5 Spring Cleaning Tips the Konmari Way!

Spring-cleaning

If you haven’t seen the hype around the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo this Spring, where have you been?  You must have been living under a rock, as it is just huge at the moment! With Spring around the corner, now is the time to turn over a new leaf and get tidying. So I just had to get my hands on a copy of this book and I am SO glad I did.

In our house, we live in continual tidying up cycle. We tidy up and clean over the weekend, however as the week progresses, things just go downhill. By Thursday or Friday the washing is starting to pile up and there seems to be always an endless supply of dirty mugs in the sink (maybe we just drink too much tea). By Friday I just give up as the weekend is only a day away…. and we start the cycle again. IT’S SO TIRING.

So, The Life-Changing magic of Tidying states rather than living on this ‘hamster wheel’ of cleaning, like we always do, it can solve this problem…. forever! Seems too good to be true, right? WRONG.  Marie Kondo sure is ruthless when it comes to tidying up, but so far for the rooms I’ve tried it on, it’s the cleanest, tidiest I’ve EVER SEEN THEM, and they don’t get cluttered again. This book really is magic, although it takes a lot of hard work in the first place too.

I decided to try the ‘Konmari Technique’ (named after the book) firstly on my beauty products. Being a blogger, they were starting to take over the house and it was getting unmanageable. So, I got every last product out of the cupboards, drawers, bathroom cabinets and put everything together in one big pile on the living room floor. It wasn’t until I had everything in front of me that I realised just how much I had and how much space this all takes up. I think I had something like 20 Body lotions, 15 bottles of shower gel and endless makeup in colours I’ll never wear. Why am I keeping it all? After looking at each item, I then started to put everything into piles. Three piles specifically –  to keep, to give away and to chuck. By the end of it, I had 2 massive bin liners of stuff to throw away (a lot was out of date) and a big bag to give my friends. I kept one of everything I need for myself, and one back-up for when it runs out. Thats it! Now my cupboards are clear, I can find everything I need and I only kept the stuff I really love, it is so so refreshing!

spring-cleaning-2

So, my recommendation to you is to go read the book, it’s fantastic and certainly works when you are looking to completely overhaul your home and break out of that ‘hamster wheel’ effect, however I just wanted to write 5 quick take-away points I took from the book that’ll help you get started right away if you fancy a little Spring clean right now (do it, it’s good for the soul!)

My 5 Spring Cleaning Tips the Konmari Way:

  1. Tackle things in categories, not room by room – This is the most important step, DON’T try and tidy up room by room, this just takes longer. Tidy up by category – clothes, books, crafting stuff, kitchen wares… you get the idea, it’s only until you gather everything in one place you can truly see how much you have.
  2. Take EVERYTHING out your cupboards – It’s only when you really do lay everything out that you can truly see how much you own and whether you need to keep multiple versions of the same thing. If the items are clothes, get them ALL out, yes ALL OUT, try them on, think about each item and look at each piece before moving on.
  3. Go through everything you own and decide whether you want to keep it or discard  it – At this point you need to make some decisions, should I stay or should I go now?
  4. Hold each item in your hand, does it spark joy? – If not discard it. Nostalgia is NOT your friend. If the item once held memories for you, but you don’t use it anymore, think that it served you during that period of your life and move on, if you aren’t using it, it’s clutter.
  5. Designate a place for every single thing – Before you put anything back into drawers, make sure everything has it’s own place where it’s going to fit comfortably and you know where to find it. If you are putting away clothes, learn ‘the fold‘ (it’ll change your life).

Of course, this was just a very brief overview, the book is so much more thorough, detailed and really motivational, so if you enjoyed these tips, do give it a read too, I have really enjoyed it and am slowly working my way through my home ‘Konmari-ing’ along the way.

Have you tried the Konmari technique? I’d love to hear your stories, tips and tricks in the comments below.

Also, a big thank you to House Network for the lovely Spring Cleaning box that arrived to help me and keep me motivated with my Konmari journey!

 

Pin for later: spring-cleaning-pin

This is not a collaborative post, I genuinely bought the book and enjoyed it, therefore wanted to share my experience!
All opinions are my own, tips are taken from the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo

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  • I just started reading the book today! I’ve been seeing Konmari mentioned all over the internet and I decided to give it a try. I’m a bit of a hoarder so I want to try any new methods to getting my clutter under control
    Kiersten @ Autumn Country Girl

  • I’ve read about the Konmari way and I think it’s a great idea. I will have to do it too, especially with clothes. I wear a few things from my wardrobe because I don’t like other things (I used to love and this is why I got them) or they don’t fit.

  • There’s so many good tips here! I’m still yet to read the book but I really want to as I’d love to be more tidy 🙂

    hellomissjordan.com xx

  • I’ve come close to buying this book but haven’t yet! I’m definitely going to take some tips with the whole ‘does it spark joy?’ question – maybe I’ll give it a go this weekend!

  • I will be moving house later this year, so I think I will try to get a handle on the clutter before we move, so we don’t take it with us.