Joy is just the beginning.
You may have been introduced to renowned Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo through the hit Netflix series, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, or perhaps through her New York Times best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Her trademark KonMari Method is lauded the world over for helping people “transform their cluttered homes into spaces of serenity and inspiration”. We’re here to help you do just that with our take on Marie Kondo’s top tips on decluttering your home.
Marie's Tips
1. Take it one section at a time.
Organizing your home is a big job, best tackled by breaking it up into smaller tasks. Kondo suggests arranging by category rather than by room, insisting that the best order of tasks starts with clothes, followed by books, paper and finally, kimono (miscellaneous and sentimental items) — leaving the toughest category for last.
2. Bring everything out into the open.
When working on a category, Kondo suggests bringing everything out into the light of day. This means taking everything within that category out of closets, out of storage, out of the dark so that you can take stock of what you have and fully grasp the sum of your possessions.
3. Sort with sensitivity.
Kondo instructs tidiers to keep only items which “spark joy” and will be of personal value in your life moving forward. She also advises us to show respect to the things we part with by thanking them for the purpose they served in our lives.
4. Play the long game.
Once you’ve sorted through everything and the time comes to organize the remaining items, Kondo suggests that you create a specific space for everything you own so that whenever you take something out for wear or use, it goes back in the same place every single time. With this method, you only have to declutter and organize your home once.
Our take
These four steps seem simple enough but of course the difficulty is in the doing. Parting with belongings and clearing out space often requires a deep dive into your emotions and can awaken memories long buried or forgotten. But it's a great opportunity to bring out the best moments and introduce them to your home. Dusting off old photographs and framing them beautifully, encapsulating forgotten memories in photo albums, and displaying treasured parts of our lives is a fantastic way to honor the old while making way for the new.
Saying goodbye to old versions of ourselves is not always an easy task, but it is a worthwhile one that comes with many benefits. Think of it as releasing the burdens of the past to bring forth the blessings of today. Let’s get started!
