The Konmari Method for Beginners: 10 Tips to Organize Your ...

I remarked to my (thankfully very supportive) husband the other day that I have decluttered many times in my life, but this is my first time trying KonMari, and it's so much more challenging but also so much more rewarding. He was confused, and asked what the difference was. Perhaps it's a bit glib, but this is the metaphor I came up with:
If decluttering is like going to a cafe and ordering a cup of matcha, KonMari is like attending a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Clearly the two are related (tea!), but the latter has a particular order, ritual, and meaning to it. In decluttering, you tackle a drawer or a closet with the goal of getting rid of stuff, whereas in KonMari you move category by category throughout your home with the goal of finding joy. KonMari also has additional little rituals, like thanking objects that you discard. Whereas both methods hopefully result in an organized home, KonMari is also about crystalizing your relationship to the objects you use every day and the role of possessions in your life.
How do you describe the difference between KonMari and decluttering when people ask?

I want to start by saying I think Marie Kondo is a wizard, a lot of her philosophies of organization I find similar to my own- only she does it better. What I mean is her technique is one that very much resonates with me (or sparks joy with me) and I have no interest in cutting corners or cherry picking this or that from her system. I respect Marie and I respect Konmari.
I am however experiencing one difficultly and am here to ask for any advice or personal stories you might have that are relevant to my dilemma.
I live in an 850sq foot, two bedroom apartment with my fiancée and our (nearly) three year old daughter. I find the idea of just pulling everything out (in your category) and laying it out to be a smart one.....but what do you do with limited space and a crazy toddler on the loose? Our space is already so limited, there’s definitely certain items I don’t want in reach of the little one, and while I’m the tidy one in our relationship I don’t want to drive my fiancée crazy with such a mess.
Anyone who has finished the Konmari method in a small location and/or with small children I would love to hear any advice/tips/feedback
How did you make it work?
Thank you for reading, and I hope your day sparks joy!

When we began trying to have children, we were hopeful. We were married for 5 years before actively trying for kids, but it was always part of the plan. It shaped where we chose to live, the jobs we took, and even in the friendships we spent time cultivating. Before throwing out the birth control, we'd even started two collections; a library of children's books and LEGO sets.
I'd been collecting children's books since I was in elementary school. Scholastic book fairs would mean $1 books, and I'd happily hand over my birthday money to accumulate endless copies of cute books I hoped my children would someday enjoy. I didn't have my own books at home, so starting something like this felt like the best way to start out motherhood on the right foot. When I met my future husband, one of our earliest conversations was about hopes for the future and how that involved children. I was 16, and already had full names picked out. My husband embraced my enthusiasm for children in his own way, and when we got married my propensity for creating a collection for those children led to him curating what he'd most enjoy sharing: LEGO.
As with any collection, we started small. If we saw a cute set on sale at Target, we'd add it to our cart. If friends and family were unsure of what to gift us for Christmas or Birthdays, we'd answer "anything LEGO" and genuinely mean it. We also enjoy LEGO ourselves, so we spent a great deal of time and money on bigger and more meaningful sets for ourselves. But, the main focus of our collection was always to share it with our family. My husband had visions of co-creating a massive city with the kids and negotiating if the collectible minifigs should only be displayed or could be enjoyed as toys. Being a collector by nature, we would sometimes compromise and get two of something - one to play with and one to display.
As the years went on, we continued collecting sets. We also ventured into collecting loose bricks from people selling on Craigslist or at conventions, again with the hope of building a massive city. As a couple, we enjoyed building some of the larger City Creator sets that started our city, but neither of us could bring ourselves to actually making anything else. Instead, we kept buying LEGO a little bit at a time and putting it in our designated LEGO room of the house.
As you can imagine, over a decade of slowly collecting resulted in us having hundreds of unopened sets and many, MANY pounds of loose bricks. The enormous LEGO collection actually factored into our plans when we moved. We wanted a large room to store the collection as well as the promised LEGO city, and we found a house that gave us what we needed. Interestingly, having to put every unopened LEGO set into one room fully opened our eyes to the reality - we'd gone too far. Every time we'd felt any emotion around trying to have children, we'd soothed that pain with buying something for our future kids. Sometimes it was books, sometimes it was toys, clothes, or other necessities (yes, at one point I'd even gone as far as buying a changing table because of the massive discount). But mostly we'd bought LEGO. And by we, I actually mean me. Sure, my husband bought a good amount of it (especially the loose bricks). But, every time I felt guilty for not being able to get or stay pregnant, I'd buy a LEGO set for him (sometimes even knowing he wouldn't necessarily want it, but our kids probably would). And over 8 years of actively trying and being unable to stay pregnant, I had a lot of guilt.
When it finally came time to let go of our dream of having children, I made peace with a lot of the items I'd acquired. I happily donated every last outfit, pack and play, toys, and even the entire library of books I'd been saving since childhood (giving quite a few of these things to friends having children helped). It wasn't easy, but it felt like the right thing to do and I was able to see children enjoying them. When it came to the LEGO, though, I struggled. My husband struggled even more.
We're nerdy people who enjoy comic book conventions and collectibles. Some of our best memories involve hunting down specific minifigs or scoring a fantastic deal. We also still love LEGO, and have many of the bigger sets on display around our house. But building a LEGO city for ourselves isn't something we want anymore, and that's been hard to accept. From an outside perspective, our lives without children are simply going to continue as they always have. We never had children, so what's the actual loss there, right? But for us, our entire relationship has always been built on this potential future. And as we're coming to terms with our future being just us, it's shaken our identities to our core. Do we really even like LEGO? Are all the collectibles we've gotten over the years just an attempt to fill that inner void? Did we waste all this time, energy, and money for nothing? These aren't necessarily the nicest or most helpful of questions, but it's where we've been. We've both been living in this state of future plans and, after being forced to stop and really pay attention to who we are in the here and now, we're kind of lost.
After some soul searching this last year, we've largely come to the conclusion that we DO still really enjoy LEGO. But, it's time to embrace the KonMari method and only keep what sparks joy. My husband's UCS Millenium Falcon is a work of art, and you can pry my VW Bus from my cold, dead fingers. A lot of the rest of it, especially the minifigures, are things that we're slowly allowing to move on.
We started this re-homing process over Christmas, when we packed up about 150 sets (most of them city sets) and donated them to Toys for Tots. Covid has definitely had an impact on who is accepting donations, but even if this were normal times I'm not sure how trusting a nonprofit would be to a random person emailing them "hey, I have hundreds of LEGO sets - you want any?" We want these sets to fulfill the purpose we originally got them for; to be enjoyed by children. There are a few larger sets I intend to donate to a local LEGO User Group, but we both want to avoid the reseller market where we can. Even though we've given up on having children, we know we'd both feel terrible to just get them out of the house without care. The bricks deserve better than that, because each one had meaning to us.
So what's our plan now? To find homes for the new in box sets with local organizations (and friends' children), something that will be much easier once things have calmed down with the pandemic. As for the loose bricks, we're going to take LEGO up on their amazing program for recycling: LEGO Replay! (https://givebackbox.com/lego/#). You fill out your email and zip code, print out a shipping label, box up loose LEGO bricks, and drop the box off at FedEx. They have a program in place to wash and distribute bricks to children's organizations around the country (with other opportunities for any bricks that are broken).
I know they're just LEGO bricks, but for us they've been so much more. They were hope. They represented our future. We're grateful we even had the ability to amass something as ridiculous of a problem as this, and now it is our way of saying goodbye. Literally, piece by piece.

Hi, need to vent. I just can't seem to get myself to continue going through the paper category. I gathered everything into a pile, organized them by type, and even went through several notebooks and binders worth but once I stopped (after 8 hours) I couldn't get myself to keep going.
I have so many old course materials that have sentimental value even though I know I don't need them. Some of them are from my degree in college, some are from classes in grade school. Some are even about practical things like personal finance and idk if I'll need them. I just can't see myself getting rid of some of them, and some I'd actually feel guilty if I did.
The other thing is I have a chronic illness and need to keep track of my doctors appointments and such, but I have no idea how to organize these and store them with the KonMari method. In fact, the are a ton of papers I simply have no idea what category they go into. Like a takeout menu. Business cards for old doctors you're not sure if you should keep because for some reason sometimes you need to remember their name. A letter from your bank telling you features about your credit card. I have a terrible memory, I definitely can't rely on it for stuff like that. How and where does she store receipts? All she says in her books is she empties them out of her purse everyday and puts them somewhere.
Plus, sometimes you learn info about yourself that you forgot about by going through your old stuff. Once it's thrown out you can't do that anymore. Sometimes you even lose important info like the dates where your started and ended your old job and suddenly your health insurance wants proof you worked there.
I don't know, I just don't know what I'm doing in this category and I feel incredibly lost. I was upset that it wasn't very detailed in the books, but I seem to be the only one I know having trouble understanding how everything fits in the 3 categories.
When do things transition from being stored shortterm to longterm? Where would you put a letter of rejection from a bank and their reasoning? A thank you letter from a donation center that you kind of want to save but don't know what to do with?
What if I adopt the KonMari for my papers and get rid of so much that I have no way of looking into the past and seeing who I was then, if I needed to. You forget things like how often you went to a certain restaurant in college, the amount you owe after you pay off a debt. Just info that reminds you who you were. I don't know.
I'm just having a really hard time with this one.

TLDR: I'm starting a digital konmari tidying festival because my digital lifestyle is a time suck. I think getting my digital life in order will help me, but how does one "envision" what they want for their digital life with literally so many digital things, apps, etc? What steps have you taken to organize your digital life?
Soooo....
I've been thinking about doing the Konmari process with my digital clutter for a while now. I completed the konmari process with my physical items a few years ago, and honestly its been amazing. I really feel like I have the joyful rituals of my day down and have a good grasp on the physical items I surround myself with.
But now, a big part of my life is online/digital now - I work from home and my laptop serves as my actual work workspace and my personal work space (paying bills, editing photos, writing, zoom calls with friends/fam). I'm pretty on top of being able to disconnect (close my laptop, keep my phone away ) and enjoy activities happening in "real life" but when I get back online to work, do personal tasks, or just scroll social media - UGH. It's just a mess. I feel like my time is wasted because I'm surrounded by so much digital clutter - so I really feel like my digital lifestyle needs attention and would like to apply the konmari method.
There are literally so many components to digital life, I've found it hard to visualize how I want my digital lifestyle to look like and how before I start the process. I think ultimately, I want to feel like the digital components of my life are useful tools, joyful, engaging but not addicting,
Its kinda helped me to start visualizing by breaking out what categories of my digital lifestyle need attention, but I'm overwhelmed just thinking of the categories:

• Emails - SoOoO many emails every day - work emails, personal emails, junk emails. I'll probably just delete them all, start fresh, and come up with a new system that works for me.
• Apps - I need to do an audit of the phone apps I enjoy using or find useful, and delete the others.
• Social Media - I enjoy using social media, but I feel like my time is wasted because I follow soooo many people. Time to delete those old HS acquaintances and coworkers I wouldn't actually want to talk to in real life, clean up my profiles (aka, delete embarrassing photos or posts), unfollow the influencers who don't add meaningful content to my life, and unfollow the family members who share conspiracy theories, etc.
• Contacts - Phone contacts pile up surprisingly quick - will I need to call that neighbor who used to pick up my mail and then moved 3 years ago, or that guy that ghosted me senior year of college? Def not so why TF do I still have these??
• Accounts and passwords - I should probably know what accounts I have set up, and stop using the same password for all of them like a real adult who values real online security lolol. Password manager maybe??
• Music/Podcasts - Why do I follow tons of podcasts people have recommended to me that I don't even listen to? I feel like this is like the "books" category - if I haven't listened to that podcast my coworker told me about 2 years ago, I'm probably not interested in listening to it.
• Document Organization - I need a system for my work documents, personal project documents, old college papers, sensitive info documents, random iPhone notes - I've been doing research on a secure cloud options so my online papers I need to keep can match the physical organization I have set up for things like taxes, but why hold on to old documents that I'm neverrr going to open again?
• Calendar - Too many of my "to-dos" feel like they weigh on my mind, when I should just block off time to do them or set up reminders to do things like scheduling doctors appointments, sending out birthday cards, medicine reminders. Actually getting this stuff in my calendar is key.
• Photos - I feel like this is the sentimental category and just a HUGE undertaking. I have photos everywhere, different clouds, an old computer, a few drives, a few printed photos I want to have digitized, I know I need to get them all in one place to start (like piling up clothes) and then open each one and decide if it sparks joy and THEN organize them - but I'm exhausted just thinking about this.

Have you tackled all of your digital clutter in a konmari style method? Can you share your secrets on how you did it? What other digital categories did you tackle?

My father and I are the clean ones in our household. My mother, however, tends to struggle a bit with organization. She keeps things clean and put away but her issue is that she's often running out of storage space because once something is put away, then it is clean and not to be worried about.
So, today I decided to help her clean her jewelry boxes. I know that she doesn't often wear jewelry (likely not helped by the fact that it was all tangled together and not easily accessible) but I thought that it would be a simple and fun cleaning thing to do together as every piece has a story.
What I did was simply untangle pieces and ask if she wanted it in 4 different piles: keep (everyday), keep (not everyday), give/throw away, and keep (miscellaneous). We oohed and ahhhed at some pieces, she shared stories about gifts from old boyfriends, and we laughed at some of the more outdated pieces and overall had a great time. We also went down from 4 organizers to 3 (and not even coming close to filling the 3 but they're sentimental containers) and her main jewelry box can close again! I picked up a few pieces too (trust me they all spark joy).
I think what helped a lot was that I dealt with the not-so-fun parts--untangling necklaces, finding earring pairs, etc.--and I set up the method for her. All she had to do was tell me what went into which category. I think it also helped that we started our cleaning journey by sorting through something fun. I know it doesn't exactly follow the Konmari method but we definitely used a lot of the core pillars of the method.
Anyway, I hope that this can serve as a guide to those of you struggling with family members who don't share your same passion for tidying. Happy Konmari-ing!

We're so excited to share a new digital tidying course taught by the master herself! Check out the trailer and a note from Marie below.
KonMari Method™: Fundamentals of Tidying Trailer
I’m thrilled to introduce my new digital tidying course, KonMari Method™: Fundamentals of Tidying. In this 10-episode series, I’ll be personally guiding you through my world-famous tidying method. I will teach you everything you need to know – from folding techniques and storage solutions to recognizing what sparks joy for you!
I’ve been enchanted with tidying since I was five years old. Throughout my childhood, I read everything I could about storage and organization; at the end of the day, I’d rush home from school with a new plan for tidying my room...but the clutter always came back.
So I devised my own system. The KonMari Method™ is a practical guide to tidying. The most essential aspect of the method is that you decide what to keep based on whether or not it “sparks joy” for you. Then you give each of those items a home. It’s that simple – yet it can yield profound results!
Rather than a dreaded task, I see tidying as a celebration. It’s an act of gratitude for the items that support you every day – and the first step to living the life you’ve always wanted. It is my hope that this course will help you to create a bright and joyful future!
Go to konmari.is/32WOsFp or visit the link in profile to get started.

If you want some inspiration and enjoy reading graphic novels, Marie Kondo has a fictional graphic novel delineating her process for cleaning a large mess. It's a quick read and even if you don't utilize her technique, it can be very inspirational to those who feel overwhelmed with a lot of stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Manga-Tidying-Up-Magical/dp/0399580530
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"The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story"
Marie Kondo presents the fictional story of Chiaki, a young woman in Tokyo who struggles with a cluttered apartment, messy love life, and lack of direction. After receiving a complaint from her attractive next-door neighbor about the sad state of her balcony, Chiaki gets Kondo to take her on as a client. Through a series of entertaining and insightful lessons, Kondo helps Chiaki get her home--and life--in order. This insightful, illustrated case study is perfect for people looking for a fun introduction to the KonMari Method of tidying up, as well as tried-and-true fans of Marie Kondo eager for a new way to think about what sparks joy. Featuring illustrations by award-winning manga artist Yuko Uramoto, this book also makes a great read for manga and graphic novel lovers of all ages.

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I read it through my library's free eBook system, Overdrive. I'm not trying to shill a book, just suggesting something that helped me when I felt overwhelmed with my mess of an apartment. I really didn't follow much of her advice, but the reminders to take it slow and split the work into smaller portions was what I needed to hear. So find it if you're interested, whether free, through your library, or other means.
Good luck everyone! May you have success in your cleaning and organizing.

I think daily posts would get overwhelming quickly (for me and for all of you), so how about just a weekly post detailing what's ahead?
Everything posted here is on the Marie Kondo site. I've altered the list to say the actual day each step takes place on. Also if you're feeling stuck or unsure about what to do, the site has links to articles that should help.
Are we ready? Let's jump into Week 1!
Monday: Review the Basics
Created by Marie Kondo, the KonMari Method™ advocates tidying up completely, in one fell swoop. Most methods suggest tidying room-by-room or little-by-little, an approach that will doom you to pick away at piles of stuff forever.
Today, familiarize yourself with the six rules of tidying and Marie’s unique philosophy. If you haven’t read “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and “Spark Joy,” now is the perfect time – we recommend keeping Marie’s books nearby throughout the challenge.
Tuesday: Imagine Your Ideal Living Space
The first step of the KonMari Method™ is to imagine your ideal lifestyle. Get specific! Goals like, “I want to live clutter-free,” or “I want a beautiful home,” are too broad – you’ll have to dive deeper.
For today’s task, you’ll need a journal and a few moments to reflect on your own. Focus on the physical aspect of your dream home. Ask yourself:

• What does my ideal living space look like?
• Is there a theme?
• What are the predominant colors, shapes and textures?
• How does it smell?
• What is the light like?

Settle into a comfortable seat and jot down whatever comes to mind – this is the time to let your mind wander.
Wednesday: Imagine Your Ideal Emotional State
Use these questions as a springboard:

• How do I want to feel after this challenge?
• What motivated me to tidy in the first place?
• What do I hope to gain?

Write down the answers in your journal. If you’re having trouble tapping into your intuition, connect to your inner self with a self-care practice; Marie uses a tuning fork to center herself.
Thursday: Clarify Your Goals
Take out your journal and read all the ideas you’ve recorded over the past two days. For each of your visions, write down why you aspire to that lifestyle. Return to these notes throughout your tidying festival to stay motivated – seeing your goals on paper will increase the likelihood of achieving them.
Friday: Make a Vision Board
Take out your art supplies – it’s time to get crafty! Using your journal entries as a guide, create a board that visually represents your ideal lifestyle. Cut out images and words from magazines to make a compelling collage of your desires – or draw them if you’re feeling inspired (a Pinterest board works, too). Refer back to this visual any time you get stuck – this is the life you’re tidying toward.
Weekend: Take “Before” Photos of Your Space
For the next two days, document your living space in its current state. Resist the urge to neaten up – these “before” pictures will serve as a reminder of how far you’ve come on your journey. Organize them in a special folder so you can see them at a glance.

Welcome to Week 2 of the 8 Week Tidy Challenge:
Check out the link to the original site here: Week 2
We’re on week two of our 8-Week Tidy Challenge! Here’s your next batch of bite-size daily tasks. Stick to the calendar, and you’ll experience the transformative power of tidying before summer is over – we promise. Now get ready, clothes – we’re coming for you!
Tidy by category, not by location is the guiding principle of the KonMari Method™. We’ll walk you through a new category each week of the tidy challenge, and this week we’re tackling the first category of Marie’s unique method: clothes. Don’t forget to keep your smartphone handy to document your clothing piles and progress! Tag #mykonmari on social media so we can cheer you on!
Day 8: The Pile
Gather all of your clothing in one spot to fully assess how much you own. Be thorough: Coats in the hall closet and seasonal clothes in the attic have to come along for the ride, too – no stowaways! If you live with multiple people, focus only on your items.
Day 9: Learn How to Joy Check
Take out three items of clothing from your pile that unequivocally spark joy. Hold them in your hands and take note of how they make you feel. Once you’ve determined what joy feels like for you, you can apply the joy check to all of your belongings. As you tidy, this feeling will be the standard you use to determine what to keep – and what to let go of with gratitude.
Day 10: Tidy Core Clothes
Today’s goal: Tidy tops, bottoms, dresses, pajamas and jackets. Marie recommends starting with tops – items worn close to your heart make it easier to determine if they spark joy.
Separate your belongings into two piles – items to keep and items to discard. Resist the urge to store as you go – finish tidying all of your clothes and then decide where your kept items should go.
Day 11: Tidy Intimates & Athletic Wear
Today’s focus is on intimates – including bras, underwear, socks and stockings – and athletic wear. You got this!
Day 12: Tidy Accessories
Time to joy check your accessories! Sort them into the following sub-categories: handbags, shoes, belts, scarves, jewelry.
Day 13: Fold & Store
Give thanks to the clothing you’ve chosen to let go of – donate, sell or recycle these items so they don’t end up in a landfill.
Now it’s time to store what you chose to keep. To decide where to store something is to give it a home – make sure your belonging are easy to take out and, most importantly, easy to put away. To maximize space in closets, shelves and drawers, Marie recommends folding clothes so they stand upright. Of course, some garments – like heavy jackets and items that wrinkle easily – will prefer to be hung. Marie demonstrates her signature fold, below.
Learn how to fold
Need more help folding? Learn how to fold intimates, menswear and plus-size items.
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Day 14: Organize Your Closet
Arrange the items in your closet so they rise to the right. Hang longer and heavier items on the left – clothing should get shorter, the material thinner and the color lighter as you move from left to right.
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Congratulations! You’ve completed the first category in the KonMari Method™. Tonight, treat yourself to a well-deserved break.

As I continue hammering out the kinks in my game's design, its easy to miss the forest for the trees. The forest representing a game that is simple, elegant, and fun. The trees being the mechanics and other elements.
Yesterday I was getting frustrated with my inability to let go of some of the mechanics that added realism or balance but simply weren't fun. Rather than obsessing over how I would balance the game with or without those mechanics, I decided to ask another question:
Does this element spark joy?
That element could be a illustration, die, token, box, creature, spell, mechanic, theme --- anything.
For those of you not familiar with the KonMari method, it was developed by "professional organizer" Marie Kondo to help people declutter their lives. As you go through your mess of belongings, you do not start with the question, "Where does this belong?" but rather "Does this belonging spark joy?" If the answer is no, get rid of it! (Easier said than done.)
I decided to go through my entire list of rules, cards I had created, and everything else, and ask this question. It was a cathartic experience and the game feels so much more streamlined now. The best part is that after I forced myself to get rid of elements I didn't like, I realized that what remained was actually easier to balance than before.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Last winter I watched Tidying Up and since then, I’ve been clearing things from my home and getting organized. It hasn’t been perfect and I’ve had to adapt some methods, but I made slow progress. I’m not in good health and had fairly major surgery in October. I also take a medication that suppresses my immune system, so as you can imagine I’ve been closely following the news of the pandemic and taking appropriate precautions.
One of those precautions has been making sure we have sufficient food and supplies to not leave the house for an extended period of time should school or work be cancelled. We had to do a little more work to get there, but having a clean, organized, and sparse laundry room allowed us to fit in a chest freezer and set of shelves for extra food. Knowing how to organize allowed me to organize my stash in such a way that I can easily access everything and know exactly what I have. I made an inventory, and because I never want to live on top of a pile of stuff again, I only bought things we’ll use anyway if this all blows over.
Since I had already done konmari on our OTC and prescription meds, first aid supplies, and other medical necessities, when it came time to go shopping for OTC meds to prep, I didn’t have a lot to buy and I didn’t end up with a ton of duplicates that will expire before I can use them. It was the same with cleaning supplies.
Finally, since I now have space in my house, it’s much easier to keep clean, which is essential to staying healthy even during a normal cold and flu season, and especially with my health issues.
I don’t know that I want to be so sensationalist as to say “Konmari is a life saver”, but helping me to prep in this way may prevent me from having to expose myself to infection if things get bad in my area.
I also wanted to add: prepping is what finally got my spouse on board with tidying up. I don’t think he saw the importance before, but he’s been very active in the process since January.

Friends,
here’s what I do. Everyone is different, but maybe some of this helps you.
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1) Manage news consumption
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- Avoid sensationalist news sources
- Keep informed from factional sources like https://www.worldometers.info
- Limit news consumption to 1-2 times a day
- Don’t look at the news when tired, right after and before sleeping
- Consider how much you’re being confronted on Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and consider cutting down on those
- You take control 100% of what and how and when and how much you consume
- There's no solution to be found in media. Usually, what makes me stop researching is when I have gathered enough information so that I feel kind of good about a topic. This won't happen in really challenging times, there is no solution that will make me feel totally at ease. So I have to consciously stop myself from researching. I say to myself "I have enough for now. I decide to stop looking at this now."
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2) Manage caffeine intake
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- Consider how much is good for you right now (caffeine usually helps my anxiety, but now it’s different)
- Green tea is a good alternative for me
- Herbal tea or even just hot water has a very pleasant effect atm
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3) Mind
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- Counting breaths as a simple meditation practice can help relax my mind. I elongate the numbers in my head for the duration of the exhalation and do the same with the word *and* for the inhalation. So *ooone.. aaaaand… twooooo.. aaaand…* etc.
When I’m really feeling it I go to 100, other times 20 is good enough. All forms of meditation are probably helpful these days.
- Tim Ferriss had Jack Kornfield on his podcast to talk about the current situation and I found it very calming. Skip ads at 4:33.
- Consider journaling. Some recommend setting a limit of 10 minutes or a limit of 1 page per day. Some prefer just writing open ended. Don't do it if the thoughts you're writing down make you feel worse.
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4) Find something to keep yourself occupied
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- Consider starting a little project for a couple of weeks that can help to keep you from worrying too much (I do music. It includes writing lyrics, playing drums and guitar, singing and recording.) Consider a mild work out, stretching, cleaning your flat, doing a little renovation, reorganizing the spices in your kitchen, dusting that corner that really needed it, meal prep, painting, drawing, doing taxes, writing, starting a YouTube channel, becoming Insta-famous. Go down a rabbit hole.
- Getting into a new Netflix show (I’m still looking for something calming myself.)
- Read a book
- Video games, if that's your thing
- Talk to people on the phone and via text and video telephony to counteract isolation from social distancing
- Depending on how much you have to do, consider planing out your week. I don't have an imposed schedule at the moment, and I find myself benefiting from knowing what exactly I'll do the next day. Find out what level of minuteness your planing needs to optimize your wellbeing these days.
- Craft a calming playlist of songs that make you feel good. Listening to music that I liked a lot as a kid feels very grounding.
- Choose some podcasts with interesting topics. Today, the podcast world is limitless. There's hours upon hours of fascinating stuff out there that will captivate your mind. I recommend making a list ahead of time so you have something to occupy your mind when you really need it.
- Make your flat/house as beautiful as possible, or at least one room. If you need to stay home right now or might have to at some point, why not make it as pleasant as possible. If you never need to stay home, you'll still have a beautiful room. Win.
Maybe now is a good time to check out the KonMari method? I haven't fully done it myself, but in short, it's a kind of minimalist, almost spiritual method of organizing your home.
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5) Physical
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- If possible, go for a walk often. I aim for 1 hour every day. It's important not to let your system shut down too much and also give your anxiety a physical outlet.
I sometimes like to combine walking with talking on the phone to someone, or podcasts, or music.
- Taking showers relaxes me and gives me a clean feeling, especially after coming home
- This might be weird to some, but grooming calms me right down. Shaving, exfoliating, moisturizing and all that good stuff.
- Anxiety can cause people to under-eat or to overeat. Have an eye on that for yourself.
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6) Other people
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- Consider how other people affect your stress level. My mom means well, but talking to her on the phone and hearing her terrified for me doesn’t help, because I involuntarily soak it all in. It's a dynamic we had all my life, she's anxious, I unconsciously have a need to parent her and soak up her fear. Doesn't work.
I try to text her via WhatsApp instead, that’s much better.
- I left all texting groups (WhatsApp, Facebook, etc) where people might post sensationalist news. I control what I see, and when. No exceptions.
- Helping other people feels good and gives a feeling of being in control to some degree. Asking yourself "what is my role in helping the world go through this?", no matter on how small of a scale, is empowering. Call a relative. Be kind to someone on the internet. Offer to get groceries for an elderly neighbor. And maybe your role is just to take care of yourself for now, that's fine too.
Also, don't completely lose yourself in trying to help others. When you drown while holding someone, you're drowning them too. Make sure you're ok yourself first.
- "We're all in this together" hasn't been more true in a long time.
That doesn't mean that everyone is feeling, acting and thinking the same way as I do right now, and some might even oppose every single thing I say here. Some people who never had to deal with strong fear in their life might actually be very bad with handling frightening situations. I've observed that some seem to try to counteract their fear with extreme denial of what's happening, or with cynicism or with inappropriate attempts at humor.
It might just be that anxious people are better equipped for really challenging times. We have practice. We have strategies.
But this is about the world, this is about us humans, this is about us all.
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7) Sleep
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Sleep can help you a lot.
Do what you can to get the sleep you need. Start with behavioral and non-prescription things. You will survive a couple of days with little to no sleep, but there's a point where the downsides of prescription drugs are outweighed by its upsides. A good night of sleep can make all the difference.
Let's compile a list of things that may help with sleep
- Use a blue light filter on your electronic devices in the evening, or
- Eliminate screens before bed
- White noise
- Make sure your feet are warm when going to bed (->socks)
- Weighted blanket
- Progressive muscle relaxation
- CBD
- Cannabis
- Prescription drugs
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8) Mindset
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- I try to allow myself little joys.
Some people say that just putting on a fake happy smile will trick your brain into actually feeling happy after a while. I'm not sure if that works for me.
But I try to pay attention to what my mind does, and instead of insisting on being anxious 100% of the time, I give my best to allow little happy moments to come through when they arise spontaneously. For example, I was cooking, and realized that I had bought yellow, red, orange colored bell peppers as well as yellow, red, orange carrots, without knowing it, and it made me a little happy.
- If you can bring yourself to focus only once a day, do it right after waking up. I find that the first moments of the day function as an orientation for the rest of the day. So if you want this day to be about creativity, do something creative right away. If you want your day to be about order, organize something first thing in the morning. I like to think of it as almost programming my day, and right after waking up is the easiest time to do it. What you do first matters most.
- Each of the things on this list might make your anxiety better by only 3% or something like that, if at all. But if you find the things that work for you, and do a lot of them, it adds up. And it gives you a sense of control, which I find really helpful.
- In challenging times, hearts and minds are going to change. Expect it. Get organized. In that change, there's going to be some bad and there's going to be some good.

This is a breakdown of key points from every chapter for the sake of having a master list. So spoilers. It will also contain some observations that people might be interested in, but aren't necessarily crucial. My thoughts are at the end.
Book as a whole

• Message is the same/ slightly clarified - Does it spark joy? Is it crucial to keep? Will it help me achieve my ideal life?
• Several ideas are very similar to ideas in the other books, but clarified for work
• Marie primarily addresses the physical tidying and why you want to consider tidying, while Scott discusses the non-physical tidying and some psychological stuff involved with tidying
• Scott suggests using note-cards/ a spread sheet to organize and tidy non-physical clutter
• Does mention following company policy when necessary
• Full first names are used
• More background into Marie's start as a tidying consultant
• Mentions some differences between Japanese and American companies
• Mentions more recent events in her company
• Scott did use Marie's method to tidy up (at least his desk)

Intro

• Marie states that the purpose of the book is to help people tidy up their work space using the same basic components of the KonMari method - sort by category, do it all in one go, etc.

Chapter 1 (Marie)

• Discusses why you should tidy - the stress clutter can cause, issues in productivity when looking for something, lack of morale
• Mentions that people with tidy desks are considered more intelligent, ambitious, warm, and other positive adjectives
• Mentions that some people can do more creative work with a messy desk and some people cannot - it depends on what's best for you
• Too much clutter leads to a sense of a lack of control
• Tidying can help redefine goals/purpose

Chapter 2 (Marie)

• Outlines KonMari method basics (mindset, ideal lifestyle, all in one go, space for everything, choose what to keep)
• Gives a timeline of about a month (more or less) depending on the work
• Find a time to tidy when you can focus

Chapter 3 (Marie)

• Categories are Books, Papers, Komono, and Sentimental
• Books are the same, with the addition to be mindful of storage at work
• Papers are the same, with categories clarified for work
• Mentions her boss getting overzealous with the shredder and accidentally shredded her resignation letter, lol
• Storage is similar: categorize everything, store upright, make a pending box, don't overuse the scanner
• Business cards are the same
• Komono subcategories are office supplies, electrical, job-specific (paint for artists, tools for mechanics), personal-care, and food
• Office supplies can be broken into desk supplies like scissors and staplers and consumables like sticky notes and paperclips
• Sentimental is the same, but if there are still too many things that spark joy, you can take some of them home
• Storage is the same, adding to not store anything on top of your desk except for anything that would spark joy to be there

Chapter 4 (Scott)

• Digital work includes emails, documents,
• Go through documents and the desktop, using the method
• Don't use too many folders
• Start with inbox for email and determine how you want to file them
• Sent aside a couple of times a day to process your emails
• Go through mailing lists
• Have fewer apps on your phone

Chapter 5 (Scott)

• Activity clutter can be overwhelming
• Urgency does not always equal important
• Multitasking doesn't work
• Figure out the tasks (core, project, and developmental) that you do and evaluate
• If you can't delegate or lessen some tasks, try seeing if there's some positive benefit that you're missing
• Set aside time first for activities that spark joy
• Don't always say yes to things
• Set aside time to think and just be

Chapter 6 (Scott)

• This is all about decisions, which can low-stakes to high-stakes
• Most low-stakes decisions aren't worth the time and energy; automate when possible
• Medium-stakes and high-stakes decisions should be sorted
• High-stakes should be kept
• Medium-stakes should be delegated, automated, or kept
• More choices isn't always better
• Don't stress about making the perfect choice

Chapter 7 (Scott)

• How large your network should be is up to you, but it's often better to have fewer and deeper connections rather than more and shallower connections
• Clean up contacts using the same questions
• Building deeper networks requires being present when talking to the person, helping others do their best, being open and trusting, and encouraging play (being a bit silly when appropriate)

Chapter 8 (Scott)

• Meetings can be a waste of time if too frequent and too long
• Messy meetings does not equal irrelevant meetings
• Try to stop attending meetings that are to relevant
• The number of meetings you attend does not determine your worth at work
• At meetings, engage, come prepared, put away electronics, listen, speak up, do no harm, and support others
• If you run meetings, set an agenda in some way, don't over-invite people, state the goals on the invitation, encourage participation, set timelines, and have a recap. (He also suggests holding meetings where everyone stands, but I don't think that applies as well as the rest of the points)

Chapter 9 (Scott)

• Teams should be sorted into those you're happy with and those that need improvement (as most people can't "get rid of" teams)
• Always contribute to teams, trust each other, know that disagreements aren't always bad, clean up personal conflicts, and try not to have big teams

Chapter 10 (Scott)

• Spread tidiness/joy around the office
• Show care for the workplace - pick up trash if you see it, occasionally clean a dirty dish if you see it - but don't become the office caretaker
• Appreciate your coworkers

Chapter 11 (Marie)

• Marie suggests ways to create more joy at work
• Show care for your items
• Add items that add joy but you don't need for work
• After tidying, then you can consider whether or not you want to leave your job
• Enjoy the process
• Don't let fear of other's opinions hold you back
• Allow time for self-reflection
• Suggests knowing what you have to do for the year (or time-frame), creating timelines based on that, and then breaking those into tasks
• Our lives are determined by our choices, so make choices that drive you towards where you want to be
• Determine what you want to work/life balance to look like and then make decisions based on that
• Small children make messes and it's okay if not everything is perfect
• Having joy at work can make the rest of your life joyful, too
• Marie mentions more about setting up the company and how it's run, as well as overcoming her fear of others' opinions

Overall, I thought the book really does contain a lot of the same messages, but applied to work situations. It does make sense in some ways that Scott has so many chapters because he talks about both tidying them and how to handle them practically, since people still have to listen to their bosses/company policy. Scott is able to provide insight on these issues that I'm not sure Marie would be able to provide. Scott's chapters are also shorter than Marie's, which is interesting.
If you are an expert KonMari-er then you've probably been able to do most of these things in some form already. If you are newer to KonMari, there are very practical tips for work that may help you if you are struggling there. Is it worth buying? Eh. I'm glad I bought it (on Kindle). Some of you lovely redditors might prefer to get it from the library instead.

https://imgur.com/a/H7dyyWF
The art supplies: This was my most difficult area to declutter. I’ve been doing a half Konmari method of only keeping what brings me joy but not going in order of the categories and also not working in silence. Growing up, my grandma (who raised me) hoarded art supplies and I definitely inherited the love of art/art supplies. I would be envious of famous artists’ workspaces and their volume of supplies. While I never had an excessive collection, it started to become unmanageable for me. I searched on this subreddit hoping to get some advice on decluttering and organizing art supplies, especially with a small space but that wasn’t much help. I want to share how I did it.
I took all my supplies, sketch books, and paper down and set it out (like Konmari says). I immediately realized I should separate the craft supplies and the drawing/painting supplies. Then I got rid of any supplies I didn’t enjoy using. For me that was just my crayola crayons and colored pencils. I was nervous that I would felt compelled to get rid of more but the next step really helped with that. I separated each thing by brand or type and grouped them together. The red box has paints, and in the open clear container, I have pens and markers all bound by rubber bands in their respective categories. I put all my paintbrushes in my spacemaker container and then my crafting supplies in the closed clear and green container. That was it for my supplies.
For my sketchbooks, I tossed 2 that I hated the paper, and the completed ones went into my sentimentals bag in my closet. All my in use sketch books got put back up on the shelf.
My WIPs and watercolor paper fit perfectly on the bottom shelf.
Office things: my husband and I got married last year and had a son the year before. Through all that we accumulated so much paperwork and I ended up just stashing it in this area if it looked important. I finally sat down and went through each paper individually and I am proud to say we now have a folder to grab if the house is on fire, a tax folder, and a pediatrician folder, and that’s it! I ended up adding a few things to my sentimentals like my college acceptance letter and first pay stub, but I’m just glad they’re not cluttering my desk anymore. I do plan on using the mail sorter on my desk as papers come into the house.
I also never liked my Golden Girls pops in the box, so I decided to go a little crazy and display them how I wanted!
Well that’s about it! Nothing too crazy. I want to get a new container to put my photos in (they’re in the orange container) but that’s not financially feasible right now so I’m making do! I hope this helps someone struggling with papers or art supplies :)

Some of the clothes she has been holding on since I was in elementary school. I’m 28 now.
Last picture is after: https://imgur.com/a/bw7pOp2
Still a lot, but I’m really proud of the amount we got rid of. About 1/2.
Also, I asked her if I could put all her clothes in the extra room so I could help her keep the stuff she loves. (Am a fan of Marie Kondo.) She got mad and said she needs all her stuff. And if I get rid of anything, then she’ll just end up rebuying it. I dropped a worry I’ve had for years and said I’m worried that when she passes, I will most likely be the kid who gets sentimental about everything and sits in the room feeing sad about all of my mom’s stuff. She finally agreed and promised me she’d try to not buy anything else. (Mhmmmmm.)
I’ve tried doing the Konmari method, where I asked her if she loves it. She kept saying “I just bought this!/It still has tags!”, “I can still wear it!”, “I can wear this outside, so it doesn’t get hot!”, and my favorite “I’m can give that to Vietnam!” (She won’t.) and other excuses to defend why she has something so that it doesn’t go into the same pile. It was pretty obvious that she looooves some of her clothes, but keeping up with the Joneses, etc. You try arguing with an asian lady without getting your ass kicked.
I read this in the original book, but it was obvious at that point that she wasn’t going to go with this method. So, I set up two mirrors and asked her to try on a lot of stuff. She started getting tired and laying down on her pile of clothes. Lol. Some points I made were if she could actual fit anything. She refused to get rid of a lot of her pants, but she got rid of about 20 pairs of jeans. The amount of bras went down from 35 to 13, when she realized she couldn’t fit a lot of them. She took a lot of my sister’s bras, when my mom is a cup larger. -_-
I should also note that my sister buys somewhat expensive stuff, and my mom sees it like a waste—pretty typical for asian parents. I made points like asking her if it’s too tight on her stomach or rib cage. I also asked her out of the same shirts, jeans, and bras (in sometimes multiple colors) which one she’d pick over the other. I think it started to click that she doesn’t need so many different colors of the same stuff, especially if she leans towards the one she likes the most. A point in the book (actually, I ended up not reading this one and read the manga instead. It’s actually like x100 fine easier to read and less dry. Have given about 8 copies of this manga to different people I notice have a lot of stuff or stress in their life. It makes a great gift, and it’s about an hour read.) is that one of the clients just bought all this new stuff feel bad about throwing their things away, so when Marie asks them if they will wear it, they say they will wear it to sleep or to the gym since they paid so much for it. Then Marie says something along the lines of how you should be best dressed for yourself, especially if you’re at home. Why are you wearing something you don’t really like to sleep if it doesn’t make you feel comfortable and doesn’t make you feel your best? Anyway. This point really resonated with me. Made me rethink why I used to wear ratty, old tshirts to the gym, when wearing black leggings and my favorite sports bras gave me more inspiration and made me feel cooler. (Lol.)
Anyway.
Another point to make is that seeing the amount of clothes she got rid of made her feel like she wasted a lot of money. I told her it’s not a waste because she won’t be buying that type of clothing anymore, so it’s actually saving money in the long-run.
When she started going through the stuff she let go, I told her not to look at it because it doesn’t fit or doesn’t look nice on her. I put it in a bag so that she wouldn’t go through it anymore.
Edit:
One final thing. I’m on Christmas break, and I asked her if I could do this while she was at work. One so that she wouldn’t beat me with a broom. When she walked in the room, she was shocked by how much stuff there was. (I grabbed clothes, even from the laundry, to move ALLLLL of her clothes in that room.) she kept telling me she was worried that I’d throw her clothes away, and I kept reminding her that I’m not getting rid of anything unless she doesn’t like it. I organized all her sweaters in one section. Summer shirts. Pants. Leggings. Thicker leggings. Bras. Dresses. This was probably the best idea. She was able to see she had four of the same white pants. Duplicates of the same shirts with different material. Etc. Every time I saw a bunch of duplicates, I’m like “so mom. You now know you don’t need another black bra or black leggings with two zippers on the side.” It really helped her remember what she has so that she doesn’t buy it over again. We also had a mini fashion show. I made her try on all her bras and dresses, and it was obvious which dresses she would NEVER wear. EZ.
Also, I went on Facebook for the city’s free page and asked if anyone wanted the clothing, else I was going to donate it to goodwill. I felt like if we tried to sell stuff, we could’ve gotten a huge chunk of money, but I’m only here until the end of the year, and honestly, it felt like a huge weight taken off of me when I took all the bags and gave it to some lady. Not having it there when my mom came home from work made her feel a lot less regretful. So I highly suggest just packing them in bags and getting rid of it immediately so that your parents don’t try to rummage through them (if you decide to do the same thing).

Paper is taking forever. I have spent 8 days, each weekend in February, doing paper. I commit to doing 4 hours but sometimes do much more, so I have done at least 32 hours. And I still have so much more to go.
I have ADHD and a lot of storage space, so I think that is contributing to it a lot. Though I don’t have that much paper, probably 10 boxes all together, and I have kept it organized for the most part. So it is really confusing to read about all these people who fly through paper....
Paper either represents a decision or a memory and it is exhausting and I just want to be done with it. My computer and digital space is even worse so every suggestion to just scan it sends me up a wall. Plus I have so much anxiety around digital space because of fear of crashing and it is just a whole thing I don’t even know where to start, so trying to just do paper.
I am doing two semi digital things. I am taking pictures of things that I rationally do not need, like ticket stubs. I have finally started to accept the fact that I will not make scrapbooks so random tickets of events that are not important, but just ways of maintaining basic memory is not important to keep. I put those into a google photos archived scrapbook albums and i am hoping that won’t be more work in the future and instead just a transition to finally delete.... and I made an excel sheet of all my manuals and Warranty in order to finally throw them out.
I am also keeping a journal just for this process and writing down timelines and stuff, that helps.
Questions: what type of vision boards have been helpful for people with paper? Anybody else taking this long to do paper or am I just an extreme outlier? Anybody else have anxiety around remembering dates and events, how do you deal with letting paper go? Anybody else worried about digital storage or stressed about it? When do you deal with digital stuff in the KonMari method? Same time as paper? How about bad memory paper and digital stuff that is necessary to keep? I have stuff from an ex boyfriend and law suit that I need to maintain, where the fuck do I keep it?

I'll be moving to a different state soon.
As I usually do before a move, I want to get rid of as much stuff as I can beforehand. I'll be using the KonMari method (for every single thing I own, asking if I actually like/enjoy/love the thing and donating it or throwing it away if not) to get rid of as much stuff as I can.
Afterwards I'm going to organize the remainder of my belongings into storage bins/boxes.
I can handle the KonMari process, but once I'm left with a bunch of possessions I want to put away in medium/long-term storage (a bunch of Sterilite bins I already own), I have no idea how to distribute the stuff into bins/boxes.
I'll be buying a label-maker, but I realize I have no idea what labels to print. What high-level categories do I split things into? I'm sure this is highly dependent on me and what I actually own, but are there well-known existing systems or methods I can borrow from?
Most of my belongings are electronic in nature, so using something as high-level as "electronics" seems silly.
Right now I'm questioning the following ideas:

• Material-based: Metals, plastics, papers, cloths, etc?
• Purpose-based: Entertainment, utility, exercise/health, etc?
• Room-based: Bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, etc?
• Other: Gadgets based on cord-type (USB, AUX, power, etc)?
• Most-recently-used things in their own bins, least-recently-used in other bins?
• Combinations of the above?

I have so many ideas but don't have a concrete idea yet. Any help or advice would be appreciated!
EDIT: Thanks for all of the recommendations! They helped immensely. Packing stresses me the heck out. In order to more visually diagram my packing, I created a mind map that I'm continually tweaking: https://i.imgur.com/oKuaRrC.png

Hello there!
I've been getting interested in the KonMari method and perhaps trying it out in the quite limited space i occupy. I still live with my parents and share my room so i don't have a lot of space. Most of my belongings are either in trashbags just tucked away or in big boxes (like the ones you use when you're moving). My room is very disorganized and it contibutes to a lot of stress which in turn makes my depression a lot worse. Because of how cluttered everything is i struggle to keep it clean which also just makes me feel a lot worse. My goal is to make the small space i have a bit "nicer" to look at and easier to maintain because through mental and physical illness i have quite low energy but i want to get my space to a point where i can set myself up for success rather than feeling upset first thing in the morning because of how ugly my room is.
I'm a bit embarrassed about making this post but i felt like this sub was quite open-minded and helpful so i've decided to give myself that little push and make this post and hopefully learn some new things.
I'm turning 22 in a few days and have never lived on my own. I also don't really have anyone to ask for advice or help because my family situation is quite rough. A lot of these questions feel very silly to ask and i'm quite embarrassed because i feel like normally you'd just sort of learn this stuff by going through life but again my family situation is very difficult and i don't have anyone to turn to for advice or anything like that. Everything i know i've had to teach myself on my own but because of limited mobility and not being allowed to leave the house often i don't really get around to places like IKEA for example. Essentially, i know where to purchase my clothes and i know where to get food if i need to because it's reachable by foot but everything else is a big question mark for me (as sad as that is to say).
Looking at people decluttering and organizing, things i've found interesting are:
- The tiny tension-rods some people put under their sink to hang cleaning items or in their wardrobe to hang bras for example
- Small boxes people use to divide drawers or divivers to go into the drawers
- Baskets to put onto shelves or into wardrobes
I've seen some boxes and baskets in a few places but mostly being sold for 10-15 Euros a piece and i cannot afford that. At the same time i wouldn't want to purchase something very cheap for a couple of cents that would just look and feel unpleasant or break within a few weeks. Where (in Germany!) could i start looking for items like these and perhaps in what "sections" of the stores would they normally be sold?
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Another question mark i have in my head is discarding stuff i don't wish to keep. I think selling some of my clothes would be quite beneficial because i could use the money to purchase items to store my belongings in. My question is, how do i go about selling them? My best guess would be to try facebook groups or perhaps ebay Kleinanzeigen, however i don't use either website so i'm not 100% sure my guess is correct.
Some things i might not be able to sell and i'd be very happy to try and donate some of it but again, i don't really know where to even start. From my knowledge a lot of thrift stores don't take items that have been used or don't have tags on them. All my clothes have been worn before and they are in good shape but definitely aren't brand new anymore. From my knowledge a lot of clothes being put into "Altkleidercontainer" are being sold for expensive prices in third-world countries and i don't want to support this because i believe it's exploitation. I've been thinking of perhaps seeing if women's shelters accept donations or maybe places like the "Rotes Kreuz" but i will admit i have not done much research into that specifically. Any advice or suggestions to how i could go about that? Apart from clothing i don't really own much that would be worth giving away so clothing is probably my main concern here.
Thank you so much to anyone who took some time to read through this, even if you don't have any advice at all i still appreciate you taking some time out of your day to read and consider my questions.

I quit my job last month to address burnout-related depression. One thing I’d noticed leading up to this point is that whenever my house was untidy, everything felt so much more overwhelming than when it was clean. So the first project I started was a new round of Konmari (my partner and I did our first go-around when we moved a few months ago, but never really unpacked some of the Komono boxes).
After two weeks back on my personal desktop (I preferred my work laptop when I had it) it was so slow I was about to throw it out the window. Part of this got solved when I discovered I could upgrade my RAM so there was more memory to work with, but I also read that a cluttered desktop actually impacted computer speeds on Macs. For the first time in years, I thought to look through what was on my hard drive.
I hadn’t cleared out my Downloads folder in two years. My Desktop was filled with random screenshots dating back to Summer 2016. At some point, my OS had glitched out and my custom background picture defaulted back to a system image. I hadn’t even noticed.
I was not expecting how much of an indicator this could be for my mental health. I thought I started sliding into burnout about 5-6 months after starting my job, but going through my hard drive made me realize that I stopped putting energy into anything outside of work almost right away. I’d stopped clearing out my Downloads within a month. The Desktop clutter picked up around that time too, going from about 5-10 files over a few months to that same amount every few weeks. I went into this thinking I was going to be going through mostly old files and had psyched myself up to deal with a lot of high school memories, but this turned out to be a huge learning experience about who I am right now.
There were early signs of my burnout and depression going back as far as 2014. If I hadn’t spent the last two years working on mindfulness and self-awareness in therapy I doubt I’d have been able to make this connection.
I started journaling some notes to process the feelings I had. I embraced the “touch each item to see if it sparks joy” and looked through every grainy video I recorded and meticulously saved. I chuckled at some of the PostSecrets I saved in high school, but also noticed that they seemed to follow a theme and I could almost trace my mood swings by the download dates.
This took a toll on me, so I barely touched the sentimental files and I’ll go through and do another round of this in a few months to see what else I can get rid of. But for the time being, I was able to delete about 25% of the files I had and I feel really good about that.
My Desktop after Konmari—I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like before, but trust it was chaos.
My starting weight in my user folder was 269GB. This was the folder that comprised 99% of my files so it’s where I focused most of my energy, except for my Applications folder at the end of all this. Here’s what I did:
Group 1 - Desktop and Downloads - purged 6GB

This was a good starting point. It was full of easy wins (no-brainer deletion) and mostly consisted of pushing documents towards their forever home, but not getting bogged down in the details of where exactly they went. My bank statements were keepers, but rather than ensure they were properly filed away I just threw them into “Documents” since I had a plan to go through that one later on. I was getting my digital piles ready for the real show.
At the end of this my Desktop and Downloads were totally clear, so I rewarded myself by choosing a desktop picture that sparked joy. It’s a race I used to be a part of a lot when I was growing up, and reminds me of my goal to get into sailing in my new city and find some friends with a boat. It took less than a day and from then on I started off with a little bit of joy every time I turned on my computer.

Group 2 - eBooks, Movies, and Music - purged 51GB

I didn’t purge too much with the eBooks, since like my physical bookshelf they all make up my TBR list (I’m desperate to rekindle the love of reading my 8-year-old self enjoyed and I’ve got a lot of classics I want to explore). But I did discover that I had an eBooks folder, which is something I must have set up years ago and then promptly forgot.
My Movies folder was one I was dreading, I hate hearing the sound of my own voice, and once I got my first point-and-shoot with video capability I spent too much time recording mundane lunch breaks and after-school shenanigans. I thought my Facebook Memories were bad, but oh boy. But I’d committed to digitally “touching” each object and seeing if it sparked joy, so I watched every video. Some I couldn’t get through without intense negative emotions, so I deleted those before even finishing. I kept just the ones that seemed to capture the mood of those years, whether it was mid-aughts “omg so random rawr” or the warm memories of summers home from college.
Music was a blast from the past! Every song I’d ever put on my iPod was on there, and a lot of albums I hadn’t listened to in a decade. I felt really overwhelmed with this step so I mostly weeded through singles that I had downloaded, and kept most of the albums there intact (except for the musicians I only ever pretended to be into, you know, because high school). I got my music library to under 55GB, which is enough to fit onto my SD card and I’ll be listening to albums on my phone over the next few months to further sort through them.

Group 3 - Websites, Pictures, and Documents - purged 2GB (large quantity, small sizes)

I got a huge nostalgia kick out of reviewing my Sites folder, where I kept every version of my personal website I worked on throughout the ‘00s. I feel like with Web 2.0 the Internet has gotten so much less eclectic—anyone else remember the fandom websites hosted on Angelfire or Geocities?! Mine wasn’t one of them, but I spent a lot of time on Sailor Moon fan sites and remember those days fondly, haha. I deleted some content but kept this folder mostly intact, since it was already pretty organized and I did enjoy seeing my skills progress over time. This could be replaced by any sort of portfolio work or early art you’ve got stored away if you’re thinking about following this method yourself.
I decided early on that I would do Pictures in two phases, since for the most part these are really sentimental items. My priority this go-through was organizing sub-folders (pets, gifs, memes, aesthetic, etc.) and just making sure individual files were in the right spot. This is when I found all the moody PostSecrets and A Softer World strips that I felt spoke to me at particular points in time. I deleted a good chunk of those right away, but kept the ones that still resonated with me.
Documents were the toughest to tackle. This was my most disorganized folder, and a few times when I thought I was done I realized that I had folders from other devices meant for sorting that needed to be addressed. This is when I realized that not only had I let my digital tidiness decline over the course of my last job, but that I’d never sorted any of my school documents I amassed over the last year of my undergrad—by this point I’d discovered the burnout memes I downloaded in 2014 and I made the connection between those and the clutter of files that started to amass in my last couple semesters. I realized it wasn’t two years of unsorted mess I was working with; it had been nearly six years since I’d gone through anything.

Last - Applications

Mostly this involved going through and deleting programs that were so old they wouldn’t even open on my computer anymore. Because I did this after going through all my files I had an idea of what I needed to keep around to open what I kept. Most of what we do now is on web apps anyway, so if you’ve got a newer computer you may not even need to go through this one at all. But it’s a nice wrap-up to an emotionally fraught purge that doesn’t feel too consequential to go through. But I got rid of a few programs here, like the DVD player app that came with a computer that doesn’t even have a disc drive.

This ended up being a much longer write-up than I expected, but I wanted to share my experience in case anyone else was looking at their hard drive and not sure where to start! Here are my tips for organizing your digital data:

1. Make sub-folders in your sub-folders. I find it helpful to be very granular with my sorting. Not to the degree that you have a folder with a single file in it, but if you can find 5-10 files that are similar to each other, they could probably be in their own folder. I like to open up a folder and see no more than ten items in there total, whether they are more folders or individual files. It makes it very easy to find what I’m looking for!
2. Take advantage of the different view or sorting options when going through files. Personally, I like the multi-column layout so I can see a folder tree (e.g. Documents > School > Undergrad > Anthropology) and that way I can quickly navigate through my files which I usually sort alphabetically. When I was purging, I sorted my files by date so they could form smaller clumps that felt easier to tackle (much better going through 100 items downloaded in 2017 than 300 in a big pile from 2017-2019). This was really helpful when I went through my Music folders.
3. If you organize your files alphabetically, you can modify file and folder names to ensure they go on the top or bottom of a folder, making some things easier to see right away. Important documents or folders that I access frequently start with an exclamation point (e.g. ! Money) so they automatically float to the top of my list. Old and archived folders are less important, and I’ll start them with a z so they go to the bottom (e.g. zz. Memory Box for sentimental files without a home).
4. When naming individual files, be descriptive (I got this tip from this sub, when I was in the Documents Doldrums and needed some inspiration). Instead of cat pictures named fluffy1.jpg, fluffy2.jpg, etc., they’re now fluffy-cuddling.jpg or fluffy-withcatnip.jpg so I have a better idea of what each item is. Think of it like your t-shirt drawer going from having stacks of shirts hiding anything below the top one, to the filing system of being able to see each shirt all at once.

I hope this helps some of you, and if you made it this far thank you for reading! This has been a really cathartic process for me and I'm feeling an itch to dive into my social media posts and saves at some point soon.

In her #1 New York Times best-selling book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up," Marie took tidying to a whole new level, teaching that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you'll never have to do it again.
Most tidying methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever.
The KonMari Method™ encourages tidying by category – not by location – beginning with clothes, then moving on to books, papers, komono (miscellaneous items), and, finally, sentimental items. Keep only those things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy. Thank them for their service – then let them go.
People around the world have been drawn to this philosophy not only due to its effectiveness, but also because it places great importance on being mindful, introspective and forward-looking.
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I'm currently reading the book and getting a lot out of it. It has motivated me to start discarding items and organizing a small section about every other day. I KNOW this is not her process, but I figure that even if just reading the book is motivating me to do things around the house then I'm game.
If you've finished the Method, what was your experience like?
Which areas did you find came easily and which areas did you struggle with?
Would you recommend this to a friend or relative? I ask because I keep wanting to tell people about the book and I haven't even done it yet. To be fair, I often talk about what we're reading with friends.
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Thanks!