My KonMari’ing has returned after a brief hiatus.

Two nights ago, I revisited my bags and backpack drawers and felt that good whoosh of success after completing it.

Up until now, almost all of my KonMari’ing has been on my own belongings (clothes, books, papers, accessories, miscellaneous stuff). Occasionally he’ll check out what I’m getting rid of (in case there’s a costume piece he wants to keep that I don’t), but mostly he’s just been my supportive cheerleader as I tackle my stuff on my own.

Last night, Brandon and I started our joint kitchen KonMari’ing.

There are three agreements that Brandon and I made before we got started last night. I wanted to share these in case it helps others who are “choosing what to keep” and getting organized with a partner.

1) Before diving in, we agreed that we didn’t have to do the whole kitchen and pantry area all at once, guessing we would be happier if we broke it down into shorter segments. (When we were wedding planning, we came up with the phrase “I love you and I’m at a good place to stop” when we reached a limit – we applied that concept here.) Sometimes it’s good to push to get to the end of a project, but not always. Sometimes it’s better to have a successful same-team-win feeling a few times in a row rather than hitting an exhausted level and having some communication breakdown.

2) Before we got started, Brandon suggested this GREAT idea: he proposed that we each take a section of the kitchen to go through and choose what to keep on our own. Then we look at the other’s get-rid-of pile and see if there’s anything there we want to keep. Game changer! I’m confident this saved us time and kept potential issues at bay because we weren’t looking at every tiny thing together and discussing it.

3) Keeping the “choosing what to keep” KonMari mentality in mind, I suggested we wouldn’t try to strongly persuade the other to get rid of something that they wanted to keep. We could have a soft discussion and ask questions, but that’s it. (Ok, to be clear, this is because I own a few kitchen gadgets that I never use but “I’m sure I will someday” and I really don’t want to get rid of my chopper or rice cooker.) He said sure.

It worked out great. Stage one is complete and while we could have pushed on to do more, we ended at a great stopping point, feeling empowered, happy, and on the same team. Instead of getting bogged down at looking at everything together, Brandon’s system worked really well. Thanks, love! Go team.

— Keridwyn