If you binge watch on Netflix, then you have surely seen the show, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo. But long before the show aired on Netflix, Marie Kondo has since made a name for herself with her must-have books, Spark Joy and the best-seller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, which earned praises from Oprah to Kate Hudson, and probably from your friends and family, too.
Marie Kondo has since dramatically transformed the lives of different people both on and off cam. The tidying guru in Japan demonstrates to us how to show love for the things that we own and how to effortlessly organize our homes in order to live a clutter-free and blissful life.
Marie Kondo’s method, Konmari, is a cultural phenomenon that will inspire you to organize not only your home but also your perception in life. Since StyleGenie knows how beautiful it is to live a minimalist lifestyle, read on how to become a “Konvert,” and discover the seven powerful lessons we can learn from Marie Kondo as she teaches us the joy of living a clean and organized home and life.
What Sparks Joy in You?
According to Marie Kondo, we should identify the items that we want to keep instead of what we want to get rid of because every item that we own should bring us joy. Joy is the heart of her philosophy in her best-selling book. When you start your purging of items, hold the item you’re planning to get rid of and ask yourself the question, “Does this bring me joy?” Along with this question is whether you will use the item or not. After all the cleaning and organizing you will do, you will then be surrounded solely by the things that spark joy in you.
Give Respect to Your Belongings
While many of us think that our belongings are just inanimate objects which don’t have feelings, Marie Kondo lets us think otherwise and challenges us to be considerate of their feelings. This is why Marie Kondo greets with gratitude a house she’s going to help clean in Tidying Up With Marie. She goes on to prove the fact that having a roof over your head is already a blessing to be thankful for. Marie Kondo asks us to reflect on the feelings of our things by looking at them. As you survey your things, ask yourself if your sweater that’s squashed in the bottom of your drawer feels happy or not. By doing so, you’d be honoring your belongings.
It’s About Categories and Not Rooms
Almost all of us are so used to cleaning by rooms. Marie Kondo does a different approach. Start the tidying process by dealing with like objects first and with the least sentimental value. Marie Kondo advises us to start with clothes because they’re the least emotionally loaded followed by books and papers, then old photographs. Pile them all up in order to start the sorting process. This method is not only easier, but it also makes sense.
The Ultimate Closet Purge
To begin the ultimate purge, gather every piece of the same item category you have and put them in one heap of a pile. Marie Kondo advises that we start with a prayer before digging through the mountain of items we need to sort. Experience freedom whenever you get rid of items that don’t spark joy in you. Then give those items that you have gotten rid of to others so that they may, hopefully, find joy in them.
Unfriend Nostalgia
Purging is not easy. This is why Marie Kondo advises us to put our blinders on when we are purging items in order for us to truly identify the items we actually need and bring us joy. Be on guard for nostalgia as it can derail and even delay again our cleaning process.
Fold and Don’t Hang
Get rid of those hangers because you won’t really be needing them with the Konmari method of folding. Marie Kondo introduces to us the special vertical folding technique for our clothes including linen and sheets. An item should be able to stand by itself when folded vertically. By doing so, it will be easier to spot for any item that you need in your closet. Plus, your items won’t get messed up easily. In the end, your clothes will look like a fabric origami that neatly lines your drawers and small containers, which Marie Kondo encourages us to use in order to keep everything nifty and tucked in. Do organize your items according to category. This means that all like items should be kept together. Putting on labels on containers also helps.
Gratitude
After all the purging and cleaning, you will eventually feel that your life is much lighter because there is a breathing room for every piece of item that you own. And with a lighter disposition, you’ll be channeling in joy, love, and most especially gratitude not only for yourself and other people but also for your things because they all spark joy in you.
StyleGenie would like you to experience this minimalist kind of lifestyle by offering you only the specially curated pieces that you need in order to stay fashion forward without cluttering your closet.
So start anew in life by creating a Style Profile. Use my code AZA4SG for that P500 discount on your first box of style that hopefully will spark joy in you upon opening it.
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