Gather all of your belongings around you. Ask yourself, does this bring me joy? If your answer is "no", then throw the offending and joyless item away. This, in a nutshell, is the KonMarie Method for tidying up.
Marie Kondo's de-cluttering Bible has sparked a worldwide trend for downsizing, and most likely a spike in the number of belongings that do not spark joy listed on eBay and Amazon. Kondo, a Japanese organizing and decluttering guru, has a waiting list several miles long in Japan for her personal consultation services, but for the rest of the world, there is her little turquoise book breaks down her radical approach to tidying up. There are two stages to truly successful tidying; first, put your hands on everything you own, ask if it sparks joy, and it if doesn't, thank it for its service, and move on. Second, once you are left with only the items that make you feel truly joyful, arrange them where you can see them and enjoy them on a daily basis. It is only when both prongs of this two-pronged approach have been successfully completed that you will truly reach housekeeping Nirvana; you will never have to clean gain.
Kondo breaks down tidying up; de-clutter by category, not by room - sort out your clothing first, since if's rarely connected to you emotionally - and lead up to the really emotionally charged stuff, such as family heirlooms and old photographs. Kondo also gives tips on how to store everything, the theory behind this being that by falling in love with everything you are left with after your purge all over again will make it much easier to get ready in the morning, find things to wear for every occasion and even help you reacquaint yourself with your personal style and the true essence of you.
For Marie Kondo, tidying up has been a lifelong obsession that began to manifest itself in junior school when she would run into the classroom during recess to tidy up the book shelves. However, years spent constantly obsessed with tidying up began to take its toll on Kondo and she experienced panic attacks when becoming overwhelmed by the need to neaten her possessions. One day an epiphany came; she should not be concentrating on the things that she wants to throw away, but on the things she wanted to keep. This practice stems from her Shinto faith, as cleaning is seen as a spiritual cleansing in Shintoism.
January 2019 introduced Kondo to the world for a second time as her Netflix television series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo debuted. In it, Kondo visits various families across America and assists them with their decluttering, hopefully enabling them to live a life with less encumbrances and mess, and more joy.
