The Life-Changing Magic or Tidying up

Would you like to have a little less stuff?

Do you even experience a bit of Stuffocation or do you just get a bit more rest in your head, just like me, if it is not too full or messy around you? But do you not know where you should start or do you see it? Cleanup guru Marie Kondo knows what to do.

kirschassociates.com

Marie Kondo is a happy, young, Japanese lady who only wears neat suits and takes her work very seriously. Call it a gift or a deviation, but she has made a real business out of her above-average clean-up and organization talent. In 2011 she wrote the book The Life-Changing Magic or Tidying up about her own background, experiences with customers and her plan of approach that she developed over time. I only knew her from the phrase does it spark joy? and wondered what else she had to say.

She is a bit weird. As a child, Kondo already cleaned up daily. First her room, later also at school. Her family members were not so neat. She was so fanatical that she secretly hid their stuff to be able to throw it away as soon as she noticed that nobody missed it. But she kept organizing everything every time, until she finally found out that she had to prevent that mess from occurring. The answer was in having less stuff.

konmari.com

Customers of Kondo are often people who were completely shot through having stuff, but even if it is not that bad for you, you could recognize some of it. We are also used to buying stuff if you need something once or like it. Meanwhile, we keep ourselves busy with work, family, friends and other things.
The stuff accumulates unnoticed and ultimately we have a lot of what we almost never use. How many of the bread baking machines sold would still be used regularly? There is nothing wrong with the stuff itself, but an abundance ensures that we always have to organize, so that it still fits in our house without us tripping over it.

The method of Kondo is therefore also aimed at eventually going through life with a lot less stuff. Buying much less new stuff is one side of the story, how you get rid of what you already have is the side that Kondo knows how to handle. As befits a real organizational trip, she has a step-by-step plan that must be followed very strictly. Only then will you succeed in clearing up and not falling back into your old messed up with clutter, I dramatize it, life pattern.

Step 1: Make an event out of tidying up

If you clean up a little every day, you will continue to clean up forever. Go rigorously at once and do not try to adapt the method to your busy, lazy or picky character. Do not rely on space, but by category.

Step 2: Start by disposing of stuff

Gradually cleaning up does not work, because that costs too much energy. A quick change will have a big effect on your mentality change. With many customers of Kondo, however, 'as soon as possible' often takes about six months to complete. Anyway, those are the crisis cases I think.

Clearly per category. If you have clothes or books in different rooms, you do not get a good overview of what you have. Collect all items from that category and place them on the floor. This forces you to take every item in your hands and assess it.

Step 3: Follow a specific clean-up sequence

Collect each item per category before you start sorting. So you first see how many shoes or books you actually have. Do not be put off if your stacks are confrontingly large, because this is exactly why you started it.

Start with clothes, bags and shoes. Divide this into subcategories if necessary to make it more manageable. Kondo recommends this order: shirts and sweaters, trousers and skirts, jackets and suits, socks, underwear, bags, accessories, occasional clothing (sportswear, swimwear, uniforms) and shoes. Downgrading clothing to lounge clothing is not allowed by Kondo. Oops, recognizable. Jogging pants that are barely doped, but are so soft and warm. I also always have an outfit to paint in, even if there is already one in the wash.

Step 4: Cleaning up the stuff you keep

Give everything a permanent place. Every night I unpack my bag and thank you for the services of that day, I obviously do not really do, but always put everything in the same place, helps in keeping your house organized and then you never have to clean up again. You could see the consistent repositioning of stuff as clearing up, but I think that if you can make a habit of it, it will ultimately cost you a lot less effort than when you have to carry out overdue maintenance from time to time.

Do not learn to organize too well, because then you get too much stuff in your drawer or cabinet. Keep it simple. Keep things from the same category together and keep items from different people separate.

Do not make stacks, because you can not achieve the bottom things very well. Moreover, your bottom sweater will be unhappy and you will not want to wear such a miserable item of clothing. Garments must be folded according to certain instructions and roots must be upright in the refrigerator.

The idea is that after cleaning up it should be easier to keep your house tidy and because we are happier with our finest items there is less tendency to buy new things. I do wonder if the average Dutch person does not get things unnoticed again, because we have not changed life changing, and after a few years later, the fact that cabinets are beginning to explode again. We would then benefit from not only thinking about what it means for us, but about doing it spark joy? also apply when we are in the shop with something new in our hands.

The book itself reads like a train. It is as well-organized and concise as Kondo's clean-up plan. The almost childlike simplicity may well ensure that you are more convinced that it is a feasible method. I will no longer read successor Spark joy. The book seems to contain quite a few repetitions according to reviews.

I found my inspiration @ konmari.com and zaailingen.com