The Simple Art Of De-Cluttering By Maria Kondo

de-cluttering is good for our health

Creating simplicity in your home is one of the most invaluable qualities you can embrace. It gives your life clarity and freedom from unnecessary pressure.

We all lead busy lives, and over time our homes steadily become cluttered with things. It overstimulates our system causing our senses to work overtime on stimuli that aren’t necessary or important. It also distracts us from what our focus should be on.

Did you know that clutter makes it more difficult to relax, both physically and mentally?

Maria Kondo is the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising, she has driven a de-cluttering revolution around the world.

Kondo’s simple philosophy is different from your typical cleaning methods, which prioritize getting rid of as much unwanted stuff as you can. Instead, it focuses less on merely throwing things away, and more on establishing consciousness amongst the items you own so you can create a space in which you only keep items that “spark joy.” A personal sanctuary, if you will.

Maria kondo’s 6 basic rules of tidying

“The tidying process you are about to embark on is not about decluttering your house or making it look neat on the spur of the moment for visitors. Rather, you are about to tidy up in a way that will spark joy in your life and change it forever.”

1. COMMIT YOURSELF TO TIDYING UP

The KonMari Method of de-cluttering requires you to spend time and discipline but it’s one of the most satisfying jobs. All you need to do is to apply the right method.

2. IMAGINE YOUR IDEAL LIFESTYLE

Think about what kind of house you want to live in and how you want to live in it. Describe your ideal lifestyle. Look at Pinterest for inspiration and make a board for each space.

According to Maria Kondo when you imagine your ideal lifestyle, you are actually clarifying why you want to tidy and identifying the kind of life you want to live once you have finished. The tidying process thus represents a huge turning point in a person’s life. So seriously consider the ideal lifestyle to which you aspire.

3. FINISH DISCARDING FIRST

One characteristic of people who never seem to finish tidying up is that they attempt to store everything without getting rid of anything. When things are put away, a home will look neat on the surface, but if the storage units are filled with unnecessary items, it will be impossible to keep them organized, and this will inevitably lead to a relapse.

The key to success in tidying is to finish discarding first. You can only plan where to store your things and what to store them in once you’ve decided what to keep and what to discard, because only then will you have an accurate grasp of how much actually needs to be stored.

Thinking about where to store things, or worrying about whether you can fit everything in, will only distract you from the job of discarding, and you will never finish. That would be a terrible waste; so instead, consider any storage solutions made during the discarding process as temporary and focus all your attention on sorting the next category. This is the secret to getting the job done quickly.

4. TIDY BY CATEGORY, NOT BY LOCATION

One of the most common de-cluttering mistakes people make is to tidy room by room. This approach doesn’t work because people think they have tidied up when in fact they have only shuffled their things around from one location to another or scattered items in the same category around the house, making it impossible to get an accurate grasp of the volume of things they actually own.

The correct approach is to tidy by category. This means tidying up all the things in the same category in one go. For example, when tidying the clothes category, the first step is to gather every item of clothing from the entire house in one spot. This allows you to see objectively exactly how much you have.

Confronted with an enormous mound of clothes, you will also be forced to acknowledge how poorly you have been treating your possessions. It’s very important to get an accurate grasp of the sheer volume for each category.

5. FOLLOW THE RIGHT ORDER

It is crucial not only to tidy by category but also to follow the correct order

Clothes, books, papers, komono (miscellany), and finally, sentimental items.