Marie Kondo is the organizational guru we all need in our lives. The Japanese organizing consultant came to fame with her Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, in which she visits cluttered American homes to help homeowners regain their space with her unique decluttering strategy dubbed the KonMari Method.
With a Netflix show and four books on her list of accolades, Marie Kondo has changed society’s view on clutter. When you make the decision to cleanse your space and need tips to declutter your home, you’re going to want to consider some Marie Kondo approved strategies.
The straight forward KonMari method ultimately involves pooling together all of your things and, one category at a time, addressing each and every item to identify if it “sparks joy” in your life. Doesn’t spark joy? Toss it out.
Identifying that you need to do something about your clutter is the first step towards regaining your space. The next step is deciding what exactly you want to get rid of. Of course, the final step is actually getting all of that stuff out of your home — which is where we come in.
Junk Ninja has been in the junk removal business for over 10 years, providing quality, environmentally friendly services. Our junk removal services in Ottawa and surrounding cities will help you get rid of just about everything — that isn’t hazardous.
We understand that sometimes clutter stems just from people not knowing what to do with the bulky things they don’t need anymore. We have experience in removing a wide variety of items and types of waste and have the resources we need to ensure that the right precautions are taken when collecting this waste.
Before we come to remove what you need taken off of your hands, it’s a great idea to address your clutter first. After all, it’s an emotional process, and we want to give you space and make things as easy as possible for you.
Marie Kondo’s show has inspired many to purge their closets and clean their homes to regain their space. These are the tips that will spark some joy in your life by helping you get rid of all of that clutter:
Have a Place for Everything
Every item you have — that is worth having — should have its own place. Trash those things that don’t really belong anywhere. If you can’t find a place for an item in your home, chances are your home just isn’t the right place for it.
Plus, these miscellaneous items all tend to end up in the same pile that collects dust and causes clutter. Do dust and wasted space bring you joy? Probably not. If you have an item that doesn’t have a place of its own, chances are you don’t really need it.
Go Solo
When you finally make that decision to declutter your home, it’s a good idea to do it solo. If your partner wants to help that’s great, but the main point here is to prevent doing a clean-up with the extra input of someone — a parent for example — who may talk you into keeping things you don’t need.
At the end of the day the person who best knows if you need something, or where to put something, is you — after all, it’s your home, and you are the one who lives with these things every day.
Toss Unnecessary Paperwork
When it comes to tips to declutter your office at home, the one Marie Kondo tip that will always be the most important is to toss unnecessary paperwork.
It’s important to go through paperwork to identify what you will need, and what you don’t need. Tossing unnecessary papers will also make it easier to track down what you do need.
Give Your Task Full Attention
When you begin your decluttering journey, be sure to remove any distractions. Don’t turn on the TV or twiddle around on your phone. Focus on the task at hand so that you can make a conscious decision of what you’re keeping, what you’re giving away, and where you’re putting it all!
Do it In One Go
You may think that it’s better to handle decluttering one room at a time, but Marie Kondo suggests taking the task on full force. This way there is no chance of you decluttering one room and then putting off other rooms for later — only to never return to them. Take on everything while you are inspired and in the right mindset.
If you burn out, you can always take a break — then return to your big clean! If you are going to do a big clutter purge, we suggest setting aside one full day so you can start tidying when you are at your most productive.
Putting Things in Storage Is Lying to Yourself
One of the worst things you can do when cleansing your space of clutter is banishing your unneeded items to a storage room to never think of them again — this is how your storage room becomes a clutter fortress that no one will ever visit and leave the same way again.
In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie suggests that storing things gives us the false feeling that we’ve decluttered our space.
She wrote, “sooner or later, all the storage units are full, the room once again overflows with things, and some new and ‘easy’ storage” method becomes necessary, creating a negative spiral. We need to exercise self-control and resist storing our belongings until we have finished identifying what we really want and need to keep.”
Does it “Spark Joy”?
Marie Kondo’s most iconic advice is to toss anything that doesn’t spark joy in your life. Think about it this way — your cleaning products will help make your house clean which makes them indirectly spark joy.
Physically holding an item and addressing it head-on will help you decide if it brings you happiness or if you are holding on to it out of fear, guilt, or because you think it has perceived value (i.e. “I may need this one day).
When it comes to decluttering your space, Junk Ninja is in full agreement with Marie Kondo that it’s important to let go of some items for the sake of your physical and mental health.
Sort Clutter into Categories
According to the organizational strategist, instead of splitting up clutter based on what room it’s in, it’s better to divide all of your things based on category. If you make piles based on categories, you can visualize how many similar things you have and decide what sparks enough joy to warrant keeping.
Use Old Boxes Before You Buy New Ones
We love Marie Kondo’s organizational tool that doubles as a decluttering strategy. Instead of throwing out your boxes, the guru suggests that it’s best to hold on to old boxes and use them in your drawers to keep your things organized!
This eliminates clutter in a variety of ways. Firstly, this provides a purpose for boxes that would otherwise pile up. Secondly, she suggests not buying any more boxes (that would add to your clutter of cardboard boxes), and to instead use old boxes you probably still have stored somewhere.
Get Rid of Some Books
Marie Kondo’s suggestion that you get rid of your books resulted in a whole lot of backlash from bibliophiles — but at the end of the day, what she really meant was that if a book doesn’t make you happy, it’s best to donate it and save that room on your shelf.
Readers everywhere take great pride in their book collection — but few readers love every book on their shelf. Sometimes you hold on to duplicates, other times you have a whole portion of your shelf dedicated to school books that are no longer needed.
Help make your library beautiful again by identifying the books that you don’t need. Keeping the things that you don’t need or want — even if they are as precious as books — just results in clutter and takes up space.
No one is saying to burn your books — that’s just cruel. All we are saying is that we do agree with Marie that it’s worth revisiting your library to see what you can stand to part with. Plus, the great thing about getting rid of books is that they are ideal items to donate!
De-Clutter with Full Service Junk Removal
Junk Ninja is an experienced, Ottawa-based junk removal company. It is with great pride that we offer our services in many locations and make it possible for you to regain your space by taking your unwanted things off of your hands.
The hardest part of decluttering is realizing that it’s time to part with your old stuff, but we make the removal process the easiest part. All you have to do is book your appointment today, and we’ll provide you with a two-hour slot to expect us.
We’ll give you a call 15 minutes before we show up and assess the situation when we arrive on site. All you have to do is give us the green light after we provide you with a complimentary quote, and we’ll go ahead with our same-day service. Our fees are fairly based on how much room your stuff takes on our truck.
We want to make your de-cluttering process as streamlined as possible. Be sure to get in touch with us today to learn more about what we take and how we can help you!
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