“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.
