The Uncluttered Life, a home organizing company, is a Certified Master Organizer located in the DFW area.
It has produced the Declutter Deck®, which is a deck of 52 cards to help with the home organization process. It helps you to declutter and organize in bite-sized chunks of time rather than tackling the entire process at once. Check them out on our sister site. They may just be the impetus you need to get through the decluttering and organizing process.
Trained in the KonMari Method®, it's important to understand the philosophy behind the concept of Spark Joy®. This concept is often misunderstood. For this reason, we will provide a brief overview of the KonMari Method® which helps to dispel the idea that decluttering and organizing, and keeping items, is only based on whether something meets this Spark Joy® criterion.
The Root of Spark Joy®
The KonMari Method® has become a bit of a meme on the internet now, and many people boil the approach down to questions about joy. This, however, is not at the root of the method. It is a common hurdle that prevents many from embracing this method. While the idea of sparking joy is a useful concept, it is only one part of the decluttering and organizing method. Really, the KonMari Method® helps people go beyond decluttering and aims to change your life for the better.
What are the Actual Steps to the KonMari Method®?
- Commit yourself to tidying up
- Image your idea lifestyle
- Finish discarding first (before organizing anything)
- Tidy by category, not by location (this allows you to store like items together)
- Follow the right order (clothing, books, paper, miscellaneous, sentimental)
- Then ask yourself if it sparks joy.
To learn more, pick up a copy of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
The KonMari Method® can also become undone if you don’t commit to keeping up with the maintenance. This is a common downfall for many followers of the method who realize their workday is just too busy. However, if you do commit yourself to the process, it takes little more than fifteen minutes a day to put things back where they belong. While the method is not a “one and done,” and requires regular upkeep, it is worth the investment in time.
How Do I Know if Something Sparks Joy?
Sometimes it can be hard to know if an item sparks joy. But when you do find that an item just doesn’t make you happy anymore, it’s important to note why. This helps learn from our purchase mistakes and changing tastes. Not reflecting on this is a common mistake people make that leads to their homes becoming cluttered again in the future. It’s good to reflect on why we still have an item if we don’t love it any longer. For example, maybe we love a dress, but the color doesn’t look good on us. This is a lesson opportunity – don’t buy that color anymore or consider it more carefully the next time. Maybe the fabric is uncomfortable. Remember that, too.
The method can show us if we are holding on to things out of guilt, or because someone gave it to us. It can teach us that things that bring up negative memories for us can be donated even though at one time they were important.
Understanding if something continues to Spark Joy®, you see, is just part of the process. It’s the lessons we learn in the end about how we want and choose to live our lives that really matter. Getting rid of the clutter and organizing our homes allows us to see this more clearly.
To learn more about the KonMari Method®, we suggest you pick up one of Marie Kondo's books. Our Declutter Deck® is based, in part, on the KonMari Method® with parts of Karen Kingston's decluttering and organizing style incorporated into the process. To start decluttering your home, pick up a Declutter Deck® to move through your entire home in bite-sized pieces of time.