Marie Kondo’s guide to tidying up helping to create minimalist calm

IT’S A new year and the self-help books are out in force, but can they really change your life? Emily Webb tried one and went from mess to meditation.

BOOK PUBLISHING Young woman's reading book.

I HAVE become a woman obsessed and it is all due to a best-selling book.

The book in question is called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Japanese organisation guru Marie Kondo.

Bathroom after KonMari method. Picture: Emily Webb

You may have heard of the book — there’s hashtags and lots of YouTube videos dedicated to the book’s method (check out #KonMari and you’ll see what I mean).

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo has become a worldwide hit. Picture: Christopher Jue

And I don’t want to become a bore with this but the book was somewhat of a revelation to me. I quite unexpectedly bought it online at around midnight a few days before Christmas. I read it in around an hour the next morning and I was ready to declutter my life.

Seriously.

To give you a bit of background I have always been pretty messy. I hold on to things and have been known to shop for the sake of it. That’s all fine when you are younger and living on your own but now I’m married with two children and “stuff” has started to get to me. Really get to me.

Japanese organisation guru Marie Kondo recommends you get every item of clothing on the floor to work out what 'brings you joy'. Picture: Emily Webb

Messiness makes my mind feel cluttered. I want order.

Our lives are busy and staring at my unorganised stuff was getting me down. And I wasn’t setting a good example to my children about looking after their possessions and space. In fact, it was a comment by my husband to this effect that really stung. How could I expect them to pick up their clothes or hang up towels when they’d see me fling stuff into my corner pile destined for the laundry. (My preferred way of sorting dirty washing is to throw it on the stairs and grab it as I go down.)

My husband, who is a minimalist by nature and has been on at me for years to “stay on top of my stuff” is baffled why it took a book for me to get my s*** together. I didn’t get the big pat on the back I wanted rather “it’s about time”.

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He is so neat — he was in the army and is used to keeping small spaces clean and uncluttered — and living with me and now two young daughters has been an adjustment for him. There’s always random Barbie stuff on the floor, or Lego and my stuff basically took over our whole wardrobe. When we were in a one-bedroom apartment in London I had things stuffed in every corner.

He gets rid of books once he’s read them. His clothes are neatly folded and he is just good at being tidy.

After the clear out. Folding the KonMari way. Picture: Emily Webb

(In fact it’s a shame I never cottoned on to this years back because I could have ghostwritten a book for my husband as he is the tidiest, most organised person I know!)

Well I can say that something clicked for me reading Kondo’s book. And I am quite a cynic at heart. I don’t like latching on to things that become a trend but this I have embraced.

The premise of the book and the KonMari method is about getting into the right mindset to become a tidy person and create order about your possessions and ultimately, your life.

In fact there’s a very specific point that Kondo makes throughout the book and what you need to consider with every possession: “Does it spark joy”.

So, propelled by a desire to get my stuff “sorted” I embarked on the method — and there’s very clear directions about the order you tackle the process. Clothes first, books, papers, miscellaneous items and then the last is sentimental items and keepsakes.

I decided to follow her book to the letter. I stood in my bedroom with all my clothes piled on the floor and picked up each one asking myself “does this spark joy?”. If it didn’t I quickly chucked it on my op shop pile.

Book clearing using the KonMari method. All the books go on the floor. Picture: Emily Webb

It made me realise that there wasn’t that much in my wardrobe that sparked joy. (An excuse to do some shopping? But I guess this defeats the purpose of what I have just done.)

I got rid of so much stuff I can now donate the large chest of drawers to the Salvos and I am going to buy a smaller drawer set to put in my closet.

I spent some time watching videos on YouTube that demonstrated the KonMari method of folding clothes. The author does not advocate rolling socks into balls as most of us are conditioners to do. No, you roll them up like little sushi rolls. The folding method is actually very therapeutic.

The before and after book clearing using the KonMari method.

The thought of getting rid of my books was hard. I love my books. I have books I have never read sitting on my bookshelf for “some day”. One of the things I found hardest to digest about the KonMari method was the author’s assertion that “sometime” means “never”.

Anyway, I put all my books on the floor and started sorting. Kondo, who is booked out months in advance as an organisation consultant, said she will stand in front of a pile of her client’s books and “clap my hands or I gently stroke the book covers”.

With only my six-year-old daughter as a witness I followed her advice.

I’ve scaled back my books to about 40 (Kondo said she kept her collection at around 30 volumes).

The bathroom clear-out was cathartic. I pared down my makeup to a few key items — I had a lot of stuff and I would only use a third of it anyway.

Makeup products scaled back using Marie Kondo's method. Picture: Emily Webb

My daughters and I sorted through their toys — it was overwhelming and I think I spent an hour pairing up Barbie and Monster High shoes. Everything has its place and the girls were surprisingly really good as saying “I don’t play with that anymore mum, you can give it to the op shop”. I had to stuff down my feelings of “there’s hundreds and hundreds of dollars in this tub of toys” and just be ruthless.

What I have discovered from the process is that I don’t really need much stuff, that I should buy clothes that I really like (not just because they are a bargain or “they’ll do”) and that having an organised space and less possessions makes me feel less stressed.

And I really enjoy folding clothes the author’s way. It is quite relaxing.

I’m under no illusions that this is earth-shattering in the big scheme of things but it makes my little piece of the world better and calmer.

I have discovered the magic.