How to organize your closet marie kondo: Marie Kondo’s tips for organizing a closet are super easy

Protip – Get a wider basket to hold all unpackaged paper towels and toilet paper so that the entire house has access to it at all times. Organizing this way makes replenishment a breeze.

It’s in your best interest to make everything visible and easily accessible. Everyday items should be up front, while seasonal items – such as beach towels should be stored on the top or bottom shelves. Try not to line items tightly packed on shelves and always leave some space to allow linens to breathe.

Remember, style is good, function is better. If you need to hang some towel racks on the inside of your door to make the space as practical and useful as possible.

PHOTO: Dear Lillie Studio

Recipe: How to Fold a Fitted Sheet (From Martha Stewart)

1. Stand holding the sheet by the two adjacent corners of one of the shorter edges. With the sheet inside out, place one hand in each of these two corners.

2. Bring your right hand to your left, and fold the corner in your right hand over the one in your left, enveloping it. Next, reach down and pick up the corner that is hanging in front; bring it up, and fold it over the two corners in your left hand; the corner that’s showing will be inside out.

3. Bring the last corner up, and fold it over the others; with its right side showing, it should envelop the other three corners.

4. Lay the folded sheet on a flat surface and straighten it into the shape shown.

5. Fold the two edges in so all the elastic is hidden.

6. Fold the sheet into a rectangle.

7. Continue folding until the rectangle is the size you want it to be.

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How to Declutter & Organize Clothing

In my last post, I explained how to get yourself in the best mindset for the KonMari process. If you’ve read that post and taken the tips on board, then you are ready to get started. Brace yourself—the fun is just beginning!

First up: the CLOTHING category. This covers clothing, shoes, loungewear, outerwear, fitness/swimwear, accessories and jewelry.

Related: KonMari Part One: 10 Tips to Prepare You for KonMari Success

(Be sure to pin this guide so you can refer back to it later!)

• How do I declutter and organize my clothing using the Konmari method?
• How long does it take to KonMari your clothing?
• How do I organize my clothing using the KonMari method?
• What clothing should you fold and what should you hang?
• How do you fold the Konmari way?
• What about my kids clothing? Should I bother to fold them the Konmari way?
• A word of caution: please avoid this trap
• Is our clothing still tidy?

How do I declutter and organize my clothing using the Konmari method?

The essence of the Konmari process is very simple: empty EVERYTHING out of your closets/dressers and dump it in one central place. (The bed makes most sense for this category.) Take each item one by one, and hold it. Ask yourself if it sparks joy. Are you excited about wearing it? If it’s a HECK YES, then keep it. If it’s a no, or a maybe, then put it aside to discard or donate. Keep working through the pile this way until you are finished. Try not to overthink decisions and move through the pile swiftly. When you decide to let go of things, cultivate a sense of gratitude for the item and the way it has served you in the past.

On our very first day of decluttering using the KonMari method, we tackled our own clothes which took the whole day. By the end of the day we had several large trash bags filled with donations, which surprised me, as I didn’t think we had much to donate in the first place.

On the second day, we had the kids go through their clothing. On the whole, they were much better at being decisive than we were, although my eldest daughter wanted to hold onto things that I knew she had no intention of wearing. I encouraged them to only keep clothes they truly loved to wear, and at the end they each had around 10-15 outfits left. Since I do laundry once a week, this seemed like a pretty good number to land on.

During the process, I found that there were a few recurring feelings that slowed me down: the feeling that something was going to waste (items in good condition/items that I paid a lot of money for), and the feeling of guilt when getting rid of items that had been bought for me by other people. (This was especially true of the jewelry category.) I had to make a decision there and then to go with my gut. If I truly loved it, it stayed. Otherwise, it was gone. I told myself that items were better off being used by someone else than gathering dust in my closet. This was initially very hard, but the lightness I felt after completing the process and opening a drawer that wasn’t stuffed full was addictive. This kind of momentum is key as it’s what keeps you going through the process.

Side note: the funniest part of this process was finding out the day after the Big Purge that my husband had gotten rid of ALL of his socks. Apparently he liked none of them. I rescued him with an emergency trip to the store and the thought of it made me laugh for DAYS.

How long does it take to KonMari your clothing?

This largely depends on how much clothing you own, and how much internal resistance you face in discarding items. I mentioned in the last post that I used to be a very tidy packrat. I was under the impression that we had a pretty modest amount, but once it was in a pile on the bed it definitely felt overwhelming. (I think the shock factor helps you let go of things and make hard decisions.)

In total we spent three days on this category—one day on our clothing, one day on the girls’ clothing (including their baby clothes) and one day folding and organizing, plus finding new homes for our donation pile.

How do I organize my clothing using the KonMari method?

Organizing clothing the KonMari way basically boils down to learning the skill of file folding. She advises storing most items of clothing in a dresser rather than on hangers, as you can store things more efficiently and use up less storage space than hanging everything.

Marie Kondo doesn’t see the need for clothes organizers. She believes that if you purge first and learn the basics of folding, you shouldn’t need any kind of special organizer. That being said, she does suggest using simple boxes for smaller or flimsy items that don’t stand up well by themselves. My favorite boxes are the IKEA STUK boxes because they are nice and shallow which works well in my dresser. I also like that it has divided compartments. If you don’t want to purchase anything, then a small cardboard box will work perfectly fine!

The other direction she gives for organizing clothing is arranging it from heavy/dark to light and rising from left to right. There’s a little bit of intuition involved in this step. I guess the reasoning is that it’s more aesthetically pleasing this way—and this whole process is about arranging your belongings in a way that brings joy. I was skeptical, but I have to say it does feel pretty good.

What clothing should you fold and what should you hang?

If an item will fold neatly into a rectangle and stand up by itself (think T-shirts, jeans, pyjamas, sweaters, socks…) then fold it. If it doesn’t fold easily (eg. button down shirts, flowy dresses, blazers) then hang it. The exception I found to this rule is workout clothing—because of the fabric it’s hard to get these items to stand up, so I use the IKEA boxes to keep it in order.

We happen to have the tiniest closet in the USA, so folding most of our clothing works really well for us. The only items hanging in our closet are shoes, dresses, button down shirts and formal wear. Oh, and yoga mats.

How do you fold the Konmari way?

Well, this is an entire blog post in itself! I watched many YouTube videos to get me started, but the truth is (and I know it’s annoying to hear) that you will figure it out as you go, and find out what works best for your clothing. Months on, I don’t even think about how I’m going to fold items—it’s habit. I know that my husband’s shirts work best with a fold in half and then thirds, whereas the girls’ T-shirts require a slightly different ratio to get them to stand up.

Finding that sweet spot that works for your clothing AND your storage space takes time to figure out, and there isn’t really a shortcut except for trying different folds yourself. But I will say that it’s worth persevering as it’s a great feeling to open a drawer of perfectly file folded clothing. It doesn’t get old!

To keep things concise and on track, I’m not including a folding guide in this post, but there are plenty of detailed and helpful resources available. Abby Lawson has a very comprehensive folding guide on her blog, and “Spark Joy” by Marie Kondo—the follow up to “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”—features step-by-step folding instructions and answers to FAQs about the KonMari process. It’s a good place to dig in and get more detailed information about how the method works out in practice.

What about my kids clothing? Should I bother to fold them the Konmari way?

I follow the same method of organizing for my kids’ clothing as I do for my own clothes. The only caveat to this is that their closet has some stored clothing in it—a few boxes of outgrown/too big clothing on the top shelf to switch in and out as needed. I store these from smallest to biggest sizes going left to right. My previous method was vacuum-sealed bags absolutely STUFFED full of everything my kids had ever worn. It was always very annoying to find the right bag, and I used no discretion when holding onto items for the future. Now I keep a smaller selection of clothing for my younger child and donate the rest, knowing that she’s likely to want to pick out a few outfits of her own or will acquire things for her birthday to bolster her wardrobe when the time comes.

Some people probably think I’m crazy for taking the time to file fold my kids clothing. But here’s the thing—it doesn’t take me that long now that I’ve been doing it for a while. And I think it actually helps my kids keep their clothes neater—they can see everything at once rather than having to dig around in the drawer, and it also helps me see what they have and what they need. My kids definitely have a pretty minimal wardrobe after this process, but it’s full of things they actually wear, rather than items that have been bought as a gift or on a whim and don’t ever see the light of day.

A word of caution: please avoid this trap

The big mistake we made that almost derailed our entire KonMari journey was that we included the teeny baby clothes that our children had outgrown as part of the clothing category. This, in fact, should have gone into the “sentimental” category which comes last, as you work through categories from easy to difficult. It was REALLY hard being faced with those kinds of choices so early on in the process, and I think we would have breezed through this category if it hadn’t been for this mishap. Luckily it didn’t matter in the long run, but I wanted to highlight it just in case you have the same issue come up. Save those tiny babygrows for the sentimental category, and thank me later.

Despite tackling some sentimental items too early in the KonMari process, I did learn that the world still keeps on turning when you let go of things with meaning. And I will also tell you this: up until this moment, I haven’t really given those tiny clothes a second thought. It doesn’t keep me up at night. And when I see the girls’ closet with space and room to breathe, it brings me joy.

Is our clothing still tidy now?

Nine months on I can say that these changes have definitely “stuck” and my closet line-up really hasn’t changed a lot. I do laundry once a week and wear most of my clothing regularly, and I feel more confident in my style and what I like. If I go shopping, I’m a lot more picky than I used to be. I have to really LOVE an item to purchase it, and I have a mental image of whether it will fit well with what I already own, or whether it would get left hanging in the closet. I guess I’ve ended up with a capsule wardrobe without really trying to achieve that.

Related: A Guide to Creating a Capsule Wardrobe (for those who don’t love to shop)

I no longer stress about the girls’ clothing and whether they have enough because I can see it all at once, and the once-dreaded task of switching clothes out for bigger sizes is not a big deal at all. Buh-bye vacuum sealed bags.

The amount of clothing we own now matches the size of our storage, and gone are the days of stuffing and packing too much in. I’ve learned that I can live with less and I prefer fewer higher quality items over a higher quantity of cheap buys. This has given me a lot of mental freedom that I never knew I needed! I’m also very quick to let go of gifted items, or pieces I know aren’t my style, rather than letting them take up valuable space in my home.

Coming up in the next post is BOOKS—stay tuned!

Catch up on other posts in the series:
KonMari Part One: 10 Tips to Prepare You for KonMari Success
KonMari Part Three: How to Declutter & Organize Books
KonMari Part Four: How to Declutter & Organize Paperwork

Tidying up the closet – all the secrets from Marie Kondo

books
Marie Kondo
Walk-in closet
decluttering
putting things in order

“Putting order in the house, you put things in order in life,” says Marie Kondo, and many examples of happy transformations show that everything happens exactly like that.

A 30-year-old Japanese woman has already managed to help thousands of people around the world clean their homes once and for all. Her book “Magical Cleaning” became an instant bestseller and has been published in more than 30 countries. And last year, Times magazine included Marie in the 100 most influential people on the planet.

Being a “born cleaner”, as the girl jokingly calls herself, she read housewife magazines from the age of five, and when she got a little older, she seriously began to search for ideal methods for creating an ideal order. Having tried hundreds of tricks in practice, Marie created her own system – not just a set of rules for organizing, but a real training that turns even an inveterate dirty person into a neat person.

According to Marie Kondo, keeping the house in order is very simple. To do this, you need to perform only two actions – decide what needs to be thrown away, and correctly place what we want to save. If you do not make mistakes, then the effect of the reverse action does not threaten us – the chaos of the house and wardrobe will never return.

“The backlash is happening because people mistakenly think that the cleaning was done thoroughly, when in reality they only partially sorted and put things away for storage,” says Marie and offers her action plan .

We clean everything at once

Tidy up in one fell swoop, as quickly and completely as possible – is the first secret of perfect cleaning. With speed, you will immediately see the result of your efforts and not lose inspiration, while moving in small steps will only lead to frustration: “clean a little every day – and you will clean forever.”

Never turn cleaning into an endless boring chore! “Cleaning is a special event that happens once in a lifetime.” In the future, you will only need to put things away in the places where they should be, and this will eventually become an unconscious habit.

Creating an image of an ideal life

Before you take inventory of your wardrobe, think about what kind of lifestyle is closest to you, how you would like to ideally live. “If you skip this step, then not only will you delay the entire process, but you will expose yourself to a much higher risk of rebound.”

What would you like to do? What cheers you up? What clothes do you feel best in? Dream and visualize – the more thoughtful and detailed the image, the better the result.

Throw away, throw away and throw away again

Complete disposal of trash – perhaps is the main secret of , which allows you to avoid confusion. Here, Marie Kondo does not allow any compromises: each item must be evaluated and resolutely sent to the garbage bag if it does not pass the test. You will be surprised how much unnecessary stuff has accumulated in your house – as a rule, these are dozens or even hundreds of 50-liter bags.

Decluttering is a must – patience and consistency : “Don’t even think about putting things away until you’ve finished the process of getting rid of what you don’t need! Kondo warns. “Failure to follow this order is the only reason why people never manage to achieve constant progress.”

Love, not calculation

How do you decide what things to get rid of? Most of us act rationally. Marie Kondo offers a very different approach: “Keep things because you love them – and not “just because”! Feel free to leave out the arguments “I may need this later” or “throw it away – wastefulness”. Indeed, as practice shows, if you wish, you can find an application for any subject.

“The best way to decide what to keep and what to throw away is take each item in your hands and ask yourself: “Does this bring joy?” You need not just open a wardrobe and, having cast a diagonal look at it, decide that everything in it delights you. You must take every piece of cloth in your hands. When you touch a piece of clothing, the body reacts to it. ”

Demotion to the category of “comfortable home clothes” is prohibited!

The habit of leaving clothes you don’t like to “relax” in them at home not only leads to clutter in the wardrobe, but also steals joy. Hours spent at home are precious time, so do not reduce its value by wearing out what you do not want to wear “on the way out.”

“True waste is not to throw away things that you do not like, but to wear them. Precisely because there is no one at home to see you, it makes much more sense to reinforce a positive self-image by wearing the clothes you love.”

Putting things in order by category

Clean based on location (e.g. closet today, chest of drawers tomorrow), from Marie Kondo’s point of view, – fatal error. Because most of us have the same type of things stored in several places, and often throughout the apartment. In such conditions, it is very difficult to assess what things should be left behind. In addition, the same work in different places does not add enthusiasm and makes cleaning endless.

Marie recommends that think in terms of category rather than place . Instead of putting things in order on some shelf in the closet, set a goal to sort out, for example, shoes or underwear. Bring all the things of one category to one place and only after that start working with them – then nothing will slip unnoticed.

It is better to start with those categories for which it is easier to decide what to throw away and what to keep. When it comes to more difficult things, you will feel much more confident.

For clothing, Marie Kondo recommends the following sequence :

• Tops (shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, etc.)
• Lower parts of clothing (trousers, skirts, etc.)
• Clothing to be hung on hangers (jackets, jackets, suits, etc.)
• Socks
• Underwear
• Handbags, etc.
• Additional items (scarves, belts, hats, etc. )
• Specialized clothing (swimming suits, uniforms, etc.)
• Shoes

If you follow this order, you will do all the work without a hitch and achieve visible results surprisingly quickly.

Every thing has a special place

After the selection procedure, your wardrobe will breathe much more freely – as a rule, no more than a third of the clothes of the original volume remain. Now it’s time to put it all away! The main rule here is to find the most suitable place for each item and learn how to immediately return it back as soon as you finish using it. As a bonus, you will get not only order, but also what can be attributed to the “magic” of cleaning: “Things that have their own place, where they return every day to rest, are more filled with life.”

This requirement may sound intimidating, but in practice it is quite simple. “Your place for each thing needs to be determined only once. Try it! The results will amaze you. You will stop buying more than you need. Items you own will no longer accumulate.”

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Items of the same type must be kept together

As Marie Kongo says, her storage method is extremely simple: “keep all the items of the same type in one place and don’t let storage space creep around the house. ” You can break things down into just a few categories, but be sure to follow this rule.

Feel what things should be together and choose the most suitable place for them.

If several people live in an apartment, everyone should have their own storage space. This is extremely important and … miraculous – even small children become tidier, having a separate place where all their belongings are located.

Maximum simplicity, no special tools required

In these days, when a variety of devices for facilitating storage are offered in abundance, such advice is bewildering. But Marie Kondo insists: give up sophisticated strategies, simplicity is the best solution. And as an optimal storage container, he suggests using shoe boxes and transparent plastic boxes.

“I tried all kinds of storage modules, but never found anything that was free and at the same time outperformed shoebox . It scores above average in all of my criteria: size, material, durability, ease of use and appeal.”

Store vertically

Marie Kondo pays special attention to this moment, and for many, the method KonMari is associated with vertical storage. Stacks of things are a sure way to clutter, says Marie. In addition, it is extremely uncomfortable and leads to the formation of wrinkles in clothes due to the pressure created by the things lying on top.

“I store everything I can in an upright position, including clothes that I fold and put “on edge” in drawers, and tights that I roll up and put in cylinders in a box. The same applies to stationery and writing materials: whether they are boxes of paper clips, tape measure or erasers – I put them upright. Even my laptop sits on a bookshelf like a real notebook.”

Main storage method – folding

For many of us, storing clothes on hangers is the most familiar method, but according to Marie Kondo, it is far from optimal. Hanging is much inferior to folding in terms of space saving. “When folded, you can fit 20 to 40 pieces of clothing in the same space that you need to hang 10 items.”

Marie recommends using your gut feeling when deciding which clothes to fold and hang up. There are things that really protest against folding – for example, designer clothes or made from lightweight fabrics. In this case, prepare hangers, and in the rest – fold.

Folding is a form of dialogue with our wardrobe. Gently smoothing clothes, we make them stronger and fill them with positive energy. “Correct folding tightens the fabric, smoothes out wrinkles, makes the material stronger and more resilient,” says Marie Kondo.

Folding is an art, but take the time to master it. To help you – Marie’s book and video tutorials, which are freely available on the net. The main task is to create a simple rectangle, for each thing choosing the type of addition that suits it.

Hanging by category

Hanging properly means storing clothes of the same category side by side, dividing the closet space into a section of suits, dresses, jackets, etc. “Things, like people, tend to feel better in the company of “like-minded people” who are very similar in type to them. By applying this rule alone, you can achieve noticeable improvements in the organization of your dressing room.

Arrange clothes in the up and right direction

Energize your wardrobe – hang your clothes so that they “take off”. To do this, place heavier items on the left and lighter items on the right. “Lines that are directed upward to the right give rise to a feeling of greater comfort. By using this principle to organize your wardrobe, you can make it look much more inspiring.”

Heavy things are long, dense and dark things, as you move to the right things will become shorter, lighter and lighter. The categorization will look like this: outerwear should hang in the far left corner, followed by dresses, jackets, trousers, skirts and blouses. This is the basic order. According to the principle “from heavy to light”, clothes are placed inside each category.

“Some may doubt that attention to such small things can bring about a profound change, but why waste your time doubting when the application of this delightful magic can keep clothes in order? It won’t take you long to reorganize your wardrobe, so trust me and give it a try. But do not forget that in the beginning you must reduce it, leaving only those things that you truly love.

And remember – properly done cleaning has a magical effect, as it puts in order not only things. Many of Marie Kondo’s clients, after “rebooting” their home, have realized what they really want to do and what gives them joy. “Cleaning is a way of taking inventory that will show us who we really are .”

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How to Organize Documents Using the Marie Kondo Method

Bombora publishes a book by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshine “Magical Cleaning at Work”, in which they tell how to organize your head and desk – even if you work not in the office, but sit remotely.

Afisha Daily publishes a fragment of the book.

The basic rule of paperwork is to throw everything away. My clients always look dumbfounded when I say this. Of course, I do not mean that you need to destroy all paper documents cleanly. I’m just trying to convey to the interlocutor what kind of iron determination is needed to select only those documents that are really absolutely necessary and throw everything else away. In the workplace, nothing bugs us more than paperwork, which seems to be piling up faster than we realize it. Paper sheets seem so thin that we often leave them without thinking. However, when we have to disassemble them, this process eats up a lot of time, because we need to make sure that we know their contents. Worse yet, the more paperwork we accumulate, the more time it takes to find a particular document or report, and the more difficult it is to put it in order. For this reason, I recommend that you specifically set aside time in your schedule to clean up paper documents.

As with the other categories, first gather all your papers in a pile and look at each one.

Documents is the only category that can’t be sorted by “joy criterion”.

Instead, you should check their content. Even letters and documents in envelopes should be taken out and looked through, page by page, in case of advertising leaflets or other unwanted materials that have crept into them.

It may be helpful to sort papers into categories while you skim through their contents. Then after the completion of this process it will be faster and easier to arrange them in the right places. Paper documents can be divided into three broad categories: “need to review”, “must keep”, and “keep because you want to”.

The “required review” category includes documents that require some action on your part, such as invoices and project proposals that require feedback. I recommend keeping them all in one vertical filing cabinet until you’ve sorted them out. Then they will not be mixed with documents from other categories.

Now let’s look at the documents we are required to keep. We are required by law to keep certain types of reports, bank statements, contracts, and so on for a certain period of time, whether they make us happy or not. Sort them into categories and send them to storage on a document rack or on shelves. If you do not need to keep the originals, you can scan them and store them electronically. In this case, it will be more efficient to put such documents in a separate pile and then scan everything in one go.

The last category is paper documents that you want to keep for other reasons. For example, those that you consider it necessary to keep on hand as a reference, or those that really make you happy. To store them or not – this question is entirely within your competence. But since there is often a problem of relapse when people hold on to their things “just like that,” keep in mind that the basic rule for papers is to throw everything away.

During tidying lessons, when the client is having a hard time deciding which documents to keep and which to throw away, I bombard him with questions about each piece of paper: “When will you need this?”, “How long have you kept this?”, “How often are you re-reading this?”, “Is it possible to find the same content on the Internet?”, “Have you already transferred this to your computer?”, “Will you have problems if you get rid of this?”, “Are you sure that this brings are you happy?”

If you find yourself having trouble deciding whether or not to save a particular document, don’t relax. Don’t miss this precious opportunity. Ask the tough questions and promise yourself to handle the paperwork so thoroughly and completely that you’ll never have to host an event of the same magnitude again.

If the “throw it all” premise makes you stubborn, imagine me walking into an office and announcing that I’m about to cut all your paperwork. What will you do? What leaves do you run after, trying to save them from the shredder?

You may find that you can get rid of almost all paper documents, but this, of course, depends on the specifics of your job. One high school teacher told me that she digitized everything she needed, completely emptying two file cabinets, and at the same time increasing the efficiency of her work.

A business manager I know got into the habit of determining if he needs to keep a document right at the moment he receives it. An unnecessary document was immediately sent under the knife, and heaps of paper stopped accumulating. But when using a shredder, you need to be careful. The same manager used to turn it on so hastily that one day he put on the ribbons a letter from one of his subordinates with a letter of resignation – along with an envelope. (Honestly, it was my former boss, and the statement he accidentally destroyed was mine.)

Some readers may feel anxious when they reach this point in the book. Even if all the papers are sorted out, they will inevitably accumulate again, making the relapse of clutter just as inevitable. But don’t worry! As long as you follow the three storage rules below, you will never again be mired in paper clutter.

Rule one: classify all documents down to the last page.

First sort your documents into clear categories: presentations, project proposals, reports, invoices. You can also sort them by dates, projects, or the names of individual clients, patients, or students. One client of mine, for example, set aside special folders for “design ideas”, “management ideas”, “English learning materials”, and “documents to keep in mind”. Use the system that works best for you.

The main thing is not to leave a single piece of paper “just like that” with you. It’s time to classify your documents in a way that will make your job easier. Make sure that each paper is assigned to a category.

Rule two: store documents upright.

You probably know people who are always muttering: “Where did that folder go?” Often this is because they keep their papers in stacks on the table. This storage method has two disadvantages. First, it’s harder to determine how many documents you have in total, so you don’t notice how many accumulate over time, and your desk ends up cluttered as a result. Secondly, you forget about those documents that are at the bottom of the stack and spend a lot of time looking for them.

It is best to store documents in vertical folders. Put each category of documents in a separate folder and store them in a filing cabinet or drawer on a shelf. With this storage method, it is easy to understand how many documents you have. In addition, they look neat and tidy.

Rule three: designate a drawer for documents requiring review.

Designate a separate drawer for documents that you need to deal with on that particular day. Again, I recommend storing them vertically so you can clearly see how many documents need to be processed. If you prefer, you can use a tray type filing cabinet and stack them, but take care not to forget the existence of the documents at the very bottom. Once you’ve processed documents that require review, get rid of those that you don’t need to keep.

Keeping your paperwork in order makes your job incredibly easy because you know exactly how many of each type of document you have and where they are located. Once you’ve sorted your documents and set aside a specific place for each category, take a look at your workspace and determine the maximum amount of space available to store them. When you exceed this limit, the papers will start to crawl out of the space allotted to them. This is a signal that they need to be sorted out. Find documents that you no longer need to keep and part with them. If you conduct such checks regularly, you can always keep your documents in order.

Publisher
“Bombora”, translated by E. Melnyk

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The Marie Kondo Method: 5 Simple House Cleaning Tips

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How to Antistress Practices

Many of us dedicate weekends to cleaning the house. I want to throw off all the ballast accumulated over many months, let the air into the apartment, breathe deeply. But often cleaning, started early in the morning, almost does not progress until the evening. We get tired, irritated, feel dissatisfied with ourselves and go to bed, asking one question: “What have I been doing all day?”

1. Clean it all up in one fell swoop

Don’t trust advice about cleaning things up gradually. Clean a little each day and you will clean forever.

“Changing lifestyle habits acquired over the years can be extremely difficult. If you haven’t succeeded in keeping order up to now, you will soon find that it is almost impossible to train yourself to clean a little. Big cleaning gives visible results. Cleaning never lies.

If you clean up in one fell swoop, and not gradually, you can permanently change your thinking and life habits

This approach is the key to preventing backlash. By doing everything at once, you will see the results and feel the impact of your efforts,” advises Marie Kondo in her book Magical Cleaning. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life.

2. Don’t let your family see you

Get out alone if possible. And in no case do not show your husband, sister or mother bags of things that you will throw away.

“If possible, take out the garbage bags yourself,” writes Marie Kondo. – There is no need to let your family know what exactly you are going to throw away.

It’s not that you have something to be ashamed of. There is nothing wrong with cleaning. However, the sight of what their children throw away is the greatest stress for parents. The sheer size of the trash heap can make them anxious, making them wonder if they can live with what they have left. In the overwhelming majority of cases, it is the mothers who “save” things thrown away by their daughters. However, they rarely wear the clothes that are taken away.”

3. One category at a time

Most people keep items that fall into one category (such as clothes) in two or more places scattered throughout the house. That is why the principle of cleaning “first the bedroom, then the living room, then the kitchen” does not work.

“Say, for example, you start with a wardrobe in a room or a chest of drawers,” Marie describes the situation. “After you finish sorting and throwing away what’s in it, you’re bound to stumble upon clothes that were kept in another closet, or thrown over an armchair in the living room. You will have to repeat all the efforts, and this can kill motivation.

Instead, you can take apart one category at a time

For example, gather up all the clothes in the house and put them on the living room floor. Get everything out of your dirty bag, your hallway closet, your seasonal and beachwear drawers. And then take each thing in your hands and ask yourself: “Does this give me joy?” If this thing makes you happy, keep it. If this dress does not cause any emotions in you, then it is not a pity to get rid of it. With a high probability, you wore it only once, and then a few years ago.

4. Ruthlessly dispose of documents

Documents are different documents — consider Marie Kondo. And this means that all the papers in the house must first be sorted into two piles. The first is those documents that definitely remain. These are insurances, employment contracts and contracts for renting and renting an apartment, birth and property certificates and other documents of vital importance.

And the second pile is the documents that need to be dealt with. From it, instructions for using equipment are definitely sent to the trash (this does not apply to guarantees, they should be in the first pile). As well as old bills, statements, checks, tickets and discount coupons that are long past due. And try not to store the papers horizontally. Better get them hard vertical folders so they can’t go back to their original chaotic state.

5. Throw away first, clean up later

A big mistake we make when cleaning is to tidy up and get rid of unnecessary things at the same time. The most effective and fastest way is to first get rid of the unnecessary, and only then decide where and how to put the remaining things. And take out the garbage bag as soon as it is full. This will not allow you to “give up” and at the last moment pull out of it and leave something unnecessary in the house.

Text: Anna Muradova Photo Source: Shutterstock

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Cleaning rules: sorting out rubble in the closet quickly, competently and profitably

Every time it’s time for a seasonal wardrobe analysis, we remember Rebecca Bloomwood from the comedy Shopaholic. The wardrobe of the heroine was also bursting with cool branded clothes. At the same time, she not only suffered from the “nothing to wear” syndrome, but also could not find the strength in herself to at least put her clothes on the shelves. Fortunately, in the real world, and not in the movie world, this problem is easily solved. Together with colleagues from Oskelly, we reveal the rules of cleaning and tell you how to dismantle a closet quickly, painlessly and, moreover, make money on it!

Secret No. 1. Determine the goal

Source: https://www.pinterest.ru/pin/832954893592143145

The most difficult thing in any cleaning is its beginning. To be honest, we also postpone this unpleasant procedure to the last. But in fact, everything will become much easier if you set the right goal for yourself. The fact is that any chaos negatively affects our productivity, creativity and emotional state. And women are especially susceptible to disorder. According to a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a disturbed home can increase levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. Now imagine how chaos in a chest of drawers or closet affects us – after all, this is one of the first things that we see in the morning! Therefore, when starting to sort out your wardrobe, set a goal not just to sort clothes, but to put things in order in your life, relieve stress and simplify the choice of fashionable looks. Agree, this wording sounds much nicer!

Secret No. 2. Remember the philosophy of wardrobe-wellness

According to the popular concept of wardrobe wellness (also called feng shui in the fashion world), wardrobe is a reflection of our life and our inner world. And in this case, jeans and jumpers dumped uphill no longer seem so harmless. But clothes, on the contrary, should charge us with positive energy and bring happiness. So stop waiting for your fairy godmother and take matters into your own hands! Remove all the contents from the cabinet and start sorting. Separate clothes that need care – dry cleaning or mending. Put things in boxes that no longer fit into your life – they have become small for you or simply no longer meet your taste and preferences (we will deal with them a little later). Lay out all the clothes and accessories you want to keep according to the Marie Kondo method.

Secret #3: Using the Marie Kondo Method and bring order to your life!). The famous Japanese woman advises to start sorting out the wardrobe with tops – T-shirts, shirts, blouses, jumpers. Arrange them in order from heavy to light, from dark to light. In the future, this will help reduce the search for the right things. Next, proceed to the lower part of the clothes – trousers, jeans, shorts and skirts. Then comes the turn of dresses and suits, which should hang on a hanger. Having dealt with the main part of the wardrobe, you can move on to socks, underwear, and only then comes the turn of accessories (please do not forget that each bag should be stored in a dust bag). The final stage is the analysis of sportswear and swimwear and, finally, shoes.

Secret No. 4. Treat clothes with respect

According to the same closet-wellness philosophy, clothes are the most intimate environment for our body, in fact, our “second skin”. And therefore, it must be treated with respect. So, chairs and armchairs in the room are not the best place to store things, so when you come home, try to immediately hide them in the closet. A special machine will help against the spools on your favorite jumper, dry cleaning will save you from stains and dirt. However, not only your “favorites” are worthy of care. The floral Oscar de la Renta dress you wore once to prom doesn’t deserve to be dusted in a sheath – it’s made to please its owner (and catch admiring glances along with her!). And if you understand that you no longer plan to use this thing, then give it a chance for a second life – place an ad for sale on our Oskelly platform.

Secret No. 5. Basic cleaning rules

. According to the basic principle of declatering, only those things that bring you joy should remain in your wardrobe. Each of us in the farthest part of the wardrobe hangs a dress given by our mother, which does not fit our hourglass figure and would look much better on a girl with a triangle silhouette. Or the cool Michael Kors cardigan that you may have flunked the exam and now consider unlucky (though it’s really the bad placement of the stars that’s to blame!). Or your first Entry-Level Bag by Prada, which has a more beloved alternative (by the way, we talked about the coolest Entry-level bags in a separate article). Or, finally, snow-white Jimmy Choo pumps, which looked perfect at your wedding, but do not fit into your everyday wardrobe at all. You should not turn all these beautiful things into “recluses” (or even prisoners!).

Secret No. 6. We put things on the resale platform

It may seem that it will be much faster and easier to take the clothes that have become unnecessary to the landfill. But according to Greenpeace, 92 million tons of clothes are thrown away every year worldwide. Moreover, a significant part of what is dryly called “waste” in statistics, in fact, is not. These are good, expensive, branded clothes that could only be worn a few times – the owners simply had no desire to part with these things in an environmentally friendly way. However, thanks to the development of resale, you have the opportunity not only to free up space in the closet, but also to add a “plus to karma”, to contribute to environmental protection. And, of course, good money! According to thredUP, by 2025 the turnover in the resale market will reach an impressive $77 billion. In 2020 alone, 33 million buyers were the first to make a deal in the resale market. And in the future, the number of those who are interested in resale will grow. This means that on Oskelly you will not only be able to profitably sell clothes and accessories, but also become part of a conscious community.

Secret No. 7. Using a virtual wardrobe

With the help of modern technologies, you can not only simplify your life, but also compose fashionable images for every day. To do this, just download one of the dozens of applications for creating a virtual wardrobe. With it, you can make a catalog of the things you have and think over stylish outfits. And it will also be easier for you to understand what things do not fit into your style and image – it is also best to put them on the resale platform so that your wardrobe looks harmonious and the thing does not hang idle. By the way, in the Oskelly mobile application you will also find many useful ideas for creating fashionable bows. Our users daily share their options for images for every day and for special occasions. A real source of inspiration for those who do not read glossy magazines, but want to stay up to date with trends!

How to start cleaning your apartment, how to clean up your house: Marie Kondo’s cleaning system, ideas – clean up your home

Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo promises: if you are ready for big changes, the result of cleaning will be a real miracle

Marie Kondo’s bestseller Life-Changing Tidying Magic: The Japanese Art of Disposal and Organization truly changed the life of Emily Clay, a homemaker in Oregon. She said she got rid of “tons” of clothes and books after reading the book, and although she loves to shop, Marie Kondo’s advice has kept her from restocking her shelves and closets. “This book completely changed my view of things,” she says. “If I don’t like some thing, if I have never used it, haven’t read it, haven’t worn it, I get rid of it without thinking.”

Beryn Hammil, a designer from San Francisco, shares the same opinion: “I myself follow the main tenets of Kondo’s book and advise everyone to do the same: only what brings pleasure is worth keeping,” she says. “This rule helps me determine the place of things in my heart and my home. It’s amazing how much cleaner my house has become since I threw out all the junk.”

Mary Jo Bowling

We are waiting for change!
However, the definition of “life-changing” is perhaps too bold. Life is changed by such events as marriage, birth, death, moving. Cleaning, even capital cleaning, does not fall under my idea of ​​​​global changes, but Marie Kondo’s ideas change the attitude to the house without a doubt.

It doesn’t matter how you feel about magic, which is constantly emphasized in this book. However, the volume of sales of this book around the world can indeed be called supernatural. It spent 23 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in the Advice and How-to Guides category. Named Best Book of 2014 on Amazon in the Crafts, Home & Garden section. Since its first edition last fall, the book has been in print 13 times and has sold two million copies. Looking at these numbers, one can conclude that people are really desperate to change the existing order of things. Let’s see if Marie Kondo delivers on the promise made in the bold title of her book.

Two key rules
After many years of practice, a Japanese space organizer has developed her own method. The essence is simple, but applying it can be incredibly difficult (I speak from my own experience), because people would never want to part with their own things.

So, the two key principles of the Marie Kondo method boil down to the fact that you should keep at home only those things that fill your heart with joy. And in the process of cleaning, you need to work not with rooms, but with categories of things.

Keep what you love
Kondo often uses the phrase “sparkle with joy” when talking about things that are dear to his heart. Summarizing what has been said, we can draw the following conclusion: if you do not like a thing, get rid of it. The difficulty lies in, as they say, separating the wheat from the chaff and distinguishing between the concepts of “happiness” and “attachment”. In his book, Kondo offers a rather hard way to do this.

Sort things, not rooms
One of the main ideas that distinguishes the Kondo method from all others is that you should sort things into categories. For example, instead of cleaning out the dressing room, you need to deal with all the clothes that are in the house.

Usually it is stored in several places: in the dressing room, chests of drawers and cupboards in bedrooms and children’s rooms, in the hallway and even in the attic. Marie Kondo’s work experience has shown that if you clean each room separately, it will be an endless process. Therefore, everything that is in the house must be divided into categories and deal with each of them. On the first page of his work, the author writes: “First, you need to reject everything unnecessary, and then clean up the whole house once and for all.”

And this is only the first piece of advice, and the book is quite large – as many as 216 pages. We asked Marie Kondo for an email interview and she summarized the basic principles of her method for us.

Photo: Natsuno Ichigo, Richie Bracamonte and Margot Hartford

Mary Jo Bowling

Cleaning step by step their clients. In her world, the path to cleanliness and order begins with an idea of ​​how you want to live. In her interview, she described this process in stages.

1. Think about the ideal life. In other words, how do you want to live.

2. Gather items of the same type and put them together. For example, put all your clothes on the floor. Kondo suggests starting with clothes, then books, and finally documents.

3. Ask yourself if each item exudes joy. “Take the thing in your hands, feel it and try to feel if there is joy in it,” writes Kondo.

4. Sort and put things away. Determine a suitable place for each item in advance.