#23 Organize my closets - The KonMari Method

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The KonMari Method encourages tidying by category – not by location – beginning with clothes, then moving on to books, papers, komono (miscellaneous items), and, finally, sentimental items. Keep only those things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy.
The KonMari Method™ – By Marie Kondo

Marie Kondo started a beautiful Japanese method of tidying up and ultimately creating a living space that sparks joy. I have always loved organizing and tidying up but letting go of certain items has been a little hard over the years. We end up holding onto things that we once loved, but now it’s laying under our beds or the foot of our cupboards, serving no purpose.

I came across this method while watching Van Life videos on YouTube, where people pack up and sell all of their belongings, holding onto only a handful of items they absolutely love and living out of a van, travelling the world and living their best lives. Yes, I have thought about doing that because real-estate along the coast is too expensive for me. No, I probably wouldn’t ever do it.

But sorting through my belongings has been something that I’ve started looking at more fiercely. With my idea of moving to a different city, I decided I needed to practice the KonMari method and declutter my life. There are only 6 rules through this process:

There is nothing more rewarding than having a breathable, minimalistic space and this method teaches you how. Yes it’s hard and there may even be a few tears along the process, but it simply does wonders for your emotions as well. The one girl on YouTube went through a box of her college belongings and ended up having a large pile of stuff she wanted to keep only because she wanted to remember it and hold onto everything. But after successfully getting through her process, she decided to take pictures of the things she wanted to remember, shed a few tears (okay she sobbed, but whatever) and then parted ways with it. The items she once had sitting in a giant box in her cupboard has now found homes to dozens of people and are now being used everyday!

I’ve always practiced a cycling closet, where if I buy any new clothes, I have to put out an equal (or more) number of clothes. We don’t realize how little we actually need to survive, so we’re always hoarding stuff for the “what if” times, that never usually happen. So why not allow those things to find new homes?

Trust me, take a weekend, you’re in quarantine and shouldn’t be going out of the house anyway, so take one weekend, and start this process. It will open your physical space and that will in turn, open up your mental and emotional space to allow new, greater opportunities to flow into your space. It’s also really fun realizing how much stuff we accumulate over the years of our lives. We started in mid-last year and we’ve emptied out such a large amount of stuff we didn’t even know we had. From personal belongings to paperwork to actual household items like appliances.

If you want, there are opportunities to also make a few bucks on the pristine items that you no longer need. You can use the money accumulated from those sales to buy things you actually need and have always wanted. That is why what you own should always be in a cycle… out with the old and in with the new. You don’t need a lot of money, you just need to loosen your grip on hoarding.

With that said, I want to start an auction section in my shop, that way I could auction off items I no longer want and allow others to do the same? Let’s let go of the things we no longer love and help them find new homes where they spark joy!

To find out more about the incredible KonMarie Method, visit https://konmari.com/