The KonMari Method

Today, I am going to address my thoughts on the KonMari organization method. It has gathered a following in the last few years and one of my readers wanted to know my opinions on it.

Let me start by saying that I haven’t read Marie Kondo’s books, but I did read up on what the method is and the basic outline of what it entails. My high level take away? This does not seem like a realistic approach for the average person.

According to the KonMari Website, the method is “a way of life and a state of mind that encourages cherishing the things that spark joy in people’s lives.” Additionally, founder Marie Kondo has said, “Its most unique characteristic is the question ‘does it spark joy?’ which is the determining factor for deciding what to keep and what to give or throw away.”

I immediately take issue with this way of judging items. Many things only “spark joy” at specific times. There isn’t a ton that literally makes me happy every single time I see it. Just because it doesn’t generate joy in one moment doesn’t mean it will never be meaningful again. Some days my high school yearbooks bring back bad memories, but sometimes they are a hidden trove of forgotten treasures. Human emotions are mercurial. I would not be comfortable committing to a method of purging that solely focused on those emotions.

The second thing I read is that the KonMari method encourages you to clean out everything in one fell swoop, rather than bit by bit each day or week. On this point, I partially disagree. While fell swoop cleaning is necessary in certain situations, I think it is dangerous to ignore the importance of day to day cleaning (as I have previously discussed in my Daily Habits post). Additionally, most people don’t have the time to commit to organizing all at once. If that is the set goal, it will quickly become frustrating when visual progress doesn’t meet the expectations. This kind of frustration easily leads to abandoning the project all together. I find that approaching organizing in smaller pieces provides validation and motivation to pursue additional organizational goals in the future.

I also read about a couple of rules related to the method: (1) organizing by category of thing, rather than by location and (2) organize in the order of clothes, books, papers, and miscellaneous. I have mixed feelings about these rules. I can see the value of organizing by category, rather than location, as you would then take into account everything you have when deciding what to get rid of, but I think it has potential to run into the same visual progress and motivation problem that I discussed above. Also, though I may be missing key explanations since I haven’t read the books, I see no benefit to organizing in the specific order listed above. I’ve stared at the list for a while trying to derive the meaning and have come up with nothing! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In conclusion, while there are many people who have fully ascribed to this method, I have a hard time believing it would be a realistic approach for the average person. I have seen a number of accounts online of people trying and loving this method, but I would be most interested to see accounts from people a year or two removed from the initial clean. Would their life really still be as organized as it started off? Or would the lack of routine cleaning have resulted in their mess just piling back up? Of course, these are my opinions, and admittedly based on limited knowledge of the method. If the KonMari method has worked for you, I would love to hear about it!

What are your thoughts on the KonMari Method? Have any of you read one of the books or tried the method before?

Thanks, Analise, for the request!

EDIT 1/25/2018: I have had a couple of interesting exchanges with readers and I think the root of my dislike of the KonMari method comes down to differing priorities. The KonMari method of organization seems to have an end goal that prioritizes the visual aspect of organization. I work from a much different organizational perspective, where the purpose of is to optimize function and efficiency. Therefore, our approaches to organization are never going to mesh. It doesn't make either wrong, but it does prompt the question of what are your goals when you think about organizing something?