I embarked in a journey to simplify my life. One journey that is filled with what matters to my happiness and to the happiness of my family. One journey that made me reconsider the amount of stuff we buy. One journey towards getting rid of the things I don’t use or enjoy anymore. One journey surrounded by what makes my life better.
Simplify my life starts with the everyday. Like many of you, looking for stuff in our home or the mess are a source of small family disputes. They are unnecessary irritants in our life. The solution: finishing up the little things that bother us and tidying our home once and for all.
What’s my plan?
The quickest part is taken care of unfinished projects around the house. There are only a few but some depend on getting rid of stuff.
So the first order of business is decluttering my house. I’m not just talking about the type of decluttering that you do at spring cleaning. I’m talking about something more drastic. Something more tidy. Something like Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizing consultant, does for her clients and shared on her two books.
In my opinion, the key differentiator in Marie Kondo’s approach is how she declutters by category instead of by location.
In my opinion, the key differentiator in Marie Kondo’s approach is how she declutters by category instead of by location. Forget doing one shelf, one closet or one room at a time. With the KonMari method, you start by sorting all your clothes. You decide what to keep after you gathered all the clothes spread across your home. Once you’re tidied your clothes, you move to the next category, books and so on. Kondo came up with this method because doing one room or closet at a time doesn’t properly address the problem. I believe she’s right. Her method provides you a true picture of what you keep. You need to know what you have to properly organise and store your belongings. I’ll give her method a try and keep you posted on my progress.
As for her two books, the content of Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing is quite similar. Read the reviews and determine which one is more suitable for you. If in doubts, go with her latest book, Spark Joy. That’s what I did! To keep my space tidy, I bought the Kindle edition.
+ photo credits: Marie Kondo on Instagram
