How to Declutter and Organize Your Home with KonMari Method

With the festive season over, now is the perfect time to declutter & organise your home! When it comes to organising, there is no better teacher than Marie Kondo herself! Kondo is a Japanese organising consultant & bestselling author of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising”. The iconic Netflix show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”, created a decluttering movement all over the world!

1. Commit yourself to tidying up

If you watch a couple of episodes of Kondo’s TV-Show you will literally see people crying when they are told to get rid off their stuff. Who would say that decluttering can be that difficult and emotional? But your own home can actually bring you a lot of stress and anxiety. It may seem overwhelming in the beginning but don’t give up until you create the home of your dreams. This may take time so be kind to yourself, make a good plan and do a little bit of tidying up each day over a couple of weeks. It will make it seem much easier to tackle and you won’t be so overwhelmed. You’ve got this!

2. Imagine your ideal lifestyle

Now is the time to visualize the home of your dreams and your dream lifestyle. You can create a vision board or describe in detail your dream home and lifestyle in a journal. This exercise is an essential part of decluttering because if it gets too overwhelming and exhausting (and at some point, it probably will) you’ll always have these reminders as to why have you started in the first place. Visualising your ideal lifestyle clarifies your WHY and identifies what kind of life you want to live when the process is finished. It can represent a huge turning point in a person’s life, so make sure you dedicate enough time to this particular step before you actually start tidying up.

3. Finish discarding first

This is the very first step of the actual decluttering – to sort out what we have to get rid off and not just to store it in the garage or basement! Before you start organizing you need to decide what to keep and what to throw out because only then you’ll have an idea of how much needs to be stored. Before getting rid of items, Marie suggests to sincerely thank each item for serving its purpose. What a great moment for gratitude! Another helpful tip is that instead of tossing everything in the garbage, try to sort out items that are clean, not damaged, not expired and in good condition (like clothes, shoes, toys, furniture and canned food) because you can donate them to charities, non-profit organizations, foster homes or individuals. By tidying up your home you can make other people happy!

4. Tidy by category, not by location

According to KonMari method, tidying up room by room is rarely successful because we normally just move stuff from one place to another or scatter it around the house. With this kind of approach, we have no idea how many things we actually own. Kondo came up with a solution to tidy up by category and organize this category in the whole house or apartment. You should start with clothes, then books, papers, move to miscellaneous and sentimental items in the end. There is a chance that you will experience an eye-opening moment when you realize how many things you don’t use, don’t need and how they just take up space in your home & life.

5. Follow the right order

It is very important not only to tidy up items by category, but also to do it in the following order:

1. Clothes

2. Books

3. Papers

4. Miscellaneous – Komono

5. Sentimental items

For better time management we should organize practical items first and only then go to sentimental items. It makes sense, to begin with clothes because they are usually the biggest challenge for all of us of so this is already a big chunk of work that we can get done right from the beginning. Since sentimental items represent a deeper value and connection for us, we should organize them at the end. It is most likely that we will spend a little bit more time with these belonging and/or have more difficulties sorting them out.

6. Does this item spark joy for you?

This last step will make it easier for us to decide which things we want to keep. All we have to do is to ask ourselves if each particular item sparks joy for us. Listen to your body and if you notice positive exciting feeling when you hold the item then this is your answer. Surely, you can make a connection with an item that you don’t actually need or benefit from it, but if it isn’t enriching your life in some way then it is probably time to say goodbye. Also, remember to say thank you to each item for serving its purpose. This simple and helpful method will create clearer, more organised living space that will surely ‘spark joy’ in your life too.

Extra Tip: Folding clothes

The way that we store the clothes actually makes a difference. Marie has many useful tips for folding clothes in a very specific way. Instead of stacking piles of clothes, she recommends to fold them beautifully and make them stand upright so they are easy to access and nice to display. Watch Marie’s video and learn how to apply “The KonMari Fold” to your t-shirts, sweaters, tank tops, pants and more.

Decluttering your home is a perfect project for the entire family. Tidying up may not seem like a fun activity, but it is basically only one big clean-up and will have a long-term positive effect on your family. You can use this time in a way that increases bonding by focusing on team work and talking about items that bring nice memories for you all. It is also a perfect opportunity to teach your children responsibility about how to treat their possessions.