{"id":105,"date":"2019-06-22T10:31:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T14:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=105"},"modified":"2026-01-19T23:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T03:13:20","slug":"marie-kondo-organization-konmari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/marie-kondo-organization-konmari\/","title":{"rendered":"Marie Kondo Organization: How It Works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The basic process of the Konmari method<\/a> is to discard first, then organize what\u2019s left. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discarding requires you to ask whether an item sparks joy<\/a>. If it does, keep it. If it doesn’t, thank it for everything it\u2019s done for you. Then move it to the discard\/donate pile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After you\u2019ve discarded items in a certain category, then you can move on to organizing what\u2019s left in that category. When you organize, keep your storage as simple as possible: <\/strong>use what your home already has, as opposed to buying a lot of complicated storage solutions that ultimately end up cluttering your space more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ideally, you should be able to see everything you own at a glance and get whatever you need easily. Vertical storage is better than horizontal storage<\/strong> to accomplish this, like books upright on a bookshelf instead of stacked on top of each other–it\u2019s much easier to see all your books and take a single book out when they\u2019re organized vertically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 4: Marie Kondo’s Organizing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For a given category in the Konmari process, you\u2019ve made it through the discarding phase. Now your next task is to find a place for each remaining thing, and put each thing in its place.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may seem like this will take a long time, but it won\u2019t take as long as discarding. You\u2019ve only got to find a spot for each item once. Items without designated spots are much more likely to end up all over the place, causing you to rebound back into clutter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you are deciding what to keep or discard, ask your heart. But when it comes time to decide where to put things, ask your house. Your home has enough space to contain the things you need–the trick is to learn how to store everything properly.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common Mistakes in Organizing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Many people think they organize to \u201cgo with the flow of their house\u201d–that the layout of their house determines what goes where. But if you look at their organization and the subsequent flow, it\u2019s actually not determined by the house or anything other than where they\u2019ve decided to store things<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flow doesn\u2019t determine where we store things. Instead,where we store things dictates the flow of our daily lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, a lot of people put a long, thin table near the front door as a place to put mail, keys, and anything they either need when they leave the house or want to put down immediately upon coming home. But then mail tends to pile up on this table, because it\u2019s not actually an effective place to put mail that needs to be opened–it\u2019s just the easiest place to drop it. The house didn\u2019t force them to use the hallway as a space for mail–the storage method the homeowners chose determined where the mail ends up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People often end up putting things in places where it\u2019s easiest to access them fastest.<\/em> This is a trap, and a surefire way to clutter your house up. When we keep things at arm\u2019s length, that\u2019s usually where they end up staying, and suddenly your house is covered in things always an arm\u2019s length away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n