Why I Love the Konmari Method by Marie Kondo
Professional organizing has grow in popularity within the last 10 years due to popular books and TV series that have shown life changing experiences in peoples lives. Every organizing expert has their own philosophy of helping clients organize their space. The Marie Kondo method, also referred to as Konmari (an amalgamation of her first and last name), stood out to me as a simple yet powerful method that organizing things from starting with the easiest and eventually working our way into the hardest, using sustainable everyday objects to keep our things organized, and creating your ideal life!
Declutter your space and live your ideal life!
Creating YOUR OWN Ideal Life
There are too many directions to go with this. Do I want my life to look like someone else’s, or is there something yearning inside that I have to create for my authentic self? I admit that seeing the after photos and results from social media can be inspirational, however some just do not reflect my personal style and I encourage others to recognize and protect that intuitive feeling. Life is too short and precious to live in home that is yours, yet doesn’t feel at all like YOU! Understandably, modeling other person’s styles that resonate with our own is helpful when we don’t know our authentic style, but as we grow and observe our interests and “tweak things”, we are personalizing them. In time the personal style emerges… and that is huge! Some people, feel like they have filled their home with too many things, trying to accomplish a style that they liked, only to realize later that many of those objects were not fulfilling to them. So I recommend advice I found from Marie Kondo’s Kurashi at Home and asking yourself:
What truly makes me happy about life?
How can I reflect that into my home?
Organizing by Category and not by Room
Organizing by room can be challenging when several objects in that room have been scattered throughout different rooms of the house. So if one is organizing the bedroom closet, for example, and didn’t realize the amount of shoes, accessories, and clothing they had in a guest room, other bedrooms and clean pile of clothes in the laundry room waiting to be put away, by the end of organization process, they may need to adjust much of the closet to accommodate those items and may feel like they are starting over.
The Konmari method organizes by category and not room. Each category is also a different level of difficulty and she has put them in a specific order that is from easiest to most difficult:
Clothing
Books
Paper
Miscellaneous/ Komono
Sentimental (also may include items from the previous categories)
Sentimental is by far the most challenging category because it has the highest amount of emotional attachment. This is the most overwhelming category and yet many people try to tackle that category and are extremely overwhelmed, avoiding it all together. That is why the Konmari method saves “Sentimental” for last. Clothing, on the other hand, is the easiest to tackle and that is why it is the first category. Just like taking guitar lessons, would it make sense for a beginner to tackle a complex guitar solo? If they did, they would most likely give up. However, if they worked with a guitar teacher who had them practice beginner friendly songs, and as they mastered them they’d move up to another level that they are both capable of completing and will still feel challenged. As they keep moving up, they begin to tackle that guitar solo, feeling empowered at what they have accomplished. The Konmari method does not want anyone to give up in the middle of their “tidying festival” and strategically guides us through mastering each category so that when it comes time to tackle Sentimental items, we are far more equipped to complete the project and therefore have become empowered.
Sustainably Organizing
Sure buying a bunch of containers may be fun, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that our home will be less cluttered. In fact, our home can be both: full of fancy organizing containers and still be cluttered. This is one of the most common pitfalls well-meaning people find their selves in when they are trying to get organized. We often get sucked into buying more stuff to fix our problems, when the key to getting organized really has more to do with knowing what needs to stay and what needs to go.
The Konmari Method focuses on the decluttering process first, then encourages us to use storage we already have for the items that are staying. We can use boxes, baskets, cups, lids as trays, and refurbished items once used in one room for another. The decluttering process helps tremendously with the need for storage because it reduces the items in the home and often less storage is needed. Of course, if we feel that we lack proper storage and would like to purchase storage containers, we can better analyze what specific kind of storage would best work for that space. We can measure the area and what items we want to put in the space, increasing the chance of purchasing the right products.
In addition, we have also reduced the potential amount of clutter going into a landfill by using what we already have and buying what we need. How often we see beautiful pictures of organized spaces filled with designer storage with many multiples of the same beauty products or pantry items. Having back ups of you most used products is great. But truly able to use them up before they expire? That is a question that only each individual can answer, however a common problem with folks who love the trill of buying things in bulk when they are on sale, but not necessarily items we can really finish before they expire and there for create the need to make more storage.
In conclusion…
The Konmari Method has:
Envision how I want to reflect the things I love about life into my home.
Follow a process to organize the easier things first before I move on to something far more emotionally complex.
Use items I have around the house to organize, avoid impulsive purchases and save my excitement for purchasing things I really want in my ideal life.
