Let it go let it go!!!

You’ve been at home a few weeks and by now I’m sure that there are some things that have started to annoy you about the space you live, eat, sleep, work and relax in!

I’ve had a few people asking me about how to make their rooms ‘nice’ or organised and my first point of response is that you need to let some things go!

The act of letting go in today’s world of consumerism is a pretty difficult one! It has been drilled into us from an early age that more is better but that concept is gradually starting to crumble. People are seeing through the targeted adverts and beginning to choose what is right for them at this time rather than what is the trend..

BUT what do you do with all that stuff that you did buy spur of the moment or because your mate had one? It’s time to declutter!

Now here is where we run into our first issue. ‘Clutter’ is seen as different things by different people. As Marie Kondo suggested, it’s not clutter if you are firstly going to use the item or if that item ‘brings you joy’. For example, an essential like cleaning equipment doesn’t exactly bring me joy but it is practical/necessary(!) whereas I enjoy having my Grandads vintage radio as an ornament even though it does not really serve a functional purpose anyway.

Now, it is a tricky thing to get your head around so a great place to start getting into the swing of things is by watching others do it! Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix literally talks through the entire process she asks her clients to do.

Marie Kondo’s 6 Rules for Tidying Up (I’ll add my understanding/summary of each rule underneath):

1. Commit yourself to tidying up

   You need to acknowledge the task at hand. For many people we need to tackle our entire homes, and sometimes this also extends to our cars and storage units! A big task indeed!

2. Imagine your ideal lifestyle

   This is what you want to see yourself doing after this process. This goal e.g. to be less stressed or have more free time etc. should be on your mind throughout the process.

3. Finish discarding first

   Here is the main bulk of ‘stuff’ you come across and are pretty much instantly happy to donate, recycle or get rid of. They can be put in a bag and not thought about again.

4. Tidy by category, not location

   Now we start getting down into the deeper things element by element. The idea is NOT to sort by room, like most of the time we may sort the bedroom, then living room etc. here we sort by category.

   • 1. Clothes

   • 2. Books

   • 3. Papers

   • 4. Komono (Miscellaneous items)

   • 5. Sentimental

   Now the idea here is to gather all one one item together. For example as with the list lets begin with clothes. By putting ALL of the clothes you own in one room you can visualise everything at once. This should make it easier to sort through as you can see everything you already have, what you intend to keep and what you may not actually need/want.

5. Follow the right order

   These categories are stated in a specific order. The first 3 are the items that people tend to accumulate without realising the sheer quantity they have. These are things that build up and up and are only every in a cupboard or scattered across the house so goes more unnoticed.

   Komono, or other miscellaneous items may be more of necessities or one of a kind items. These are usually reasonably easy to decide whether to keep them and where they should belong within your home.

   The final category is the most difficult and is likely to be the one you struggle with! This is the main one that will prove whether you have mastered the act of letting go.

6. Ask yourself if it sparks joy

   Something Marie Kondo encourages people to do with the tricky items, especially sentimental items is ask yourself if it ‘sparks joy’. This really is a good tool to question yourself whether you actually enjoy owning it/seeing it or if you have been told it is a sentimental item and you should be keeping it… or maybe it was a gift and you feel bad for getting rid of it, even though you have no use for that particular gift.

   By asking this question it brings it back to your true thoughts on the item and you can give yourself permission to let go…

So that is a really quick stop summary on Marie Kondo’s concept for tidying up and a sure fire trick on how to deal with items you may have been holding onto for years but you’re not sure why…

A good part of this method is that by moving all items, and I mean ALL items from their current place in your home it allows you to completely reorganise to your new goals or preferences which you set out when looking to your future ideal lifestyle.

If you all want to hear more about getting stuck in and organising all your things let me know in the comments and I’ll post about my personal method to organising my ‘stuff’!