Home Organizing Endeavors: Five Decluttering Techniques We Can Learn from Marie Kondo

“For the longest time, I thought I needed to be more organized. Now I know I just needed less stuff”-Author Unknown

If someone told me that a show about sprucing up and organizing homes would be such a hit series, I would dismiss them as raving lunatics.

And yet here we are, craving for the next season of Netflix’s innovative, albeit unconventional series: Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Capitalizing on her book series (and presently, TV series) Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant who shows us alternative home organizing methods that do work. The fact that the series is such a big hit amongst homeowners can give us two key takeaways: Primarily that many homeowners struggle with the general mess and clutter in their holds. Secondly, alternative methods—no matter how unconventional-- do work. While Marie Kondo already made waves with her book, she garnered international acclaim and fame through her Netflix series and sent homeowners and netizens all over the world in a cleaning frenzy and a decluttering craze.

In sum, the book’s radical cleaning method can be broken down in a two-pronged approached to tidying. First, you have to take stock of everything you own which means you have to put your hands on everything that you own. Ask yourself whether a particular item sparks joy and if it does not, thank it for its service and get rid of it. Second, when everything that has remained sparks joy then put every item in a place where it is visible, accessible and easy to grab and put back. As a result, you will then experience the nirvana of housekeeping and may never have to clean again. So, if you have any cleaning endeavors lined up for the week, you might want to take a leaf out of Marie Kondo’s book and apply it in sprucing up your homes or your ready for occupancycondo in Ortigas. Here are some of the critical takeaways of her book that you can apply in your cleaning method:

Tackle categories, not rooms

In lieu of tackling clutter by room, do it by category instead. While this technique may seem more overwhelming than simply going room to room and getting rid of the clutter, it yields better results. Kondo’s first rule is to tidy by category. Deal with every single item in a category before you proceed to the next one. Start with the least emotionally loaded household item you have: your clothes. From there, you can work your way up until such time that your homes are devoid of unwanted items.

Respect your belongings

You might have been content seeing your clothes squashed together and looking like a general heap of messiness. Kondo’s technique is to consider your household belongings’ feelings: Do they like being mashed together? Are your clothes happy that they are being crowded onto hangers or that they have seemingly no space? It might not occur to you now, but it might just be that your things are seemingly discontent with the general disarray of everything.

Do not cling onto items because you are nostalgic

Nostalgia is not your friend. Yes, some items spark fond and nostalgic memories that make you reminisce of good times, but they are rarely worth it. Focus on only one category and do not get laid by sentimental feelings by recalling the good days you had with a particular household item. You might ask yourself what the point in purging your closets is. More importantly, you might even ask yourself if you can manage with little clothes. However, do not fret. While it might seem like a significantly big and sudden change, you will manage.

Fold. Do not hang

Once you have properly sorted all of the things you wish to keep and discarded the ones you wish to get rid of, it is time to organize what is left. More often than not, our first instinct when it comes to our clothes is to hang them immediately. However, hanging every article of clothing can quickly spiral down to having closets bursting at the seams with clothes. This is because hanging clothes takes less time than deliberately and meticulously folding them. However, Kondo suggests that you fold your clothes using her special technique which would not only save you space but would actually take you less time to complete as well.

Any box will do

A rather unfortunate occurrence that happens in most cleaning endeavors is that people would seem to think that the lack of appropriate storage is a setback which can really waylay your plans. But the truth is tidying up your home does have to mean several trips to the storage store and purchasing more storage items. Doing so would be counterintuitive and would only add to the clutter. Do not get hung up about the lack of storage space as practically any box will do. Marie Kondo even uses a shoebox to organize bedroom and bathroom items. Take note: If you need more storage items, you might have an unreasonable amount of clutter left behind.  

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