Marie Kondo's Method For Decluttering Your Life

Let’s be real: it’s all good and well to like a few #minimalist posts Instagram, but most of us don’t actually live that. Sure, we totally envy those all lifestyle bloggers and their white, sparsely-decorated loft apartments with just a couple of plants thrown around for good measure. But in fact, when it comes time to tidy up our own places, a lot of people tend to get a little freaked out. Why? Because we love all our junk. Or so we think.

Meet Marie Kondo, a Japanese cleaning consultant turned bestselling author and lifestyle guru. Back in 2014, Kondo published a book titled The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, where she shares her revolutionary method for keeping a neat and tidy household. Surprisingly, the secret is less about organizing and more about throwing away things that lack value. Or as Kondo puts it, “things that don’t spark joy.” The goal is to have a house full of only the things that make you happy.

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According to the KonMari method, one must first empty out their closets and drawers. Then, every article is placed into one of two categories: things that spark joy, and things that don’t. Items in the latter category get discarded. But according to Kondo, before letting go of an item, one should thank it for serving its purpose.

Today, Kondo is a household name, thanks to her Netflix series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo. The show features her visiting a variety of American homes and helping the inhabitants tidy up their lives. While Kondo has only entered most of our lives through a TV screen, we almost feel as if our lives are just a bit tidier than before.