A Professional Organiser Investigates The Marie Kondo Way
Not sure what decluttering the KonMari way is really about beyond keeping items that spark joy? Read on
The KonMari method is all the rage again, prompting many across the world, including Singapore, to declutter. If you’ve missed her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and her series on Netflix, Tidying up with Marie Kondo, here’s a summary of the key principles of the KonMari method.
As someone whose job is to help others declutter and get organised, I’ve added my own views and some alternatives to help you decide whether this is the best method for you.
As someone whose job is to help others declutter and get organised, I’ve added my own views and some alternatives to help you decide whether this is the best method for you.
In fact, Australian professional organiser, author and TV show host Peter Walsh had already written in his book It’s All Too Much first published in 2006: “The key to getting – and staying – organised is to look beyond the stuff and imagine the life you could be living”.
Konmari Principle: Discard first, organise second
This principle too makes a lot of sense. There’s no point really in organising things you won’t be keeping. And it’s only once you’ve decluttered that you can decide the optimum location and storage system for the things you’ve decided to keep.
This principle too makes a lot of sense. There’s no point really in organising things you won’t be keeping. And it’s only once you’ve decluttered that you can decide the optimum location and storage system for the things you’ve decided to keep.
This principle is common to the various methodologies that have been developed over the years by long-established professional organisers such as Julie Morgenstern’s SPACE (Sort, Purge, Assign a home, Containerise, Equalise) or Sara Pedersen’s PEACE (Process and Sort, Edit the clutter, Assign a Home, Containerise and label, Ensure success).
Konmari Principle: Discard all at once, intensely and completely
This principle is not always realistic, in my humble opinion. If, like many, your clutter is the result of years of accumulation, discarding it is unlikely to be a one-time affair. Think about all the stuff you’re going to have to face and all the decisions you’re going to have to make and that you may have been postponing for years. It can be overwhelming and result in decision fatigue! Under the pressure to discard, you might make decisions you might eventually regret and that might even paralyse you.
This principle is not always realistic, in my humble opinion. If, like many, your clutter is the result of years of accumulation, discarding it is unlikely to be a one-time affair. Think about all the stuff you’re going to have to face and all the decisions you’re going to have to make and that you may have been postponing for years. It can be overwhelming and result in decision fatigue! Under the pressure to discard, you might make decisions you might eventually regret and that might even paralyse you.
On the other hand, if you start small and let go of the stuff you really feel confident of letting go of, without any pressure, you’ll build your decluttering muscle, learn to make tougher and tougher decisions and let go of stuff you thought you’d have never been able to let go of.
Konmari Principle: Sort by category, not by location
Although it may be overwhelming to see how much clothes, stationery or kitchen utensils you own, sorting by category is an eye-opener that will motivate you to act upon your clutter and help you decide what and how much you should keep. However, this principle won’t be practical if you have a large volume of stuff scattered in various areas of your home – some you can’t even remember or are not easily accessible – as you’ll have to scout around your home to find all the items belonging to the same category.
Although it may be overwhelming to see how much clothes, stationery or kitchen utensils you own, sorting by category is an eye-opener that will motivate you to act upon your clutter and help you decide what and how much you should keep. However, this principle won’t be practical if you have a large volume of stuff scattered in various areas of your home – some you can’t even remember or are not easily accessible – as you’ll have to scout around your home to find all the items belonging to the same category.
If you face this situation, I’d advise you to do a first round of decluttering going progressively through your home, room by room, area by area. At that stage, let go of the obvious such as the broken toys, the faded/stained/torn clothes, the old magazines and newspapers, the expired food and cosmetics etc. In the process, consolidate like items together and assign a home to each category. Once you’ve completed that first round, review each category, go through another round of decluttering, and if need be, relocate the category to a most suitable home.
Konmari Principle: Sort in the correct order – being clothes, books, documents, miscellaneous and sentimental items
There cannot be a one-size fits all order. It has to be the correct order for YOU. We all relate differently to stuff. I had a client who was extremely attached to her books and couldn’t imagine getting rid of any of them although she knew she had to. We had to tackle them towards the end of the decluttering process, otherwise it would have been a much longer and more tedious process.
There cannot be a one-size fits all order. It has to be the correct order for YOU. We all relate differently to stuff. I had a client who was extremely attached to her books and couldn’t imagine getting rid of any of them although she knew she had to. We had to tackle them towards the end of the decluttering process, otherwise it would have been a much longer and more tedious process.
Think about those criteria to help you decide where to start:
- Your level of attachment to various categories of items. The lesser attachment you have, the easier it will be for you to let go and build momentum. If you have less attachment to your clothes than other categories of items, by all means, start there. Otherwise think about your kitchen. Or your desk. Or your store room.
- Your stress level in relation to some areas. It might be your bedroom because that’s the first thing you see when you open your eyes in the morning and the last when you close them at night.
- Your objectives for getting organised. If your aim is to be able to entertain at home, you may want to start in the living room. If it’s about easily putting a meal on the table, you may want to start in the kitchen.
Konmari Principle: Keep only those things that spark joy
That’s the one principle that, in my perspective, is really ground-breaking in the KonMari method. More traditional approaches tend to focus on letting go of stuff that we don’t love, need or use, that’s no longer in good or working condition etc. But focusing on the keeping instead of the letting go makes the whole decluttering experience more positive.
That’s the one principle that, in my perspective, is really ground-breaking in the KonMari method. More traditional approaches tend to focus on letting go of stuff that we don’t love, need or use, that’s no longer in good or working condition etc. But focusing on the keeping instead of the letting go makes the whole decluttering experience more positive.
But it doesn’t mean you have to let go of the entirety of the stuff that doesn’t spark joy either. Be practical, think about those pots and pans that you need to feed your family. Honour the memories and still keep those sentimental things belonging to your late husband or parent until it is the right timing to pass them onto your children.
Konmari Principle: Thank the items for having served their purpose
This principle may appeal to people who form strong emotional attachments to their stuff as it may help them let go more easily and have closure. It worked wonders on a teenage boy I worked with, but I must say that most of my clients don’t relate to this principle, and feel very awkward about thanking their items when we tried to apply this principle.
In my perspective, if you feel confident in your decisions about the stuff you decide to let go of, you won’t really need this ritual.
This principle may appeal to people who form strong emotional attachments to their stuff as it may help them let go more easily and have closure. It worked wonders on a teenage boy I worked with, but I must say that most of my clients don’t relate to this principle, and feel very awkward about thanking their items when we tried to apply this principle.
In my perspective, if you feel confident in your decisions about the stuff you decide to let go of, you won’t really need this ritual.
TELL US
Have you been decluttering your home using the KonMari method? How has it worked for you?
Have you been decluttering your home using the KonMari method? How has it worked for you?
This principle makes a lot of sense. Getting organised is a means to an end, not an end in itself. You’re not getting organised for the sake of being organised, but maybe because you want to have more time for your family or for a course that will help you advance your career, or because you want to reduce stress from your life, or because you want to be debt-free etc. Visualising the outcome will give you the motivation to get started and to keep going when the going gets tough.