Minimalism

Living in the United States, it can be hard to not be swept away by the constant bombardment of advertisements, sales, and newly constructed strip malls. However, the continuous collection of things, sometimes things we do not even need or want, has serious environmental ramifications. What if there was a mindset shift from materialism to minimalism? Marie Kondo, famed Japanese organizational consultant, wrote a book addressing just that idea.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

ⁱDr. Drew Ramsey, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, stated, “When people are organized and tidy, they feel more powerful.” Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up takes readers through organizing and de-cluttering their home step by step, the goal being that readers will only be surrounded by things they love and need.¹

To begin organizing however, one has to overcome a surprising amount of psychological hurdles, from nostalgia to wishy-washy decision-making. However, Kondo has many pieces of advice, often specific to a certain type of item, to guide readers through these challenges. Below are some of her most important points:

1. Sort and purge by category, not room. Start with one category at a time. Kondo suggests this order: first clothes, then books, then papers, then miscellaneous, then mementos (like photographs and letters, which are often the items that have the highest nostalgia level).²
2. Take on the entire process in one go. As Kondo reminds, “Tidy a little every day, and you’ll be tidying forever.” To force yourself to finish all in one go, Kondo recommends, for instance, taking all of your clothes out of the drawers and closets, putting them on the floor, and sorting from there.³
3. Ask yourself, “Does it spark joy?” It is hard to set a standard for what to keep and what to donate. There are many rules of thumb, such as if you haven’t used the item in the last year, donate it. However, Kondo says these rules can make it hard to focus on the task at hand. Simply pick up each item and ask yourself if it brings you joy. If yes, keep it. If no, donate it.⁴
4. Recycle your papers. The only papers that should not be discarded are papers you currently need, need for a limited time, or need indefinitely. Once you purge, make sure to store your papers all in one place so that they feel manageable.⁵
5. Let go of gift guilt. We’ve all received a present that we’re not crazy about, and most of us keep these presents out of guilt. Kondo advises, “The true purpose of a present is to be received. Presents are not ‘things’ but a means for conveying someone’s feelings. When viewed from this perspective, you don’t need to feel guilty for parting with a gift.”⁶ 
6. Embrace vertical storage. It is hard to remember all of the wonderful shirts you own when they are stacked in piles and stuffed into drawers. The danger of stacking is that when items are stacked, it feels like you have more storage space than you actually do. Before you know it, you’ll be surrounded by piles of items again. Stacking is also hard on the items that are on the bottom of the pile. Kondo even recommends storing clothes vertically. There are many online video tutorials on how to fold clothes “KonMari” style.⁷

To learn Kondo’s more specific methods, I recommend reading her book in full.
Towards the end of the book, Kondo shares, “In essence, tidying ought to be the act of restoring balance among people, their possessions, and the house they live in.”⁸

Potential Drawbacks
While Kondo’s method is effective for single people living in small apartments or houses, there would definitely be challenges to implementing all of her ideas in a large family setting. For instance, category sorting and doing the entire organizational process at once may not work if you have multiple family members and a good deal of communal space to contend with.⁹ It may also be harder to navigate multiple family members’ levels of nostalgia while trying to purge old items.¹⁰

The first sentence in Kondo’s book is bold: “In this book, I have summed up how to put your space in order in a way that will change your life forever.”¹¹ Yet, after putting her methods into effect, I have found this sentence to hold true for me, and I hope that others can be empowered by this book, as well.

More Resources

Watch Marie Kondo’s Google presentation below:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160404102346if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/w1-HMMX_NR8 ⁱⁱ