Marie Kondo's first client sessions started on the floor, with every piece of clothing in the house piled into one mountain. The pile is the point. The KonMari method is Marie Kondo's tidying system: you sort your home by category, not by room, and you keep only what sparks joy.
Here is how it works, step by step.
Key points
- Sort by category, never room by room.
- Follow the fixed order: clothing, books, papers, komono, sentimental items.
- Choose what you keep, not what you throw away.
- Treat the first tidy-up as one event, not a weekly chore.
- Every item you keep needs a defined home.
To take minimalism in your home even further, the unique style of Japanese decor is a good source of inspiration. Our Japanese decor pieces follow the same logic: few objects, each one chosen.
We all know someone who stores anything and everything. That someone may be you. If you are reading this, you have already noticed it.
After the awareness comes the hard question: what do I start with? That is where most people give up. The task looks too big, so it gets pushed to the next spring cleaning.
This is where Marie Kondo comes in with her KonMari method.
To follow the KonMari method, you must:
- Commit to getting your house in order.
- Visualize your ideal lifestyle.
- Sort through what you keep first.
- Thank the things you throw away.
- Store by category, not by room.
- Make the categories in the right order.
- Asking yourself "Does this make me happy?"
In the following, you will see that this method is not quite like the others.
Who is Marie Kondo?
Most people know Marie Kondo from her best-selling book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up." The English edition was published in 2014. Marie Kondo then established herself as a tidying expert with a new idea: organize by category instead of room by room.
Her reputation rests on clients who never fell back into their old hoarding habits. That record is the strongest argument for the method.
Her popularity grew fast after 2019 and the Netflix show "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo." For the program, she visited the homes of Americans who needed help tidying and de-cluttering.
The concept influenced millions of people around the world and the book became a cultural reference. The influence was wide enough to create a profession: certified "KonMari consultants" now guide people through the process.
What is the KonMari method?
Marie Kondo's decluttering method is not just a technique, it is a philosophy. One word of caution: some rules are rigid and will not suit everyone.
The KonMari method is a system that pushes you to sort and simplify your home. The goal is to let go of what no longer has a purpose, or no longer sparks joy, and keep only what has meaning.
Marie Kondo believes your decluttering should begin and end with a single question: does this item bring me happiness?
That question also works in reverse. Once the sorting is done, what you bring in afterwards deserves the same test. A single lantern on a shelf changes a room more than five objects competing for attention.
How to apply the KonMari method
Marie Kondo drew on minimalism to tackle belongings category by category rather than piece by piece.
Here are the five categories to tackle, in that order:
- Clothing
- Books
- Papers
- Komono (= miscellaneous items)
- Sentimental items (souvenirs)
Bookcases, wall shelves, attic space, a child's bedroom, a shoe rack, the forgotten jars in your pantry: the KonMari method reorganizes all of it, and it saves space.
Next, you should apply the following tips.
1. Be prepared to get rid of your stuff
Kondo's theory is simple. The more you get rid of unnecessary things, the easier it is to keep your home tidy and stay organized.
Use the two-step method:
The KonMari method has two parts: sorting and tidying. First you sort, which means removing everything that clutters your space. Then you organize what you decided to keep.
2. Adopt a new mindset
Getting your home in order should last. Done properly, it reduces the need to tidy up every day.
Beyond the physical sorting, your mind gets a little lighter with each item you release.
One adage sums it up: owning too many items reverses the relationship, and you end up belonging to your possessions.
3. Store your entire space at once
The KonMari method asks you to tidy your whole home in one push rather than in small steps. You reorganize your home and your mindset together, so you never slide back to the cluttered version.
Think of the first tidy-up as an event, not a household task.
What you should definitely avoid: the "I made good progress today, I'll finish next weekend" pattern. We all know how that ends.
4. Don't dwell on tidying up
Marie Kondo is not a fan of tidying up, which sounds odd for a tidying expert. "Tidying things up gives the illusion that the clutter has been resolved," she writes.
Her experience taught her something useful. Tackling clutter quickly removes it and changes how you see it. You become more motivated to keep it away.
Your closets, shelves and drawers should be functional. They hold what you use. They are not warehouses for items that have been sleeping for years.
5. Store by category, not by room in the house
Marie Kondo insists on storing by category of items, not by where they currently sit.
This is the key point of the whole method.
Respect the order of the categories:
Do not change the order. Changing it compromises your ability to declutter the whole home. As a reminder, here it is:
- Clothing
- Books
- Papers
- Komono (miscellaneous items)
- Souvenirs
The categories run from the least sentimental to the most sentimental. You train your judgment on easy items first, so the hard ones become possible.
One warning on komono. It is the category where people stall, because it holds kitchen items, cables, cosmetics and decor all at once. Split it into sub-categories before you start.
6. Visualize your life and environment
An essential step is to visualize your goals in concrete terms.
Kondo asks her clients to imagine the life they want to lead. Break each dream down by asking why you want that particular thing.
Example: if one of your goals is to do yoga every day, you may realize you want time to relax. By inference, you want a space to practice in, healthy and decluttered.
7. Choose what you want to keep
This step is what separates KonMari from other forms of minimalism and decluttering.
For many people, tidying up means eliminating items one by one. The KonMari method reverses the question. You choose what you want to keep, not what you throw away.
How to do it?
Hold each item in your hands. Take a few seconds. Ask yourself whether it sparks joy. If the answer is yes, keep it. If not, you are free to let it go.
8. Learn to fold clothes
Kondo's technique makes the most of folding clothes. To be worth keeping, each garment must spark joy. We are repeating ourselves, and that is deliberate.
If the garment does not need a hanger, it gets folded in a specific way.
Marie Kondo's folding method turns each garment into a small upright rectangle. You stand them in the drawer instead of stacking them. Nothing hides at the bottom of a pile, and you gain space. This works well for small apartments.
Traditional Japanese garments fold the same way, for the same reason. A kimono (着物, literally "thing to wear") is built from straight panels, so it folds flat along its own seams. The storage logic of KonMari is not new in Japan. It comes from a culture where wafuku, traditional clothing, has always been folded rather than hung.
9. Do the tidying yourself (really)
Tidying is a personal process. You should do it yourself, because only you know whether an item gives you positive emotions. No one else can judge whether an item makes you happy.
Avoid outside influence that might sway you one way or the other. The same rule protects others: do not dispose of the things of another person in your home without their permission.
10. Take things in stride
We often keep things because we feel guilty about getting rid of them. That becomes a loop.
Guilt and attachment are not the same thing.
Concrete example:
If you never read a particular book, even one that was recommended to you, this is your chance to let it go.
You wanted to read it when you bought it. You have not. The book already did its job: it taught you that you did not need it.
11. Don't avoid extreme solutions
Marie Kondo advocates getting rid of almost all papers, including photographs and books, and keeping the smallest possible collection of what truly matters to you.
This sounds radical. In practice, you discover those unused items served no purpose. They took up space and collected dust.
12. Store similar items together
For storage, the Japanese expert favors ultimate simplicity. The principle follows from point 5 of this article: group similar items together rather than scattering them around the house.
Keep coats in a single closet rather than spread across a dressing room, a closet and an armoire. Inside a room, apply the same rule. One drawer for socks. One shelf for towels.
This is where Wabi-Sabi, the Japanese appreciation of simple and imperfect things, meets the method. A shelf with three objects you love reads better than a shelf with twelve.
13. Give your stuff new life
Marie Kondo believes the impact of tidying goes beyond organization. The items you release should be sent on a new journey with a short farewell.
She also asks you to dialogue with your home as you tidy, in whatever form that takes for you. The more connected you feel to the process, the better your chances of making it last.
14. Exhume and accept your emotions
Decluttering with the KonMari Method works like a mirror. It pushes you to face emotions that stayed hidden for a long time.
When you ask whether an object brings you joy, the answer sometimes surprises you.
Kondo believes that deep down, the things we love do not change much over a lifetime. Tidying up becomes an occasion to rediscover them.
Would you like to take minimalism a step further?
You now have what you need to begin the big tidy-up you promised yourself years ago. With the KonMari method, Marie Kondo built a system with a minimalist approach that goes past simple techniques.
In many ways, the method works as a form of personal development. It makes us rethink our relationship to what we own, in the broadest sense.
It is also a way to get to know ourselves better. That is close to Ikigai, the Japanese idea of what gives your days a reason: a home that supports the life you actually want.
FAQ
What is Marie Kondo's recommended order for decluttering?
Clothing, then books, then papers, then komono (miscellaneous items), then sentimental objects. The order moves from the easiest decisions to the hardest. Skipping ahead to photos or letters is the main reason people abandon the process.
What are the biggest KonMari mistakes?
Buying storage containers before sorting is the most common one. The second is tidying for other people, which breaks the rule that only the owner can judge an item. The third is spreading the work over months, which turns the event into a chore.
Is the KonMari method really effective?
It works for people who can commit to one intense period of sorting. Those who complete the full cycle rarely relapse, because every kept item has a defined home. It suits people who like clear rules less well if you prefer gradual, room-by-room progress.
Does KonMari work in a small apartment?
Yes, and that is where it shows the most. Vertical folding frees real drawer space, and grouping by category reveals duplicates you did not know you owned. The method was developed in Japanese homes, where square meters are limited.
