Hey guys!
Recently I read a book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
by Marie Kondo, and this book changed my life.
I loved it so much.
I read through it in three days, and today I just knew I had to share the method
of tidying up your life by Marie Kondo.
Marie Kondo is a professional organizing consultant
from Japan, and she's written this book that has become wildly popular in Asia.
Recently this past fall, she released the English version to the US and since then,
I've seen it blow up on countless blogs and magazines,
and everybody is talking about the KonMari Method.
As you guys know, I'm a big fan of minimalism.
I believe that a clear space equals a clear mind,
and so once I heard about this book, I knew I absolutely had to check it out.
What I love about Kondo's method is that she says you only have to tidy your house once
and then you never have to do it again, which is a huge difference from the common belief
that you had to declutter a little bit every day.
But actually, Marie Kondo believes
that you should tidy and declutter in one dramatic shot so that it creates a dramatic
change
in your environment which will create a dramatic change in your life.
With the KonMari Method, you can seriously reset your life and start fresh.
On top of that, Marie Kondo claims none of her clients have regressed
into being messy people which is very, very impressive.
Without further ado, here is how to tidy with the KonMari Method.
First things first: start by discarding.
We have a lot of stuff that we don't need
and so the first step is to recognize the things that we have that aren't serving us
anymore.
Kondo says this should be a "fun" event and you should dress up for the occasion
as if you're sending your things off with a goodbye party.
So I treated it as a celebration
and I wore a dress to clean up, rather than being sloppy in PJs.
The main idea is that you have to hold each item in your hand and ask yourself:
If it makes you happy, keep it.
If it doesn't spark any joy, then put it in the discard pile.
Make sure that you hold the item in your hand because she says
your body will react to an item when you touch it rather than when you just look at it.
Also she recommends that you not listen to music while you are deciding
what sparks joy to you or not because music can interfere with that intuition
and you really want to listen to your heart, your body, and what you are telling yourself
about this.
Lastly, don't even think about organizing or putting things away
until you have completely finished discarding everything from a specific category.
So don't start organizing as you're discarding.
Make sure you have everything at once,
discard, then deal with the rest later.
Tidy by category, not location, and lay it all out.
Gather everything you own
from a single category and lay it all out on the floor.
For example:
if you're tidying books, you have to remove all of the books off of the bookshelf onto
the floor.
It's very tedious, but it's a must.
Kondo says you have to do that
because when you take things off of the shelf or the closet and onto the floor,
you are "waking an item up" because it's been dormant for so long.
You've probably grown accustomed to ignoring it while it's on the shelf
so it looks like nothing to you.
But once you take it off and put it on the floor,
you kind of reactivate it.
When the item is awake,
you can decide then whether it still sparks joy or not.
Kondo has a specific order of categories that you're supposed to tidy in and it goes like
this:
first clothes, then books, papers, miscellaneous, and mementos.
Within clothes and miscellaneous, there's an order of subcategories that you should
tidy by.
Basically there's a purpose for this order and it's because clothes are the easiest
to say goodbye to, whereas you go down the line, mementos are the hardest to let go of.
So Kondo says you have to start with clothes so that you train your intuition
and by the time you hit all of the categories, and you get to mementos,
it's easier for you to realize what sparks joy in you and what doesn't.
I've compiled all of these categories into a tidying checklist that you guys can download
and follow as you go.
You can find that on my blog.
The link is in the description below.
As you discard your things, thank them and bid them farewell.
Kondo really talks about things as if they are alive.
She says that each thing that you have
has helped you, supported you, or served a purpose in your life in some way.
So whether a dress used to make you feel beautiful or a pair of pants taught you
what didn't look good on you, you should appreciate your things, thank them
for what they've done for you in your life, and then let them go.
Finally, once you've finished discarding your things, you can start organizing
and putting things away.
Kondo says that each item needs a "home"
so it can rest after a long day.
When you designate a space for each item,
all you have to do at the end of the day is return it to its rightful home and let it
rest
while you rest.
This really keeps your home from being cluttered after you do your big tidy.
When I read to this point, I realized I had never designated a space for my purse.
I would come home and just throw it on a table or chair until I needed it the next time.
So now I've designated a spot for my purse in my closet and I realize
my house is more clear because I don't throw things everywhere.
I really put them back in their rightful home.
That's it!
I hope you guys liked this video and that it inspired you to tidy up your life.
As I mentioned, I made a downloadable cheat sheet and checklist which you guys can find
in the description below.
So far, in my journey, I've tidied clothes and it took me two weeks
to tidy all the subcategories from tops to pants to every accessories and shoes and everything.
That was already a journey.
I'm still going to keep going and move onto books
and miscellaneous and the rest.
But in the meantime I'm going to be making more videos
on specific tips on how to tidy your closet and how to fold clothes so be on the lookout
for those videos next.
Make sure you subscribe.
I post videos every Wednesday.
Good luck with your journey in becoming more minimal in your life.
Happy tidying.