Sisterhood Agenda

How Marie Kondo Sparks Joy Into Our Lives

Carline
Latest posts by Carline (see all)

Who is Marie Kondo?

Photo Credit: Seth Wenig/AP, Shutterstock

Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant who is the author of the bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Her book is now a popular Netflix show, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” which became a worldwide hit.  As a result, people are documenting their fanaticism for KonMari on social media platforms.

And now, “decluttering” is a thing.

In the show, on every episode, she helps one group, family, or a couple to organize and categorize their entire house, resulting in more space and being neatly organized.

The first thing that she does after greeting the household owners:  she sits on the floor in the center of the house and bows her head. It is her way of expressing gratitude and greeting the house and informing it of her presence.

Furthermore, she then assesses the entire house.  However, she will not do the work for you.  Instead, she will teach you something that you can use forever.

The skill of tidying up

Photo Credit: Seth Wenig/AP, Shutterstock

She starts on the bedroom and will ask you to take all your clothes out of your closet and put it all in one pile, usually on the bed.

The next step would be, you would have to hold your clothes one by one and feel it t see if it still sparks joy for you.

 

Thus, the birth of the famous line “Does it spark joy?”

If it does, you can keep it.

Otherwise, you can put them on a pile of the clothes that you will discard later on.

She also teaches the household on how to fold using the Konmari method, how to organize your pantry, your cupboard, basically everything! Her organization skills also includes your garage.

The participants in the show apply the Konmari method for 5 days in their entire house.  On the 5th day, Marie Kondo visits them to see the epic transformation. According to the participants, it feels like a huge veil has been lifted.

It is the start of a new beginning

With our incredibly busy lives, it has always been a struggle to keep everything in place. This is especially true  if you have kids running around.

Marie Kondo creates a system that you can follow.  Like an Angel that is Heaven-sent, she teaches you how to grab your stress and put it away.

People have also discovered that you can use the Konmari method in different aspects of your life to achieve peace and joy.

What is the Konmari Method?

It is a minimalism-inspired approach to tackling your stuff by category instead of room-by-room.

There are six basic rules to get started:

  1. Commit to tidying up
  2. Imagine your ideal lifestyle
  3. Express gratitude in each item for serving its purpose
  4. Tidy by category, not location
  5. Follow the correct order (nostalgia is not your friend, you need to let go)
  6. Ask yourself if it sparks joy

Here are the 5 Categories arranged in order.

  1. Clothes
  2. Books
  3. Papers
  4. Komono (miscellaneous items)
  5. Sentimental items

Marie Kondo is incredibly busy building her organizational empire but did you know that you can hire one of her consultants to tidy your house? They received specialized training and received different certifications levels and each level costs differently.

Apply the Konmari method to other aspects of your life

The true essence of the Konmari method is being happy with what you already have and remove the clutter from your life.  The clutter could be emotional clutter, among other things.

Digital Possessions

How’s your drive folder? Does it prompt you that you are out of space? Do insignificant files populate your folders? Then, apply the Konmari method. You can start by deleting what’s no longer needed, organize your folders with proper labels. Organize your emails using folders and subfolders, delete your spam and trash folders. As a result, you won’t see your emails scattered on your screen when you log in.

Career

Do you feel inspired when going to work? Does it still spark joy for you? Do you still feel motivated? If you’re dreading to go to work and it feels like a burden, reevaluate your current situation and apply the Konmari method. For example, you can change departments or move to another industry, or make a total career shift.  Your work life has to be fulfilling and makes you happy.

Love and Relationship

Do you have friends that rather pull you down than nurture you? Do you have friends and relatives you don’t enjoy spending time with? Are they sucking the life out of you like a toxic gas? Life is short to waste your time with people that are not good for your well-being. Cut out toxic people in your life and start building relationships that nurture your soul and gives you joy.

The same principles can be applied to social media: cut out toxic people in your friend lists that cause you stress. Don’t feed the trolls.

Physical and Mental Health

Health is wealth. Don’t neglect it because it highly impacts other areas of your life.  Instead, look for hobbies that spark joy for your well-being, physically and mentally. Don’t dwell on past burdens as it does not spark joy.

Money and Finances

It can only spark joy if you have clarity of your finances, investments, and savings. Unnecessary spending, impulsive buying, or spending beyond your means and acquiring huge amounts of debt does not spark joy.  If you have this problem, it’s best to seek a professional to bring clarity in this aspect.  Clearly, secure finances and financial freedom sparks joy.

Habits

Are you spending too much time binge-watching television and you forget to exercise or meditate? Do you feel like you don’t enjoy doing it anymore? Evaluate your routines and look for things you want to improve which would be good for you. Discover joyful habits.

The Konmari teaches us that we should disregard things in our life that no longer bring us joy, that life is short to hold on to things, removing the clutter in our life will bring us peace and tranquility.

More space in our home and more space in our lives can bring absolute joy and we could focus more on self-growth and self-discovery.

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