Last month I felt an incredible urge to clean and organize my belongings at home.  I was feeling overwhelmed by all my clutter.  One Sunday afternoon I made the commitment to tidy up my bedroom closet.  I spent three hours emptying all of my drawers, purging old clothes, installing organizers and folding my things neatly back into place.  The process felt immensely purifying and cathartic.  Who knew it could feel so good to tidy up a sock and underwear drawer?

“To put your things in order means to put your past in order,” says Marie Kondo, a Japanese organizing consultant, author of the best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and founder of the Konmari method – guidelines on how to organize your home.  “Tidying up is like resetting your life and settling your accounts so that you can take the next step forward.”

The process of going through my things was tedious, time-consuming and challenging especially when my small children, dog, meals, and other household chores also needed my attention.  That said, when my project was complete I felt incredibly satisfied and accomplished.  Getting rid of things actually made me feel lighter and happier.

Here’s what I learned from the Konmari method of tidying up:

1. Organize your items by size.  Items with a similar utility should be grouped together, items of a similar size should be grouped together.
2. Store items by frequency of use.  Items that you use often should be kept in easy to access shelves or drawers.  Put items that you don’t use often in higher or out of easy access storage.
3. Marie Kondo asks you to pile up all of your things into one heaping pile in the middle of the room before you start to organize.  This helps you visualize just how much stuff you truly have — which is usually way more than you need.  This allows you to really pick and choose what you want to keep and what you want to discard.
4. Make sure every single item you own has a home.  This is where your drawer organizers come into play!  If your item has a home it is more likely to get put back in the right place.
5. Make sure the items you keep in your house spark joy when you touch them.

Marie Kondo says, “The question of what you want to own is actually a question of how you want to live your life.”  This month, I invite you to tidy up your home and create space for a new way of living.

You can watch more of Marie Kondo’s tidying up magic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXzcmr2WcDA
Source: Ten Amazing Tips from Tidying Up With Marie Kondo.
Check out Marie Kondo’s books which have been on many best seller lists for months.