The demands of parenting are great. Our lives can feel chaotic, overwhelming and well, often cluttered.
Whether or not you are a fan of the Kon Mari way of life, there are some basic principles we can take from this method and apply them to our parenting style. Perhaps sparking joy as we go along.
What is the Kon Mari Method?
The Kon Mari methods centres around decluttering and organising. Discarding the items which fail to make us happy and finding a place for everything. Now, we know, as parents, that this is a tough ask for a house hit by a hurricane of kids, so I am not talking about folding those fitted sheets and storing them to save space.
We rely on an emotional attachment for a lot of things and these attachments are stored heavily in the filing cabinets of our minds. Decluttering our headspace using Kon Mari principles can organise our minds, making for a less stressful and more centred way of life.
Parent Like A Minimalist
Minimalist parenting is about figuring out what your unique values are as a parent and what you want as a family. It is about paring down the excess and prioritising the needs of your family.
We live in a society of more. We assume we need more things, more places to go, more things to learn, but this can be overwhelming for us and our children. Life can be about filtering out the extra noises and focusing our energy on what is important. There is a very simple formula when it comes to minimalist parenting – less is more!
Buy Less
Research has shown us that clutter can be associated with higher levels of stress. And a family’s home can be quite cluttered with the extra paraphernalia needed with babies, toddlers and ever-growing children.
Aside from taking on legitimate Kon Mari methods to declutter your home, pause before buying anything new and ask the question, is it necessary? As parents, we want to provide and give more to our children, but the latest toy will spark less joy for them in comparison to spending quality time with you.
Unstructured Days
With so many events, classes and extracurricular activities available to us, we sign our kids up to do so much but is it always necessary? Our days become a blur of scheduled activities, leaving little room to rest and connect.
It can be stressful having so much on our calendars before the week has even begun. Trimming down our days and leaving a little time unstructured can help us to tune in to what our kids are interested in.
