Beautifully You Youtube Channel Update| May

Hi there Bellas! I wanted to take out the time to first of all welcome all the new faces I'm seeing on the Beautifully You Instagram. I was recently featured by the Mari Kondo IG (creator of the KonMari Method) account and so I'm glad to see more woman like myself joining this journey of personal discovery. Thank you for all of your support!

 Secondly, as many of you may have noticed I didn't post a video last week on the channel. Now I don't want you to think anything to drive you away. Simply, I had some technical difficulties with a new mic that I bought. I had recorded a video with no sound. Apart from being devastated that an awesome video went to waste, I was very frustrated with this piece of equipment and didn't want to move on until I had resolved the issues. Luckily, I did, and we are back on track with the filming schedule.

 Now that we are talking about the filming schedule, I have a few new updates I'd like to share with you about it. So, as I mentioned before I had written a blog post on the KonMari Method which was feature on her official Instagram account. It's my second most viewed post! It makes me so happy, that people are actually interested in what I'm posting. These are small victories for me but victories none the less. Well, because of the amount of interest in the topic, I've decided to create a Series on the Youtube Channel called: The Konmari Method| Konverting. This series will include an introductory explination on what KonMari is, as well as Vlogs documenting my whole processes and the "Konverting" of my home ending with my experience and how-to hacks. I post weekly videos every Wednesday, but I'm adding a new day to the schedule. This series will be posted every Monday as well! This is a temporary schedule but if I see a lot of interest on Monday Series Videos, I'll consider keeping it around.
Other Series I have in Mind:
- Fitness 21 Day Challenge
- Minimalism Challenge
- Making of a Cosplay

 I've also decided to add new segments to the channel. Because, I want to be 100% myself through this channel, I thought that maybe I should share a passion of mine with you. It's most definitely what sets me apart from others. It's what makes me...well, me. My love for Asian pop-culture! So I cleverly will name this segment, " Dose of K." Why? Let me explain. My name starts with what is obviously the best letter in the alphabet. K, for Kimberly.  I love all things Korean, and Kawaii (Cute in Japanese.) This segment will include everything from but not limited to; K-Dramas, K-Music in general, Asian Beauty, Anime, Cosplay, Decoden and much more! I do have a passion for this type of content. I'll also be including a gaming segment which is still in the planning stages, but you can definitely expect to see that soon.

 Having taken a good look at my social media analytics I found that there is a very big range of viewership and followers across my platforms. There is really no way to pin point who is watching the most. Even though I post the same things on all platforms the viewership is polar different in all of them. This is what has led to the decision on posting a wide variety of content, and really find a sweet spot for my channel. I do wish to make something for everyone. Beautifully You's mission will remain the same, but I would like to share with you more of who I am as well. If you have any suggestions or requests please feel free to leave me a comment!

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Marie Kondo| What is the KonMari Method? 5 Easy Steps

Hi Bellas and welcome back! Today's topic will be about something I unfortunately haven't found someone explain in plain English to me, so after researching quite a bit, that's what I'm going to try and do for you today. We are going to cover what the KonMari Method is. This will be part of my KonMari Method Series on my Youtube Channel this week, if you're interested in learning more go ahead and subscribe!

 The KonMari Method was created by Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo. She has several books published including her #1 New York Best Seller, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up; the Japanese Art of Decluttering. She uses Zen Spirit and Feng Shui principles in her method. KonMari is often applied to minimalism lifestyle. She believes that a clear space, equals a clear mind. Therefore, a clear life. 

 Her main belief though is contrary from what many practice in their daily life. Which is that cleaning up little by little everyday will ultimately lead to a tidy home. For each item brought into the home, we must take the equivalent out and storing things seasonally. Although these are meant to be helpful they do the complete opposite.  They are the very reasons we never seem to be able to maintain our messy homes.

 Marie Kondo instead advocates for one drastic clean sweep of our home. It needs to be drastic so that we can not only see a drastic change in our life but feel one happen. She claims that once you clean your house once, you never have to do it again. And that her clients have never regressed to being messy. Sounds good to me! Where do I sign up right? Mari Kondo writes that this process can take anywhere from a few hours to at most 6 months. It's not as easy as some may think but not impossible!

Before we can begin, Marie Kondo tells us that we must make room for that really matters to us and ask ourselves what a clutter free home means to you personally? To me it means, an organized smooth flowing life. One that I can follow meaningful routines throughout the day, in order to make time for my children, for myself, and my marriage. It means be able to have time for hobbies, teaching my children things properly, creativity, romance etc. I'm in search of a happy life that I am happy living day by day. Not in a yearly perspective.

 So where does one begin? There are 5 steps to the KonMari Method.

1. Start by discarding

 By discarding things you are freeing up space for the things we love. We begin by asking ourselves "does this spark joy?" If it does, put it in the keep pile, if it doesn't put it aside to give away, donate or throw out. Obviously we must open books, go through papers, etc in order to really decide whether this is useful to you and sparks you joy right now, in the present time.

2. Tidy by category not location

 Many, like myself often clean by room and not by category of items. Marie advices to gather everything of one category that is in your house and lay it out in one big pile. For example, gather all the articles of clothing in your house and put them in one big pile and begin to sort. Ask yourself if it sparks joy, and follow step one. 

3. Tidy in the right order

 It's important to clean in the right order from easiest to hardest category, that way you can train you intuition and realize with ease what sparks joy and what doesn't. For the category list the KonMari Method applies follow this link, from JusJusSprinkles.

4. Thank your things as you discard them

Treat your belongings as if they were real people. Appreciate them and thank them for their use as you let them go. Be sure to discard what you are letting go first, before you begin to organize what you are keeping. That way you ensure the clutter is gone, and is never coming back.

5. Designate a space for each of them

 Now that all of your belongings have been sorted, and you have kept what sparks you joy. It's time to create or designate a space for every item you are keeping. Every item needs a home so that it can rest while you rest. That way you don't have things just lying around or come home and toss something on the ground.

 You can read more about the KonMari Method by visiting her official website, here. I hope this was easy to follow and helpful to you in understanding what the basics for KonMari is. As I mentioned before, be sure to subscribe to my Youtube Channel for more on this new series, The KonMari Method. It'll contain how-to's, as well as vlogs of my experience transitioning to a minimalistic lifestyle using this method.

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