Walking into the house you throw your keys into the “junk drawer” and toss the mail on “the pile.”
As life gets hectic we tend to build more and more clutter around the house; claiming lack of time, energy, or both.
If you are one of the millions of Marie Kondo followers, you have probably wondered if her decluttering ways would work for you – and it can!
We are well into spring, but maybe not as far into our spring cleaning. Well, today is as good a day as any to get your house in order.
Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant, creator of the renowned KonMari method, and author of 4 books that have sold millions of copies worldwide.
The 4 foot 7 inch woman is small in stature, but not in accomplishments. Her new 8-part series on Netflix titled “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” takes you on a fun journey into transforming people’s lives through organization.
Whether you are looking to take hold of your home because you have small children that have wreaked havoc on the living room, or you are looking to find your own way after the kids have left the house, the KonMari method can accomplish that.
Her signature organizing tactics are fairly simple, and give a lot of latitude to fit important keepsakes in a structural way in the home.
To begin you have to go through the whole house by category.
- Clothing
- Books
- Paper
- Komono (kitchen, bathroom, garage, and miscellaneous)
- Sentimental items
The first category usually catches a lot of people by surprise, because we don’t realize how much clothes we accumulate.
Kondo asks that the individual take all their clothes throughout the whole house and put them in one big pile on the bed. You would do a pile for each family member.
Then pick up each item one by one and see if it “sparks joy” for you. This may sound strange, but there is no need to hold onto a piece of clothing you don’t feel good about.
After you have kept only the clothes that spark joy, you can bag up the rest for charity. Don’t double back either, re-evaluating what you decided not to keep.
Next, you move on to books, following the same idea where they all go into the middle of the room together.
Pick up each book and keep the ones that “spark joy”, donating the rest to a charity.
Step 3, organizing paper, is a daunting task to many people, who don’t know what to keep and what to discard.
Kondo recommends organizing papers in file boxes where the paper can be held straight up so you can see them, not laid flat.
The komono step is time consuming because it entails many areas of the home, but the approach is similar. You are to put every item in the middle of the room, and then only keep necessary things.
It is more difficult to use the “spark joy” method here, because a toilet bowl cleaner and kitchen forks don’t exactly bring anyone joy, but they are necessary to keep.
Lastly, she has you go through your sentimental item. You aren’t just going to keep the items that bring you joy, but you are going to organize them into keepsake boxes by category or date.
This way you can actually go back and look at the items from your past that you enjoy, without having to dig around the basement for an hour for that “one picture” you took on your honeymoon.
We are not going to lie and say that this is easy, or quick, but the great thing about the KonMari method is that when you are done your home is only filled with things that bring you joy.
Also, once you have finished, it is easier to maintain a decluttered house by only bringing in items that will fit into the newly organized and joyful home.
So many times we hold onto items because we may use them one day, or somebody gave it to us and we don’t want to be rude.
Home is where we should be able to go to get peace and solace after running around in the chaotic world.
There are many reasons to keep your home a clutter-free zone, and it’s not just because your mother-in-law may stop by for an impromptu visit again.
A study at the University of Navarra “found that participants made more mistakes when undertaking a data inputting task in a messy environment than a tidy one,” according to PsyPost.
How many times have you felt overwhelmed in a cluttered kitchen when all the kids are asking for lunch, or got uneasy when your boss asked you a question while you had papers piled all over your desk?
Humans generally have trouble processing in a cluttered and chaotic environment, and that is not something you want to be challenged with daily.
Take ahold of your home by decluttering in a proven and effective way using the KonMari method.
The worst that could happen is that you find your favorite old band t-shirt, or waste an afternoon seeing how much junk you have.
On the flip side, if it works, and you have an organized home that the whole family feels at peace in, then you have a lot to gain.
(h/t Better Change Project)