Believing in the principle that tidiness is a way of everyday living, a Japanese organizing consultant, Marie Kondo, came up with this simple method ‘KonMari’.
Marie Kondo who authored the book, ‘The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up’ explains, “The KonMari Method is the tidying method I created out of my lifelong work and passion for organizing.” Clutter has a way of creeping up on us time and time again, however organized we are or however frequently we go on a cleaning spree. To tackle this issue, which springs up every now and then, Marie Kondo suggests getting out of clutter once and for all. She advocates the belief that if an object does not ‘spark joy’ it is the sole determining factor for throwing or giving it away.
The KonMari method became immensely popular with people who look for the minimalistic approach to life, live in small spaces and who rate themselves high on the clutter-free scale. Going by Marie Kondo’s tips, the method works this way:
Starting immediately, without pushing off what you can do today to tomorrow.
The next step is to discard. Don’t discard a little bit every day. Instead you should go on a discarding spree. Ask yourself the question, ‘does this spark joy?’, holding every item in your hand. If it doesn’t, then it has to be discarded or given away. The KonMari Method helps you rely on intuition rather than sentiment in giving up your possessions.
Have a category of items: clothes, books, kitchen items, sentimental items… Discard items in that order. Do not go by location…like starting from the kitchen, then moving on to the living room and bedrooms.
Do not look at alternative spaces for your discarded stuff. The items should not move into your parents’ loft from yours.
Once discarding is out of the way, organization should set in. The KonMari method suggests having a place for everything, and anything, including items in your handbag, should be in place. When every drawer, closet and cabinet is organized this way, there is absolutely no room for clutter.
Storage is the next thing and the method says that items of the same type should be stored in the same place to avoid scattering and more accumulation. There is a Konmari Method to fold clothes too, which results in minimum space utilization. The way to go about it is by standing folded clothes upright instead of in a pile. The same goes for books. The clothes that go on hangers should go from left to right in the order of longest to shortest and darkest to lightest.
To take the results of home detox a notch higher, get rid of stuff through thrift shops, donate to charities or recycle. You will feel liberated while basking in a clutter-free home.
