As Marie Kondo said, "Life truly begins only after you have put your house in order." There are hundreds of different methods you can use to finally begin letting go and decluttering your home. One of the most famous methods is the KonMari MethodTM, created by the charming Marie Kondo, an organizational-specialist from Japan, who coined spark joy. You may have even watched her Netflix series, "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo."
Below, Dana, a travel blogger, documents her experience using the KonMari MethodTM and walks you through each of Kondo’s recommended decluttering processes.
Here are steps to incorporate KonMari into your process, so you can let go of all your clutter!
1. Divide Your Home into Zones
Each room in your house or place of living can be broken into zones. Work in a clockwise motion, from one side, all the way around back to the front entrance, one room at a time until each one has been decluttered.
2. Discarding By Category (In Order), Not Location
To make it even easier, sort each zone into categories rather than by location such as a bookshelf or closet. Kondo also suggests working on each of these following categories below, in this order.
- Clothes
- Books
- Papers
- Komono (miscellaneous items, electronics, etc.)
- Mementos
3. Ask if this "Sparks Joy?"
As you go through each item, Kondo tells us to ask ourselves, "Does this spark joy?" Does this item create happiness for you? Is it important enough to keep?
4. Showing Gratitude
If an item does not spark joy in you, we are encouraged to take a moment and thank that item for all the happiness it brought to our lives in the past. Then set it aside to be donated or thrown away.
5. Clean Your Space
Once you have finished going through each item and de-cluttered as much as possible, now is the time to clean
6. Organize Your Space
Once your space is freshly clean, now you can begin organizing your items. For clothes, Marie Kondo created a folding technique called the KonMari Fold, to use the space of your closet and dressers more efficiently.
7. All in One Go
In Japanese, there is a term called ikki ni, meaning "in one go." If you tidy up in one shot, rather than little by little, you can dramatically change your mindset.
Wow, your home is now freshly cleaned and decluttered! Many who have experienced using the Konmari MethodTM of decluttering say they feel a huge weight has been lifted from their shoulders. We hope you feel better and can enjoy your space to its fullest!
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