Spring is upon us and you know what that means… spring cleaning! Which is the perfect time to put to use the strategies we’ve accumulated from our Marie Kondo Netflix binge. Marie Kondo has taken the world by storm with her KonMari method, encouraging people to let go of items that don’t make them happy and to keep only the things that do. Here are some of our favorite takings from the KonMari method.
From Good Housekeeping
1. Declutter by category
Whoever thought to declutter by category?! Our first instinct is usually to declutter room by room (bedroom, then living room, then kitchen, etc.). Marie stresses the importance of choosing a category to clean and addressing all multiples of those within the home. Take shoes, for example. If you started with the bedroom, you’d probably throw all your shoes in your closet; then when you headed to the living room, all of the entryway shoes would be lined up by the door. They never actually finding a home, but rather settle for a spot that will do. Get all your shoes in one spot, and keep them there to maintain consistency.
2. Respect your belongings
Think about all the ways your belongings have benefited your life, and then look at how you’re treating them. Do you think your favorite yoga pants (the ones who have got you through the longest days), appreciate being stuffed unfolded in a drawer? Or how about that pot that you always cook your world-famous chili in—it deserves a better spot than the corner of your counter, wouldn’t you say? Once we begin to recognize how important some of these seemingly unimportant belongings really are, then we will want to give them a proper home, and therefore make our homes more presentable as well.
3. Purge!
While you should respect your belongings, at the same time, let go of what doesn’t hold purpose anymore. People have a tendency to hold onto items that might come in handy one day, or might be worth something later on. Kondo says to look at an item and ask yourself, “does this item spark joy?” Only keep things that make you excited to own. If it doesn’t have a purpose, it’s taking up valuable space and is cluttering up aspects of your life that don’t need cluttering.
From Silver Surfers
4. Separate memories from tidying up
We’ve all had those days—when you plan to dedicate the entire Sunday to cleaning up, and then you come across a box of old photos and dive deep down into a rabbit hole of nostalgia. Although we love bringing back those fond memories of friends and family, save it for a day when you don’t have only 3 hours to clean. If you procrastinate too long, you’re going to end up with a huge messy pile of things sitting there for days!
5. Fold the right way
The way you fold can make or break how tidy your clothes look, and how much space you take up. Kondo fortunately shared with us her genius folding technique—it makes everything easy to spot and is super easy to keep up.
From One Kings Lane
6. Love your closet again
We’ve all seen the infamous closet scenes in movies when they open up the doors and piles of clothes fall out on the poor victim. Once you start folding the Kondo way, though, you should have way more free space in your closet. Which means that you will actually be able to see what’s in there again! Once you have, say, just your nice clothing and coats hanging up, then you will really appreciate the simplicity of it and be able to gawk at your favorite articles of clothing whenever you open the door.
From Reviewed
7. Focus on the items, not the containers
We often tend to get hung up on the idea of how we are organizing, rather than what we are organizing. We think that just because we’re buying a fancy wall organizer or 6 different colors of boxes from the Container Store that we’re gonna be 10x tidier. It doesn’t really matter what you put things in though, it matters what you’re putting in them and where. Kondo says she often just uses a shoebox for storage! Think about it… it’s small, thin, and can fit in tight corners. And it’s practically free - genius!
With these Kondo tips, we’re almost excited to start cleaning! Now we just have to pick a category to start with. Knick-knacks, anyone?
