You’re probably very familiar with the term Spring Cleaning—that one time of year, as the weather gets nicer and the sun comes out when people take to organizing and decluttering their homes. This year’s Spring Cleaning comes on the heels of Netflix’s hit series with Marie Kondo, a tidying expert and author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Her method, called the KonMari method, is a tried and true way of doing more than just organizing. It’ll help you declutter both your home and your mind by helping you determine what items have value, and what items have served their purpose and can be donated or thrown away.
Whether you’re looking to clean out your entire home or just a few spaces, here are some tips to get you started.
Determine your goals
What do you hope to achieve by cleaning? Are you hoping to get rid of things you no longer need? Maybe you want to redecorate your home this summer and your current décor doesn’t fit that vision. Maybe a messy house results in a messy mind for you. Whatever your goal may be, envision it before getting started.
Use categories instead of room-hopping
There are a lot of people who have fallen into the habit of cleaning room by room—but suddenly you find yourself making endless trips between spaces and feeling like no progress has been made. According to Kondo, it’s easier to categorize items, and then collect all items of that category to sort through rather than trying to organize from room to room.
You can always come up with your own categories but grouping items can give you a very tangible sense of where to start and how to proceed.
Discard, then put away
Discarding unwanted items will help you better organize the things you’re keeping and prevent the discard pile from re-entering the mix! Then you can begin to organize and clean.
Now the fun part—putting everything away and seeing your progress! Once you’ve been through this process, you’ll be reunited with items that really do “spark joy” in you—without having to follow rules that don’t fit, like “if you haven’t worn it in 6 months, throw it away.”
If it’s too much, ask for help
If you’re feeling like this entire process is just too intense, or there’s a lot of heavy lifting (physically and mentally), consider asking a family member or friend for help! They can support you by helping you gather items, clean, and put things away. They may even be able to help you identify if you have a hoarding disorder—which is more common than most people think. If you think you or a loved one might have a hoarding disorder, talk to your doctor or mental health professional.
Yakima also has a wide variety of organizing and cleaning services, but be sure to do your research to find the best one for you.