Tidy home, tidy mind – 7 surprising lessons I learned from reading Marie Kondo’s 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up'

I think I would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't know about Marie Kondo and her powers of home organizing. She’s become iconic – and for good reason – synonymous with living with less, and keeping an organized and tidy home.

So, when my partner’s parents returned home from a trip to New York with a secondhand copy of The life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I was intrigued to see where it all began.

Over a couple of days, I dipped in and out of the small but mighty book, learning to think like Marie Kondo, and becoming familiar with her organizing and decluttering tips along the way. Here’s everything I learned.

What I learned from 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up'

1. Tidying can change your life

As Marie Kondo writes, 'Having devoted more than 80 percent of my life to this subject, I know that tidying can transform your life.' This isn't something I didn't know, exactly, but I had never stopped to think just how vast a difference getting your home in order can make. To Marie, a clean house really does make you happier.

'A dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective,' she continues. 'It is life transforming. I mean it.'

As testament to this, my copy of this gorgeous little book came all the way from Sweet Pickle Books, a secondhand bookstore in New York City's Lower East Side, complete with pencil notes and scribbles from its previous owner. I like to think that whoever they were only needed to read this decluttering book once, to change their life for good with the transformative power of tidying.

All prices correct at time of publication.

2. You can't tidy if you've never learnt how

In a recent interview with Punteha van Terheyden, head of Solved here at Homes & Gardens, Marie revealed something interesting when discussing her crucial tidying mistakes – that you can't tidy if you've never learned how.

This is something she touches on in her book, writing, 'The general assumption, in Japan at least, is that tidying doesn’t need to be taught but rather is picked up naturally.

'Cooking skills and recipes are passed down as family traditions from grandmother to mother to daughter, yet one never hears of anyone passing on family secrets of tidying, even within the same household.’

But, Marie says, when it comes to tidying, we are all self-taught, so if you struggle to organize and declutter your home when you feel overwhelmed, it's not that you can't, but rather that you just need to learn how.

3. It's ok to aim for perfection

This one felt pretty groundbreaking to me – so much of what I read and hear about organizing and decluttering centers around small, rapid fire ways to reduce clutter room by room, and daily steps to maintain order. But, according to Marie Kondo, a 'tidying marathon' is the way to turn things around, and it's more than ok to aim for perfection. In fact, it's what you should be doing.

She writes, ‘Tidying brings visible results. Tidying never lies. The ultimate secret of success is this: If you tidy up in one shot, rather than little by little, you can dramatically change your mind-set.

'A change so profound that it touches your emotions will irresistibly affect your way of thinking and your lifestyle changes. My clients do not develop the habit of tidying gradually. Every one of them has been clutter-free since they undertook their tidying marathon. This approach is the key to preventing rebound.’

So, while you certainly don't need to declutter your whole house in one day, it's important to keep in mind that visibly positive changes will help your progress, and never hinder it.

Indeed, ‘Success depends on experiencing tangible results immediately,' continues Marie. ‘If you use the right method and concentrate your efforts on eliminating clutter thoroughly and completely within a short span of time, you’ll see instant results that will empower you to keep your space in order ever after.'

For this reason, Marie recommends aiming for perfection just once, as once is all it will take to revolutionize your home organizing ideas, rather than chipping away at the problem and always ending up back in the same place.

‘The work involved can be broadly divided into two kinds: deciding whether or not to dispose of something and deciding where to put it,' adds Marie. 'If you can do these two things, you can achieve perfection.’

4. Storage does not equal organization

In the past, I've definitely been led to believe that putting a vast array of storage ideas to use instantly makes you an organized person. So too was Marie.

‘When I finally came to my senses, I saw that my room wasn’t tidy even though it was full of magazine racks, bookshelves, drawer dividers, and other storage units of every kind,' she writes.

'Although I thought that I had been tidying, in fact, I had merely been wasting my time shoving stuff out of sight, concealing the things I didn’t need in a lid,' covering the signs you are losing control of clutter, rather than actually sorting out the problem.

For this reason, Marie recommends using carefully curated, open storage options, like storage baskets, and keeping almost everything in your closet. If it doesn't fit, you have too much. To her, it's as simple as that.

5. Tidy by category, not place

If you've ever tried tidying your bedroom, followed by your bathroom, then your living room, you'll have encountered an irritating issue. While you may have thought you organized your makeup in the bathroom, suddenly you stumble across a stash of lipsticks in your bedroom. The books in your bedroom might be neatly organized on your bookshelf, but what about the pile in your living room?

‘The root of the problem lies in the fact that people often store the same type of item in more than one place,' says Marie. 'When we tidy each place separately, we fail to see that we’re repeating the same work in many locations and become locked into a vicious circle of tidying.'

So, to avoid this, Marie recommends tidying by category, not by place, splitting items into five categories: clothing, books, papers, komono (or miscellaneous items), and sentimental items.

Gather everything that fits into the same category into one space, and then get down to organizing and decluttering each, one at a time, afterward.

This will help avoid any decluttering mistakes, advises Marie, and will also make it extremely (and perhaps eye-opening) clear to see exactly what you have, and what needs cutting down.

6. Choose what to keep, not what to throw away

When decluttering, I've often advocated for walking around your space with a storage basket, such as the Mainstays Natural Canvas Storage Basket with Handles available at Walmart, and filling it with everything you want to get rid of. But, I've learned, I've been missing the point.

Marie advises, ‘We should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.

‘Look more closely at what is there. I had been so focused on what to discard, on attacking the unwanted obstacles around me, that I had forgotten to cherish the things that I loved, the things I wanted to keep.’

In true Marie style, her advice for deciding is to ask yourself if items spark joy. If they do, they're good to stay. If not, pass them on to someone who will find they do.

Freelance writer Rebecca Shepherd recently tried decluttering her closet with this KonMari method and approves of the method to wave goodbye to 'joyless' items, and welcome happiness into your space.

7. Shoe boxes are the superior storage solution

I've always kept shoe boxes without much rhyme or reason, hanging on to them 'just in case' they come in handy. Well, according to Marie, they're useful for organizing just about everything, not just as shoe storage ideas, and far superior to most more expensive options.

'The most common item I use is an empty shoebox,' she writes. 'I have tried all kinds of storage products, but have never found any other that is free and still surpasses the shoebox. It gets above-average marks for all five of my criteria: size, material, durability, ease of use, and attractiveness. These well-balanced attributes and its versatility are its greatest merits.

'Shoes come in boxes with cute designs as well. I frequently ask my clients, "Do you have any shoeboxes?" when I visit their homes.'

Marie commonly uses hers to organize her sock drawer and recommends using them as a brilliant bathroom organization idea, too, for storing extra bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and so on.

They're also useful for organizing cleaning supplies, she says, and even for organizing a small pantry.

Basically, Marie has single-handedly convinced me that there aren't really any organizational problems that can't be overcome with the humble shoebox, so if you think a lack of suitable storage solutions is one of the reasons you can't stay organized, think again.

FAQs

What are the five steps of the KonMari method?

The KonMari method has five key steps: commit to tidying, imagine your ideal lifestyle to help guide your decisions, finish discarding before organizing to avoid hiding items, tidy by category, and ask if it sparks joy.

While the KonMari method champions getting your life in order with ease, there are still some KonMari method mistakes to avoid. For example, never neglect to make a plan, and certainly don't fail to take the process seriously. With the right attitude, I've learnt that tidying really can transform my life – and it can for you, too.