Have you ever decluttered a room or wardrobe only to find that the clutter returns a week later… frustrating isn’t it?

Marie Kondo’s KonMari Method™

helps to break this clutter cycle using a step-by-step process to guide you through decluttering and organising your home. If you’ve put off ‘sorting out’ your home as you’ve felt overwhelmed or not known where (or how) to get started, then the KonMari Method™

may be the answer. It can make a real difference to how you view your belongings and your home, enabling you to tidy up once and for all.

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5 steps to tidy and clutter free home

Follow these simple steps from the KonMari Method™ to guide you to a tidy and clutter-free home:

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1. Set aside time to declutter and organise

Not everyone enjoys decluttering as much as I do (!) but if you’ve decided to get organised it’s a good idea to set aside some blocks of time where so you can get on with decluttering without distractions. You don’t need to be doing it all day every day, following these steps for a few hours every week will start to make a difference to your home.

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2. Imagine your Ideal Lifestyle

Before emptying out your cupboards take some time to think about what you want to achieve through decluttering your space – make it as real as possible to motivate you to get started and keep going when it gets messy! Key questions to ask yourself are:

• Why do you want to declutter and organise your home?
• How do you want your home to look and feel?
• What do you enjoy doing in your spare time and what gets in the way of that?

Knowing what you’re aiming to achieve helps you decide what you want to keep in your home as you declutter, there’s no need to keep things that don’t fit with your vision.

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3. Declutter by Category Rather than decluttering room by room

With the KonMari Method™ you declutter by category (eg: clothes, books, shoes, toiletries):

• Collect all the items from a category together in one place so you can see everything you own in one place at the same time (for example gather all your tops together on your bed).
• Decluttering by category enables you to see the volume of what you own, identify duplicate items and things you’d forgotten about. This makes it easier to make informed decisions about what to keep or discard.
• Start with the easiest category. Marie Kondo recommends starting with clothes, books, paperwork etc and leaving sentimental objects like photos and memorabilia to the end. You can download your decluttering checklist here.
• Start small! Don’t empty the contents of your wardrobe on to your bed in one go, start with your tops, then do trousers, dresses an underwear.

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4. Does it Spark Joy?

Rather than looking for items to discard, with the KonMari Method™ you focus on making positive choices about keeping possessions that you love and fit with your Ideal Lifestyle. Things that don’t past the test are shown gratitude and then let go. This helps you create a home that is full of things that you love and that have a purpose.

• You’ll have some favourite clothes that you love wearing, and will discover that items around home also make you feel that spark of positivity – your favourite mug, pair of shoes, toiletries or photos. This can also apply to more functional items that you can appreciate for the role that they play in our lives.

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5. Finish discarding before buying new storage

Don’t worry about buying new storage until you’ve decluttered and know what you need to organise – it’s always a good idea to check your organisation system works before spending lots on fancy baskets or containers.

Top storage tips:

• When considering where to store things it’s a good idea to ask yourself where you’d look for it and go from there.
• Store similar things together and avoid scattered storage.
• If you can store something upright and folded it’s usually a better use of space.

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KonMari isn’t Minimalism

The KonMari Method™ is a mindful way to declutter and organise your home and is not about becoming a Minimalist. It helps you to become more aware of what you own, making sure that you need and love what you have in your home. There’s no guidance on how much you should keep or discard, if something Sparks Joy, keep it with confidence.

Once I’d finished my tidying I found my home so much easier to manage and keep on top of everyday life. That’snot to say it doesn’t get messy when family life ‘happens’ – it just means that it’s so much easier to tidy up and put everything away again.

Learn more about the author here

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