How often have you bought items that ended up as a clutter in your home? I think everyone accumulated way too many useless item that clutter living space and life. This is book review of Japanese declutter guru Marie Kondo. Before I started reading this book I was sceptical. What could be hard in declutter? But now I understand the reason behind her book success and countless TV shows appearance.
“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.”
The main idea is to keep what’s spark joy. If it doesn’t spark joy than declutter it. Such a simple but in the same way brilliant idea. “the life changing magic of tidying up” is the perfect tutorial on how to reduce number of belongings that doesn’t spark joy. You can’t tidy up if you never learn how to do it.
Most of us tried different declutter methods: throw away one items per day, declutter by location, buy more storage units to organize belongings, etc. But all this methods doesn’t work. The only way to have clutterless life is to change your approach to hoarding. The moment when you declutter by category entire living space, you will feel yourself lighter.
Declutter starts from clothing. Keep all your clothing on one pile. You will be surprised how much you own. Take each item in hands and ask yourself ”Does it spark joy?”. If yes, keep it. If not, donate it. You must go thought each clothing category and keep only what you like. This method is opposite to organizing because number of items drastically reduced.
“Storage experts are hoarders”.
Start by discarding and finish fast. Only after discarding start arranging your clothes, shoes, bags, etc. After you’ve done with clothes, declutter your books. Why do you need it if you can read everything online? After books it’s time to arrange papers. Arranging documents could be tricky but you can make photos from docs and use apps to organize & documents. After this declutter all other parts of your home. Everything what you don’t need should be removed from your living space. Last category is sentimental items. For most people it’s the hardest category. Make images from sentimental items and declutter. Images will be always with you and sentimental items will be in their new homes.
“Putting things away creates the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved. But sooner or later, all the storage units are full, the room once again overflows with things, and some new and “easy” storage method becomes necessary, creating a negative spiral. This is why tidying must start with discarding. We need to exercise self-control and resist storing our belongings until we have finished identifying what we really want and need to keep.”
The KonMari method urges people to change their habits and the way people think. Traditional home organizing methods create illusion that clutter does not exist if it put in systematic way. Too many items create attachment to past and anxiety about the future.
Messy home = messy mind. So, choose what you keep in your life and be intentional about it.
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