odd, but bring me joy.
Bedroom
In the bedroom, Marie focuses on various different areas to bring joy. She notes to have nice, dim lighting in there.
Also, bring in scents that bring joy.
The other main tip here is to wash your linens frequently. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy that fresh sheets feeling when they get into bed at night.
Bathroom
To bring joy into the bathroom, Marie Kondo recommends keeping the counter area clear. Along with that, she recommends keeping the counter and tub “well-scrubbed.”
Feeling After Week 8 of the Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge
Week 8 of the Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge was the most fun, by far.
This week for me, definitely took much longer than a week. I had it on my mind for the entire 8-Week Tidy Challenge.
I was constantly on the lookout for things that brought me joy. As soon as we tidied our komono, I knew that a ton of our home décor items didn’t bring me joy anymore.
While I was a little surprised, I realize in hindsight, I shouldn’t have been. A majority of the wall decorations that I have were from when I was in college.
It’s no wonder they didn’t bring me joy anymore. It was a completely different time in my life. Plus my budget for spending was completely different.
While I still haven’t fully switched out all of the items that I don’t totally love, I’m pleased with the progress.
Knowing where I have areas I’d like to update, I can keep an eye out for items I really love rather than just getting something to not have an empty wall.
It is nice to have my home filled with things that truly bring me joy, especially since I work from home.
Take the Challenge With Me!
I am pretty excited to be done with the 8-week tidy challenge. We started the challenge months ago and worked slowly through it, taking time where we needed it.
I will say that the hardest parts of the challenge were tidying komono and finding everything a home.
These two weeks were the most time-consuming. There was so much stuff, it was hard going through them without exact guidance on every area.
Overall, our house is feeling a ton better and I’m happy that we went through with the tidying. I still feel like we have a ways to go.
Marie always says to tidy until something clicks. I don’t know that I’m there yet. But, I’ll keep on working through items until I do feel that way.
If you’re taking the challenge with me, let me know how it went for you!
