Best Marie-Kondo Style Tips For Spring Cleaning Your Home

Marie Kondo, the best-known seller consultant from Japan, sold millions of copies when she first launched her book about tidying up one’s home. Her ideas revolve around keeping items that spark joy and letting go of nostalgia. Through these ideas, she has been able to revolutionize the cleaning and decluttering scenario worldwide.

The book she wrote is more of an instructional manual on how to approach things by the careful organization. On the other hand, her TV show inspires people as she reaches out and offers help to those in need to tidy up their home.

Spring cleaning appears to be a mammoth of a task to many. Your home doesn’t have to undergo cleaning sessions if you can give it a spring clean according to the KonMari method. Following through on getting this task is important as this event comes once in a year and no major overhauls are due after this season. 

4 Tips On Spring Cleaning Your Home By Marie-Kondo

The method listed by Marie-Kondo is simple. You have to believe in the system and work hard while getting things done. Here are four useful hints to help you organize and spring clean your home as prescribed by Marie Kondo.

Tip#1: Stick to The Process

It is essential that you understand and implement the process stated by Marie Kondo. The first thing you need to do is to organize everything—according to the category, not location. Here is the sequence you need to follow:

• Clothing
• Books
• Paper
• Komono (miscellaneous, uncategorized items)
• Nostalgic items you’re attached to

Once you have decided to pursue the KonMari school of thought, you must stick to this sequence. Note that this method has no mention of rooms/location. Clear out all things by category holistically instead of room by room.

Tip#2: Learn What Sparks Joy

Achieving the mastery of this concept is the best tip to follow. Since the KonMari way asks you to form giant heaps for each category, deciding which to keep and discard can be a tough choice—after all who couldn’t use an extra pair of PJs? Marie Kondo recommends keeping items that spark joy when you hold them. Here are some questions you must answer to find what’s best for you.

• Does holding this item make me feel happy?
• Do I get a feeling of warmth and love while looking at it?

These questions will help you discern which items don’t belong in your home. Through this tip, you will avoid keeping things that take up valuable space. This tip can help you with organizing clothing and sentimental items.

Tip#3: Accepting Letting Go

We often have a plethora of unused items lying around—take books as an example.

Some you’ve read while others have been sitting on the shelves gathering dust bunnies. According to Marie Kondo, you need to ask yourself about the benefits of having this book. If you feel that you’ll refer to a particular book from time-to-time, you must keep it. Otherwise, let it go.

Follow this logic as you work through every category, keeping only the items that legitimately spark joy!

Tip#4: Categorize and Localize Paper

Spring cleaning is the best time to manage all the paper lying around. We accumulate so much paper that it’s worth its own bullet point! An important tip to help you manage the documents in your home is to categorize it in the following way:

• Materials that require action—these are documents that need your immediate attention, like bills and letters.
• Important Documents—this is where you keep all the essential documents, like contracts and possession papers.
• Reference Material—an article that you keep referring to needs to be labeled under the reference material category. They include seminar notes and magazine cutouts.

Once every paper is categorized, the next tip is to designate a location where you house documents safely and securely.

Final Pro Tips

Once all the major cleanup has been taken care of, divert your attention to everything in the house other than clothing, paper, sentimental items, and books. The best way to contend with them is through boxing them up. Label each box with the pieces they will contain—mobile accessories, tools, and kitchen items.

The final tip you can adopt while spring cleaning your home is to involve kids in the process. Going through cleaning and labeling, they will soon value the importance of the activity and adopt it as a habit.