As our homes become our everything, EZ Living Furniture is here to give you tips on how to make your home really work for you. This week, EZ Living Furniture is giving us tips on how to declutter our homes to help us feel that much lighter. This decluttering process was established by Marie Kondo and is a purely subtractive process which allows you to take back the power in your home and feel once again empowered.
Are you ready to take back the power? Let’s get started.
Step 1- identify categories
Marie Kondo states that there are five categories iinto which all our belongings can be divided. These categories are clothing, books, documents, komono, and sentimental. Shoes will also fall into the clothing category. Magazines and newspapers will fall under books. As for documents, this will not just include your car tax, it will also involve more sentimental items such as letters and photos. Sentimental will entail anything from medals to photographs and even ticket stubs. Komono, not to be mistaken for “kimono”, can be simply translated in Japanese to “small things” and is anything left over that does not fit into any of the other categories. These items are miscellaneous and will include electronics, kitchen supplies, beauty products, and so on.
Step 2- start with the least emotionally charged items
Clothing will be the easiest category to start with as it will hold the least amount of emotional energy. Therefore, collect every item of clothing from every room, not just your bedroom. Put them into one giant pile (preferably on the bed ) and make two or three piles, labelling them “keep”, “donate”, and “rubbish”. In order to truly know an item's worth, you are going to pick up each piece of clothing and ask yourself, “does this spark joy?” If you do not feel a warm fuzzy feeling inside you, odds are pretty high that it does not spark joy, in which case you place in either of the latter piles.
Step 3 - clean away the dust
After you have finished labelling and deciding to keep/throw away each item within its category, you should then thoroughly clean any shelving, wardrobes, or spaces that you are about to use again.
Step 4 – save the sentimental until last
Saving your sentimental items for last will be the best time saver as this category will be the most emotionally charged. You will want to spend more time sorting through old photos and memories, so saving this category for last will allow you to do so.
Step 5 – feel the change
They say that a cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind. With Marie Kondo’s EZ step by step process, you can take back the power and feel at home once again. Because home really is where the heart is.
For more tips on how to declutter your space, simply visit www.ezlivingfurniture.ie
