Marie Kondo urges us to adhere to the acronym YODO - in other words, You Only De-Clutter Once; at least, you only de-clutter once if you do it properly. To assist, she walks the reader through the process that can seem a little daunting and difficult if you are not Marie Kondo and you have not been practicing the art of de-cluttering for almost thirty years.
Tidying up - really tidying up, not just throwing errant items into a closet when you have people coming over in order to give the illusion of an organized home - is a process that Kondo maintains the majority of people tend to over-complicate. However, it can be made simple by asking just a few easy questions; what is this object for? Has it already fulfilled its purpose? Why do I have it? When did I get it? How did it get in my house? For example, a kitchen appliance that is still in the box has likely not fulfilled its purpose yet, but if it has been hanging around the house un-used for a very long time, it is likely that it needs to be re-homed in order to do that moving forward.
Go from easy items to more difficult ones when deciding what you are going to keep. De-cluttering KonMarie style boils down to analyzing the relationship between you and every item in your home and deciding whether or not they "spark joy". For example, you have a different relationship with the new pasta maker on your kitchen counter than you do with the pin that you won at summer camp when you were seven years old. Possessions can sometimes trigger memories that remind us why we are friends with people; that postcard a friend sent you in grade school will spark enormous joy because it might be the foundation upon which a lifetime of sisterhood is built, and should therefore be kept. Anything that can center you in a relationship with a person, or remind you of a time that was special and joyous, should be kept and nurtured because they will continue to add positivity to your life. This is why Kondo has a different set of questions that should be asked when considering personal, nostalgic items, rather than functional ones. Does this thing make me happy when I see it, hold it or hear it? Do I look at it on a regular basis?
Some relationships with things, just like relationships with some people, are more complicated and intense. This is why Kondo suggests beginning the de-cluttering process with items that are more functional than emotional; begin with pots, pans, electronics and clothes - you will need to keep some things that don't exactly spark joy (nobody really finds joy in their can opener or their vacuum cleaner) but are nonetheless necessary to your daily existence. Items that have clear purpose have inherent value and are therefore things that should be kept.
Sorting through photographs, letters and memorabilia should be saved until the end of the de-cluttering process. For one thing you will have hit your stride by then and have more of a clear idea of what is going to spark joy in the long run. You will also have more time to consider each item carefully. Anything that was fundamental to making you the person you have become should be kept. Memorabilia that you were a participant in making - a packet of letters from a penpal who became a lifelong friend, for example - is important. Other memorabilia should be thanked for its service, and you should dispose of it and move on.
The majority of people do not even start to de-clutter because it sounds like an uphill task - think dragging an elephant up a mountain. Kondo begs to differ; it takes on average just six hours for her to de-clutter a client's house. This might be due in part to the fact that she has absolutely no emotional connection to any of the items in it, and when we de-clutter it takes longer because not only do we consider the importance of each item in our lives, we also start to walk down memory lane with the memories as well. Kondo also maintains that de-cluttering can be a fun and life-affirming process, not a sad or stressful one.
Once the bulk of the de-cluttering has occurred, the more onerous part of the task is behind you, and there is also a new mindset that emerges within the de-clutterer. Living space is clear and clean and this is a deterrent for future unnecessary purchases which will only start to clutter the place up again.
