I was first introduced to this little book about 2 years ago, but I never gave it much thought. Perhaps I wasn’t ready for it yet…. Somehow this book crossed by path again early in 2017 and this time I devoured it. “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” is written by a Japanese woman, Marie Kondo. To me, the book is more of an easy, practical step-by-step method of how to purge all of your belongings to keep only the items that bring you joy. The premise is not that you are going to get rid of the things that you don’t care for anymore, but rather that everything is going to go except for those precious items that spark joy. She coins this approach “KonMari” after her name.
The method is a process that you go through, only once in your life if you do it correctly, to declutter and organize. It flips our normal thinking of how we “tidy” and notes that every item that is kept should have a home. The first step is a mental exercise to visualize how you want your space to look and feel. For me, visual clutter also feels like mental clutter, so I wanted a space that displays a minimal number of items. I also wanted my closets and cabinets to not feel so full. I had my vision and went to work.
The process from start to end should be completed in a “short” amount of time which is quantified in less than 6 moths. There is a method to the madness and you declutter not by room, but by category. The categories must be completed in this order: clothes, books, papers, komono (miscellaneous), and sentimental. Each large category can be further broken down into subcategories. For example, clothes can be divided into tops, bottoms, dresses, shoes, etc. Komono is a Japanese word but encompasses the items associated with everything “else” such as office, kitchen, living room, utility room, pets, etc.
At first, I was excited to get going with my KonMari decluttering project but was feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of items to sort. I found a printable checklist online and felt ready to go. In her book, Marie Kondo says you must gather everything from the category in which you are working and put them all in one place. At first, this seemed unnecessary, but she explains the visual impact of seeing all of your dresses, for example, all in one place will help you see just how many items you actually possess. So, I stuck with her instructions and soon had every single shirt I own on my bed. I was horrified. How can one person need so much? Of course, this is the whole point of doing this. Marie Kondo says to pick up each item and if it sparks joy, you keep it. If not, then thank it for the job it has done and get rid of it.
Out of curiosity, I kept track of how many of my possessions I was parting with. My goal was to limit the amount of actual trash as I did not want this project to contribute to landfill. I still plan on getting rid of more, namely clothes, but here’s the count so far:
- Clothes: 6 bags were sent to Thread Up and 2 bags were taken for textile recycling (approximately 1/3 of my wardrobe)
- Books: I kept 36, took 7 to work and sold 34 at Half Price Books
- Paperwork: Nearly everything was recycled which was 4 bags. I scanned important documents and downloaded items, such as instruction manuals, to my laptop.
- Komono: 2 bags of towels and linens were donated to the animal shelter; 21 bags of miscellaneous donated to Salvation Army; 1 small bag of DVDs was sold at Half Price Books (about half of my DVDs)
- Trash: 1 bag which was mostly expired lotions, makeup, pantry items, etc
To date, I have gone through every category except for sentimental. I completed the first 4 categories pretty quickly, in approximately 3-4 months. Sentimental has been delayed partially because I didn’t have all my sentimental items in one place. That is now resolved, but I have yet to start this last category. The goal is to have that completed by the end of 2017.
The process itself is challenging at first and then becomes easier the more you “exercise” the skill of letting go. I have to say, I have not felt regret for letting anything go so far. When I drive away from the donation center, I feel a sense of relief and lightness. Honing in on the items that really matter has become a new obsession and my closet is not safe. I will continue to work on that and am considering moving to a capsule wardrobe. Overall, I’m so happy I dove into the KonMari method and highly recommend this to anyone and everyone.