The decluttering mania has become a real, palpable thing with Japanese Organizer, Marie Kondo’s book named The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing! Many consider it a literal ‘clean life’ Bible, where Kondo relates all the ways you can get rid of everything unnecessary in your lives with her simple and heartfelt ways. Lovingly dubbed ‘The KonMari Method’ this technique is all about organizing your life and belongings in a rather neat and thankful way.
Singapore is a country that that thrives on HDB homes, many of which are space starved. As a result, the interior design industry has become quite a booming business. So the question is, can the KonMari method help residents get a clean, satisfying and blissful way to declutter and make their homes more breathable? The answer may depend on your perspective, but the general consensus is; yes. So let’s take a look at some ways Marie Kondo has made decluttering easier for everyone.
Visualizing Your Destination
When it comes to interior design and decluttering, Kondo’s got one advice for everyone who’s thinking of starting anew; visualize your destination. It’s actually a brilliant take on starting over. When your home is small and cluttered, you have to set apart the apprehension and set some clear-cut goals for yourself. When you visualize the final outcome, you’ll feel motivated. And this motivation will help you reevaluate the mess in your home interior design.
Respecting Your Belongings
The KonMari Method encourages the user to respect their belongings. You cannot sift through your stuff with only half your mind on the project and carry out a successful full-scale decluttering. That seems simply redundant and half-hearted. Instead, Kondo advises you to look at your belongings with respect. Ask yourself if that half-empty make-up kit is still happy being locked up in your top drawer? Or if the clothes tacked at the back of your closet happy being squashed? Maybe considering the ‘feelings’ of these inanimate objects seem a little out there for you, but it actually works. Once you start looking at the miserable state of your organization, it becomes easy to sift through your stuff.
Sentimental Value Only Gets In The Way
If you’re looking to set your home interior design back on track, then Kondo suggests sweeping away the haze of nostalgia. Once you start going through your old belongings, it’s inevitable that you’ll be hit by a wave of nostalgia. You’ll want to tuck everything back to where you just pulled it out from, and that’ll just b going back to square one. In a country like Singapore where space is already short, this can be chalked up to a personal disaster. This is why Kondo suggests that you don’t let yourself indulge in sentimental value and get things done.
Categorize, Not Standardize
Every interior design looks its best when it has been decluttered to its basic essentials. Kondo suggests that you start your decluttering by categories, and not by rooms. She’s absolutely right in that regards. When you deal with decluttering Room A instead of Category A, things will just end up shuffling from one space to another without you ever being any wiser. So it’s better to start cleaning up with categories instead of rooms.
The crown jewel and the ultimate decluttering technique that Kondo has mentioned in her book is the Vertical Fold. It might not look like much, but the vertical fold will help maintain your decluttering long after you’re done with the initial project. It consists of stacking your folds in neat, vertical stacks inside of drawers. This way, even when you take something out, it won’t disturb the rest of the setting.
Conclusion
As you can see, Marie Kondo is an expert who knows what she’s talking about. She understands that decluttering is like parting with old friends, and introduces some great ways to start your interior design cleansing. It’s no wonder that her book has become quite a phenomenon in the recent years.
