Konmari Your Canine’s Clutter
When you have a dog who requires their own toys, beds, leashes, bowls, and more - all while bringing mud into the house - it can be just enough to elevate that overwhelmed feeling that we’re always trying to lower! To go along with our daily checklist, we thought we’d delve deeper into the organizing side of being a dog owner.
Have you heard of the #1 New York Times Best Seller, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”? It’s quite the trend right now and Marie Kondo, the creator of this cleaning technique, has started a world-wide movement of the “KonMari” method. She creates categories that include every single household item and puts them in order of what to clean first. Unlike most cleaning techniques, she takes emotions seriously and encourages the individual to get rid of anything that has negative memories connected to it. You start with the first category – Clothes. Put every single piece of clothing you have on the floor and then pick each one up asking yourself if it “sparks joy”.
Simplicity is a very popular theme in social media, magazines, books – and all for a very good reason. We’ve been in this digital age for enough years now that the overstimulation is getting to just about everyone. The mess in our homes are more overwhelming because our brains are already dealing with a surplus of information. Having a phone always on us makes us feel we need to be ‘on’ 24/7 and available on a whim. Throw in the stress and worry of an aging dog and it’s clear that we need to start somewhere with getting back on top of it all.
So let’s make our own KonMari method – for dog owners. Think about their belongings in terms of these categories:
- Outdoor Wearables (Vests, coats, Leashes & Collars)
- Eating (bowls, dog food, treats, travel equipment pertaining to eating or treats)
- Hygiene (shampoos & soaps, teeth brushing items)
- Toys (from every corner of the house and garage!)
- Outdoor Wearables – Start here. Gather each and every one of them and think about what is actually being used. Donate or discard any broken or damaged items.
- Eating – do you have some leftover dog food from before your vet recommended switching to a food with more omega-3? Do you have some expired heartworm medicine or an old prescription from a past surgery? Throw it away and don’t over think it. The item has to be useful. Otherwise it’s just taking up space that could otherwise house something else that’s been pushed to the floor.
- Hygiene – just like us, toiletries have a way of collecting. Maybe there’s just a tiny bit at the bottom of one shampoo bottle, but you always grab the full one while trying to keep your dog in the tub with the other hand. Keep these to a minimum and it will always be easy to find and grab what you need.
- Toys – these accumulate fast, don’t they?! Again, gather every single one from each floor of the house, including the garage. Pay attention to what sparks joy for your pet. Is it the stuffed fish that has been chewed to death but that he sleeps with every night? Maybe hold on to that one, but throw away the tattered rope toy that only brings out his aggressive side.
Was this method helpful or is it only good for humans? Let us know how your spring cleaning goes!