So you want to do the Tidying Festival?
How to organise you home in 6 easy steps with the KonMari Method
Linda, a certified KonMari Consultant, is a professional home Organizer & Declutterer based in Oxford, England.
Commit yourself to tidying up
Are you ready to do this? To organise and declutter your home with the KonMari Tidying Method?
How much time and energy are you willing to invest in tidying your home once and for all?
Can you commit to a one or two week sprint session? Or is a once weekly (or monthly) daily session more realistic?
Are you prepared to do “homework” between sessions to speed up the process?
Ideally, you should complete your Tidying Festival within 6 months. I have various tidying packages to meet your needs.
Imagine your ideal lifestyle
It is not enough to say you want a peaceful calm and tidy home, you need to really dig deep: make a pinterest board, draw a picture, make notes on a pad.
Imagine you open your eyes in the morning. What do you see, feel, hear, smell ….? The sky’s the limit. Jump out of bed… describe your room … … move out into the rest of the house … …Interact with your family and friends in your beautiful tidy home.
“When we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or fear for the future.” Marie Kondo
Finish discarding first
Many of our homes are full of stuff which will never see the light of day. Have you bought a bigger house or added an extension to hold all your possessions? Are you paying for storage or taking advantage of family by storing stuff in their homes? Until you get a grip on your stuff, by decluttering and getting rid of things you no longer want, need or love, you’ll never have a tidy home.
During the Tidying Festival I will ask you to hold every possession you own and decide if you want to keep it or discard it. Sounds daunting but you only have to do it once.
Tidy by category, not by location
Sounds weird? Well the traditional way of tidying one room at a time hasn’t worked for most of us, so why not give the “KonMari Tidying Method” a go. Would it hurt to try something different?
Most people store the same thing in lots of different locations. It’s only by getting everything together in one place that you can truly appreciate how much you have.
The power of the pile! For many it’s a real shock to see how much stuff they have … … and a very powerful motivator to discard.
Follow the right order
We start with clothes, then books, paper, “komono” (miscellaneous) and finally sentimental items. As you work through the different categories, you’ll hone your tidying muscles. You literally get better at deciding what to keep and what to discard.
“Sticking to the sequence sharpens our intuitive sense of what items spark joy inside us. If you can dramatically accelerate the speed of the decision-making process just by changing the order of what you throw away, don’t you think it is worth a try?” Marie Kondo
Ask yourself if it sparks joy
Try to conjure up that warm momentary glow you get when you hold something in your hands and your whole body smiles, that is joy.
The KonMari method is not about throwing everything away. It is about touching every item you own and affirming that it brings you joy and that it has a place in your present and your future life.
The Tidy Alternative
“I can think of no greater happiness in life than to be surrounded only by the things I love. How about you? All you need to do is to get rid of anything that doesn’t touch your heart. There is no simpler way to contentment. What else could this be called but ”the magic of tidying” Marie Kondo
Linda, professional Organizer & Declutterer, certified in the KonMari Tidying Method, affiliated to APDO
“Photo courtesy of KonMari Media, Inc.”