Marie Kondo - Konmari Method

I stumbled upon this method while my binge Youtube weekends and I was intrigued. I went through videos after videos about this Marie Kondo and at the end of last year, a dear friend bought the book for me. I couldn't put the book down and was ready to try out her method.

Some of her points in tidying methods are:
1. Take out everything
2. Pick up one thing at a time and ask yourself 'does this bring joy?"
3. If the answer is No, discard

I started with my clothes and I think I discarded (don't worry I didn't throw them away..kept them to be given away to friends or to be donated) about 2 big garbage bag worth of clothing and the rest I rearranged them back into my closet in a way that you could see everything and folded in a way that it is pleasing to the eye.

Key points to clothes were:
1. Don't stack
2. Arrange from Heavy/Dark/Long to light/short
3. Only hang clothes that are meant to hang
4. Every item of clothing has a sweet spot when it comes to folding.

This method makes loads of sense as you do not have to lift up the clothes above and everything is within reach. 

I moved on to books and cleared out almost 30 books to donate or to sell. I then moved on to my papers and cleared out loads too.

Her method makes a lot of sense however, I do not follow her method 100%. I have yet to throw out all papers as she mentioned. There are still books on my shelves that do not bring me joy but still want them there. There are clothes that are there because it is practical even though they don't bring me joy. I haven't moved on to the miscellaneous items or keepsakes yet. 

Slowly but surely, I will get rid of clutter and mess.

Sadly I forgot to take before and after shots of my efforts. 

Post Obstacle Run Clean up

The last post I did about OCR was about how I packed for an obstacle race. So what happens after the run? How I wish that whenever I run, I only end up with sweat. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Most of the time, everyone is covered in mud from head to toe. Some races are nice enough to put an ice-tank as part of the last obstacle so you get to do a little mini clean-up before the finishing line. However, even with that tiny rinsing, most of your gear will still be covered in mud. If you follow me on Instagram, I have a few post-race photos where I can probably say I am DIRTY from head to toe.

So what do I do? I HAVE TO CLEAN LAH! 

            

Firstly, I put ALL DIRTY clothing into a BIG plastic bag and then into my shoe bag. Yes, Everything. My dirty shoe, socks, undies, sports bra, everything that I wore for the race! This is so that when I get home, I just take this bag and dump it to the washing area and my other gym bag stays clean.

Once I am ready to clean them, I dump everything out and try to shake out as much debris/sand/ mud/rocks etc. before I throw them ALL into a bucket.

                     

 

In the bucket, I rinse and rinse and rinse till I lose count.

I rinse until there are no more debris and the water is relatively clear compared to the first rinse.

Then it is into the washing machine minus the shoe. I use the brush to wash the shoe, and since it is an all-terrain shoe it is a breeze to wash. I wash the other stuff in the washing machine at least 2 rounds. I do check between washes to see weather the water runs clear.

And that is how I WASH my gear.. and even after sooo MANY races, I STILL HATE IT!