A tidy Minto apartment in Toronto

7 tips to declutter your apartment Marie Kondo style

LIVE brighter | 5 MIN READ | 2022-02-10

"A dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective. It is life-transforming." - Marie Kondo 

Cleaning isn’t for everyone. Decluttering, though? Hard not to enjoy a little bit of movement that results in instant gratification. Celebrity tidying consultant and best-selling author, Marie Kondo invented the KonMari Method™ with the belief that tidying is to clear away the clutter so you can live the life you want. 

Wondering how exactly decluttering elevates your life?

When you start to live clutter-free, your apartment becomes easier and less time-consuming to clean

A tidier place reduces stress and encourages you to make healthier choices

Shopping your own wardrobe and clearing out things in your pantry before you make new purchases comforts your pockets!

The secret behind the KonMari Method is the order in which you tidy your space. Marie suggests starting with the least time-consuming tasks and moving towards more complex ones. 

We accumulate mess slowly, and as it continues to grow, so does the mental weight of knowing that it’s there. When you break down large chores into small tasks you can accomplish in under 15 minutes, decluttering can become a fun project!

Check out these 7 reasons why everyone is obsessed with the KonMari method and how it can transform your life and home.

1. Visualize the result

Organized Minto apartment

Marie encourages you to think about the kind of home you want to live in and how you want to live in it. She believes that the more time you invest in creating your vision, the more likely you are to stay committed to the process of tidying up. 

Ask yourself:

What do I hope to gain through tidying? Try to be as specific as you can

How will a tidy place make you feel? 

Why is that important to you? 

Setting a vision in your mind before you begin will set you up for success.

2. Keep only what brings you joy

Woman holding top and smiling

Getting rid of possessions can be hard for all of us, especially as we get older. Asking yourself “does this spark joy?” as you hold each object allows you to understand if it still holds a place in your life. If you feel a sense of joy or contentment (she says it’s a physical sensation!), you hold on to it. If it doesn’t, you donate or discard it. 

When you choose to discard something from your home, make sure you do it the right way. Once you understand what you need and value, you can strip down to the bare minimum and start with a clean slate. Who doesn’t love that? 

3. Discard with gratitude

Donation box filled with clothes

Who among us isn’t guilty of stuffing things away for the sake of time? We know we certainly are! 

You hesitate in making the emotional investment of choosing what to keep and let go of. Marie suggests making tidying a celebration by giving the objects you discard a special send-off through expressing gratitude for how the object has impacted your life. 

The reason you are encouraged to thank the items in your home is to free yourself off of any emotional attachments to the things you are discarding, making room for a renewed love for the things you are choosing to keep.

4. Give every object a home


Woman marking a box with a label

Give everything you own its designated space. Yes, everything! 

Allocating a ‘home’ for every object you own makes the lives of everyone in your household easier. It takes practice to get used to putting things back in their designated places, but once you grow into the habit, you’ll thank us and Marie.

5. Tidy up by category, not by location


Woman rearranging things in a kitchen drawer

Our natural tendency is to clean the house room-by-room. However, Marie suggests an alternative: 

Tackling clutter by dividing objects into categories - all the books are put away at once, clothes are organized next, cables put away with other cables, etc. This way, you eventually end up clearing the whole house, and all objects go into their respective ‘homes’.

6. Store things up-right


Drawer with perfectly arranged and folded clothes in pastel colours

Storing things vertically has multiple advantages, according to Marie. When you store clothes upright, it allows you to see what colours and prints you already have, which will prevent you from buying the same kind of clothing again. With items in the pantry, it’ll help prevent forgetting about things that end up at the bottom of the stack – hello, sustainability!

7. Don’t let nostalgia justify hoarding


Woman holding a bunch of letters

Let’s repeat this one louder for the people in the back! 

As we move through life, we’ll keep collecting things of sentimental value. However, we may not have space for everything in our homes. When decluttering, our minds fixate on what we’re discarding, rather than what we’re keeping. Kondo’s suggestion is to focus on what we’re consciously choosing to keep, instead.

Feeling inspired by our organization tips? Check out our post on Turning A Minto Home into A Dream Home or browse through some Marie Kondo-inspired decluttering tips on Pinterest

Have we missed a tip that you’ve found useful? Let us know!