Tidying up with Marie Kondo has been a huge hit for Netflix, inspiring masses of Brits to organise their homes. If you don’t already know, Marie Kondo, is a brilliant Japanese decluttering guru that believes that tidying your home can improve your quality of life in a big way!
When the house is empty I like nothing more than making myself a nice cuppa and taking out everything out of my wardrobe and putting it all back beautifully. I also take the opportunity to clear out regularly – I can’t do it too often as I don’t buy much. I tend to buy quality not quantity, a trick my Nana taught me when I was younger, her mantra was “buy cheap buy twice” and I still stick to it.
But as I sit here after binging all 8 episodes I thought I’d share with you, what I think are the 7 best organising tips from Marie Kondo’s new Netflix series. So here goes…
1. Stay committed and know that there’s an end.
Don’t be discouraged if you see your room getting messier before it gets more organised
Since each household has their own concerns and collection of items, your process will look completely different from someone else’s. Depending on the amount of items you have it could take more than a month but try and remember that the time spent will be worth it and having that end goal in sight is usually helpful for keeping you and your family on task.
2. Follow the KonMari method without skipping steps.
Marie Kondo has developed six basic rules for tidying. These simple items are the foundation of her brand. If you apply them to your household, you may just see amazing results.
Marie Kondo’s six rules for tidying are:
- Commit yourself to tidying up.
- Imagine your ideal lifestyle.
- Finish discarding first.
- Tidy by category — not location.
- Follow the right order.
- Ask yourself if it sparks joy.
3. The idea of “sparking joy” might make you raise an eyebrow (I know it did for me!) but it can make a big difference to the way you tidy.
Think about the little things that truly give you a little spark of pleasure. Maybe it’s wearing your favourite outfit, or styling your hair a certain way. That’s the feeling Marie Kondo encourages everyone to look for when they’re sorting through their household items.
If you hold a piece of clothing in your hands and you feel that joy because you remember how good it looks on you, go ahead and keep it. But if it never fit right in the first place, or is the wrong color for your skin tone, it’s probably better off finding a new home. This idea applies to toys, DVDs, kitchen utensils, tools and almost anything else in your home.
We sort of already do this, as you know when you’re shopping and you can’t decide, well we don’t buy it if you don’t love it. But if we get it home and it’s not been used or worn within 2 weeks it goes back!
4. Make sure everything in your home has its own home to go back to.
When you walk in the door after a long day of work or running errands, having a place to hang up your coat, store your shoes, and place your bag can make a huge difference. Kondo suggests trying to find a certain home for everything within your home.
5. Keep like items together by size in drawers.
In your kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, using smaller boxes inside your drawers to store similar items together can make staying tidy a lot easier!
6. Store things in a way that you can see them.
If you’re putting your items into closed boxes on shelves, try to use clear boxes so you can see what’s inside. This will help you avoid buying multiples of the same thing because you don’t remember that you already have it. Clear storage bins are especially handy for this.
7. Store things you use more often in easier to reach places and things you only use once in a while in harder to reach places.
For example, store your everyday dishes on the eye-level shelves of your kitchen cabinets and store any special or seasonal dishes up high or down low in those more difficult-to-reach locations. That way, you can utilise all your storage space in a sensible, liveable way.
I hope that you find these steps from Marie Kondo useful on your path to a tidier, more organised and clutter free life!
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Hugs,
Linda