We all get caught up in life following routines, schedules, and endless lists of to-dos.
Before we know it, our home resembles our life — BUSY AND OVERWHELMING.
You may have heard of Marie Kondo and her decluttering method called the KonMari Method. I had the honor to interview one of her consultants, Lisa Tselebidis.
She shared valuable information during the podcast episode and specifically spoke about the core principles you can apply to declutter your home today.
KonMari’s Core Principles For Decluttering Your Home
Principle 1: Envision your ideal life
Ask yourself three questions.
- Dig deep into the WHY. Why do you want to tidy up your home? What will this ultimately provide you? An excellent example of somebody’s why can be wanting to be more time-efficient, so they can have more time to spend with loved ones, which they would otherwise spend tidying up.
- How does a perfect day in your life look? Ideal weekday and weekend days? How will tidying help you get to that goal?
- What does your clutter say about you? How did you get here? Why is it not a priority? Reflect on your life.
Feel free to make a vision board for this step. It can be digital too!
Principle 2: Commit to tidying up completely
Lisa Tselebidis has noticed throughout her experience that people are more likely to keep their home clean and tidy when the whole house is organized and immaculate. That is why it is crucial to commit to cleaning up the home entirely.
Principle 3: Tidy by category, not location
When you tidy by category, a person can get an excellent visual representation and, thus, a good grasp of how much stuff one owns. It serves as an eye-opener. The categories go as follows (It is IMPORTANT to follow the list in ORDER, explained further in the following principle):
- Clothing
- Books
- Papers
- Kimono (miscellaneous items)
- Sentimental items
If you like checklists, you can download KonMari’s Category Checklist by clicking the following link:
Download the KonMari Category Checklist Here
Principle 4: Follow the correct category order
It is essential to follow the correct category order because it starts with “easier” things to declutter first to the most challenging category. Clothing is the easiest category to declutter because we make clothing decisions daily. In contrast, a category such as sentimental items is the most difficult because we have emotional connections. That’s why we must follow the order, so we build up to the more challenging categories.
Principle 5: First declutter and then organize
Simple enough: Declutter first to get rid of everything you don’t want or need anymore so that you only organize the things you will be ultimately keeping.
Principle 6: Only keep things that spark joy for you
Focus on what you want to keep rather than what you wish to eliminate. It’s a more positive outlook on tidying.
To listen to her additional tips, check out the podcast episode below.
Conclusion
Lisa Tselebidis shared with us KonMari’s six core principles for decluttering your home. She explained the importance of visualizing your end goal — that it is more than just about a beautifully clean aesthetic. She talked about committing to cleaning your entire home, so you are more likely to keep it clean. She discussed tidying by a specific category list instead of by location and following the category list in order, so you build strength to declutter the most challenging category at the end. She explained decluttering first and then organizing, and most importantly, keeping only things that spark joy in your life. By following these six principles, we too can achieve having a much more clean, organized, and happy place to call home. Check out her resources below for more information.
Download the KonMari Category Checklist
