If you’re feeling the urge to purge unwanted items from your home, you’re not alone. Marie Kondo and her specific tips on decluttering have taken the world by storm while making the task of tidying feel easy. Want to get started? Here are 30 tried and true tips to help kick-start your cleaning and clearing journey.
Assess the situation
In Marie Kondo’s series on Netflix, she encourages clients to empty all of the objects in their cupboards and closets so they can get a full picture of what they own. Once someone does that, they can better assess what to keep and what to toss.
Keep what you love
“Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle,” Kondo says in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.
Ask yourself whether an object sparks joy
Another one of Kondo’s tried and true tactics is to ask yourself whether an item—be it a T-shirt or a book—makes you happy. If it doesn’t, you can safely get rid of it.
Give yourself time
“When you start consciously going through your stuff, knowing there’s an emotional connection, you’re going to feel better,” June Saruwatari, author of Behind the Clutter, recently told Fast Company. Her advice is to purge slowly and methodically. “Pick up one item at a time.”
Have a goal in mind
Saruwatari also advises clients to have a long-term goal in mind when they start decluttering. Ask yourself what you want to create in your life. From there you can assess what objects fit into that new definition of your world.
Ditch because of itch
We’re often inclined to hold onto an object because someone we love gave it to us or because we wore it to a special event, but organizational experts agree that if a piece of clothing itches or rubs you the wrong way you should clear it from your closet. Same goes for anything that pinches or scratches.
Discard first… then move onto putting objects away
“Do not even think of putting your things away until you have finished the process of discarding,” Kondo notes in her book and Netflix show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. “As soon as you think, ‘I wonder if it will fit in this drawer,’ the work of discarding comes to a halt. You can think about where to put things when you’ve finished getting rid of everything you don’t need.”
Categorize your cleaning
“If you have too many things and think it might be too overwhelming, then each time that you are going to do this, start with a certain category,” Kondo told ELLE Decor in 2019. “One day you can only look at tops or trousers, for instance, and that can make it less overwhelming.”
Make your bed
One of the most basic tidy-up tips Kondo (and other organizational experts) has for clients is to make your bed every morning. Researchers believe the small act can even help change your outlook on life.
Organize your entryway
The front foyer of a home is a space that holds a lot of little objects—keys, mail, hats, mitts. To ensure the area remains organized and tidy, Kondo and Martha Stewart suggest people have a set container/place for everything. Here are some of the latter’s organizational entryway tips.
Compartmentalize your kitchen
In her Netflix series, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, Kondo tells her clients to compartmentalize everything in the kitchen with baskets or dividers. This will ensure you always know where an object is and that you don’t purchase something you already own simply because you couldn’t find it. Here is an impressively organized cupboard to get you inspired.
Go digital
Kondo is a firm believer that papers—like bills and school-related forms for the kids—often sit disorganized on the kitchen counter if they aren’t sorted immediately. Her advice? Ditch paper mail altogether and go digital. Not only will this keep your home tidy, you’ll help save the environment.
Don’t stack, fold
One of the biggest things KonMari advocates swear by is her folding techniques. Within minutes of watching the first episode of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, you’ll see what we mean.
Make all items visible
A well-organized kitchen cupboard was tidy because all of the objects on the shelves could be seen. “The secret to maintaining an uncluttered room is to pursue ultimate simplicity in storage so that you can tell at a glance how much you have.”
Label everything
Labelling items will ensure you always know what’s hiding in a box. This is particularly important in the kitchen where simple things like spices can get confused (oregano and basil look an awful lot alike!). “When you can see everything in your pantry at a glance, you will stop purchasing duplicates and stocking unnecessary items,”
Read (and keep) books you love
Kondo admits that knowing which books to throw away and which to keep can be challenging. So ask yourself: “Books are a reflection of our thoughts and values… Will these books be beneficial to your life moving forward?” If the answer is yes, then keep a certain volume; if no, donate it to your local library.
Organize by colour
One of Kondo’s most beloved tips is to organize everything—from books to clothes—by colour. Not only does the exercise help you keep track of things, it ensures your organizational end result is visually pleasing. Other organizers have long agreed with the tactic.
Start with clothes
Because purging and getting rid of objects can be difficult, Kondo advises clients on her show to start the cleaning process with clothes. (It’s likely something people have had to clear out at some point or another.) From there you can move onto other miscellaneous items.
Organize and display memorabilia
Many people store things in boxes where they’re never seen. But Kondo suggests clearing out cards, letters and objects that aren’t all that important so you can organize key items like photos in a scrapbook or on a photo wall. That way you’ll be able to see the things that matter most to you.
Make folding a habit
If you have kids, Kondo suggests you involve them in the process of KonMari folding so it’s a skill they master young. This will ensure their rooms are always well-kept and organized. As a bonus: getting the family involved in cleaning will lessen the load on one person.
Clean up after yourself
If you end up leaving pots and pans and dishes all over your house every day, your space is guaranteed to look messy. A clean house is an organized house, which means things are always put back in their designated space.
Keep shelves sparse
“My tip for keeping the kitchen tidy is to store as much as you can, and especially keep the area around the sink clear. This makes daily cleaning easy,”
Workspaces matter
Kondo is not a believer in a messy workspace. She advises clients in her book and on her show to make their deskscapes sparse and to fill them with objects that inspire. She believes sparking joy will also spark creativity.
Reuse what you can
Purging doesn’t need to mean throwing everything out. There are clever ways to reuse beautiful objects—like this example of using old candle holders to store makeup brushes.
Don’t forget the little things
When organizing your home it can be easy to think you don’t need to sort or arrange random miscellaneous objects like batteries, but you would be wrong. Anything that comes in a package, Kondo says, should be emptied and placed in a storage unit so you can see the items and easily access whatever you need.
Have fun with art
“Love this idea for displaying children's art while still recognizing that the pieces may be rotated out,” “The best part is that the young artists, themselves, have a say on how and what is displayed. Could make this at home!”
Decorate with plants
If you think a particular space needs a little positive energy, Kondo suggests you add a plant to the area. Research has shown there are a number of health benefits to decorating with greenery.
Purify your space
“Every morning, I open all the windows in the house and I burn incense to purify the space. I let the old air out and allow the new air to come in,” Kondo said. “I also like crystals and place them in different parts of my home. They help to purify the space.”
Donate what you can
Kondo advocates for people to find ways to donate or give away as much of their unwanted household objects as possible. They may spark joy for someone else, so look to support local charities with your purging. Animal shelters take sheets and towels, libraries take books, tech recycling depots take old gadgets.
There is an end
The task of decluttering your home is daunting, but know that there is an end to the process. At the conclusion of every episode of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, the person who purged discusses how helpful the process was. They also describe how having a tidy home has changed their world. Cleaning, it turns out, is short-term pain for long-term gain.
Sarah Walker, Espresso
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