KonMari Method / Organization / Decluttering

I thought it might be helpful to some of the folks on a no buy to have a place to talk about the KonMari method.  I assume that many of you who are trying to buy less are doing so because the amount of stuff you have acquired through subscription boxes or shopping has become overwhelming.  Has anyone read the book?  If so, did you try it?  How did it go, especially when you got to the makeup and skincare sections?

I am still trying to get my house in a place where I can officially start the KonMari method, but if people are interested, I will post my progress here.  I think it would be hugely inspirational if any of you who are on a similar mission would post your before and after pictures here.

For those of you not familiar, the method is laid out in Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  Here are some of the highlights for those of you who don't want to read the book:

- Don't declutter by room, declutter by category

- Gather every single item from a single category from the entire house and put it in a pile on the floor (the thought is that you will realize how many duplicates you have or just the sheer volume and it will get you in the mood to purge)

- Go through it as quickly as you can, discarding anything that doesn't "spark joy" (it's supposed to be a very quick process, and you are supposed to not stop with any one category until it is completely done)

- Discard first, then organize

- Theoretically this is something you only have to do once, and you will never be untidy again

She has a specific order that you are supposed to do for the categories, and specific tips for each category like how to fold your clothes.

Here are some pictures from my closet cleanout.  I got rid of 3 bags of clothes plus shipped a box of maternity clothes to a friend.  And that wasn't even me going full konmari, it was just part of me organizing my house so I can do the konmari later.  I need to pre-organize because my stuff is EVERYWHERE - most of my clothes weren't even hung up in the closet.  So embarrassing.

Not gonna lie, that moment when you see your closet completely empty and look at your giant pile of crap is kind of terrifying.  I was like WHAT HAVE I DONNNNNNEEEEE?



Even though I need to go a few more rounds with purging to get down to my desired level of clothing, it's been so nice having everything hung up and a completely bare closet floor:



Hopefully we can get a group of like-minded individuals together to keep each other going - I would love some support on this!

Oh and you don't have to be doing the KonMari method exactly to play along, any decluttering or organization pics are welcome!  I just love seeing other people's progress to make me more motivated!

This is so great! Thank you so much for posting! I've been wanting to read the book and still haven't. This inspired me to read it. I've been trying to cut back on subscriptions and I'm currently on no buy because of too much clutter and financial reason (my kids need things more than I do cosmetics /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20"> ). Not too long ago I went through my skin care and makeup and got it all organized. Now I'm back to things piling up everywhere. I want to get organized again. The problem is I've been obsessed with cosmetics since I was 12 and don't think that will ever change. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20"> I just need to get my things organized and keep them that way. With Holiday sets coming and all these cool new makeup and skin care items being released continuously, it's going to be hard to stay organized but I'll try. I like to call it organized chaos. Like what my desk looks like right now, makeup and skin care everywhere. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20"> 

YES, the holiday sets are going to be a problem - so many Sephora favorites sets are in the works that I want!  But I know I have more than one person can already use and that there will always be another set so I am getting in the mindset to USE before I SPEND.  Something has to change! 

I like the Use before Spend idea, now if I could just stick to that /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20"> I'm going to have to try hard.

I'm doing a konmari cleanup, but slowly. 

The advice to start with a category rather than a location did not work for me. For example, at some point I need to clean out the boxes in the garage. I have no idea what's in them, so I can't guess what category the items would fall into. I have other spaces like that too – I may not know the exact contents of a closet or what might be tucked away under a bed. It wasn't practical to pull out everything from every space just to ensure that every last sock got organized with the rest of my clothes. So I do go by room and then category, which may be slower, but it works better for me. 

The most useful part was about letting go of things. It helped to take a moment to acknowledge that something may have had a place in my past, but doesn't have a place in my future. And that keeping something that was a waste of money will not bring that money back. I took photos of some items I wanted to remember but not keep. I got rid of all kinds of stuff. 

I have many areas of the house left to go through, but konmari has helped a lot with the areas I use most. I have hardly cleaned at all since then. Of course I still do laundry and throw out trash, dust a bit... but I rarely find myself having to clean up a mess. In fact, I can't even remember the last time, whereas I think I used to spend a lot of time just tidying up before. My living space is always neat, and I almost don't remember what it was like before. However, I don't have kids – one of the big criticisms of konmari is that she doesn't give enough advice for people with kids. 

I did throw out lots and lots of subscription box items. It surprised me when I picked something up to realize that it may be unused, but I got it over two years ago and it's probably expired. In my mind, I felt like I'd just got the thing and would get to using it 'soon'. I bought a nail polish organizer and threw out anything that didn't fit – if I want to add a new polish, something else has to go. I still have a lot of beauty products compared to women who don't get subs, but it's far less than I started with. Also, the items left are the ones I'm really excited about trying. 

I try to declutter every month, there are things that I started doing on regular basis to avoid stocking.

Because I stock in every category even food, I just like to have plenty of all /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Every month I sort everybody's clothing and try to discard one or two bags (small bags) with what is old, not pretty anymore, have stains, holes, not worn for ages. I sort everything that is stocked in piles, just washed or worn and not put in wash (with children I can do that all day long).

Clothing is also a problem here, I like shopping and buy lots of things, but don't wear them all, because they are nice in shops and difficult to match sometimes. I think back about my pregnancies as the most calm period in shopping, I just wore same things every day. 

The last week on the month I try to sort cupboards, the food stock left should be eaten before we carry on shopping (conserves, frozen food and dry food like noodles, rice and porridge), well we buy vegetables and meat to top up our meals /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

I avoid keeping cooked food in freezer, we will not eat it. 

I through any ad, paper or letters that are not useful every day. I try to get all garbage out every day, even if bags are not full. 

I sort up all books and toys for broken or torn ( if I can I repair them, if not ... bye bye) I try not to buy children books every week ( we go to library and borrow), toys are reserved for occasions (birthday and christmas, or less occasions /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />) 

I sell things we don't need, on local mum forum, I sold lots of books recently, not for money but to get some place in mine. 

I try to finish the most of my products - even if they don't give the the full satisfaction, only those which give me pimples are rarely kept. Hopefully, I am not make up addict or nail varnish addict, only skincare obsessed /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />