How to clean up a Japanese writer. “Magic cleaning. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life ”Marie Kondo. The magic of cleaning Marie Kondo

Marie Kondo

Magic cleaning. The Japanese Art of Tidying Up Home and Life

Foreword

KonMari's method is simple. It's witty and effective method conquer clutter forever. Start by getting rid of the trash. Then organize your space - thoroughly, completely, in one go. If you adopt this strategy, you will never go back to clutter again.

While this approach is contrary to conventional wisdom, anyone who applies the KonMari Method in its entirety is successful in keeping their home tidy - with unexpected results. Tidying up your home has a positive effect on all other aspects of life - including work and family. Having devoted more than 80 percent of my life to this topic, I I know that cleaning can transform your life too.

Do you still think it sounds too good to be true? If your idea of ​​cleaning is to get rid of one unwanted item a day or clean up your room a little at a time, then you are right. This is unlikely to have any serious impact on your life. However, if you change your approach, cleaning can have a truly immeasurable impact. In essence, this means tidying up your home.

I've started reading housewife magazines since I was five, and that's what inspired me, starting at the age of fifteen, to get serious about finding the perfect cleaning method. Which, in turn, led to the creation of the KonMari Method (KonMari is my pseudonym, composed of the first syllable of my last name and first name). I have now become a consultant and spend most of my time traveling to homes and offices giving practical advice to people who find cleaning to be a difficult task, who clean but suffer from the reverse effect, or who want to clean up but don’t know where to start. ...

By putting things in order in the house, you are putting things in order in life.

The number of items discarded by my clients - from garments and underwear to photographs, pens, magazine clippings, and trial makeup - must have surpassed a million by now. This is not an exaggeration. I happened to help individual clients who threw away two hundred 45-liter bags of trash at a time.

As a result of my research into the art of ordering and my extensive experience in helping disorganized people who want to be cleanliness, there is one conviction that I can state with absolute certainty: a significant reorganization of the home is causing an equally significant change in lifestyle and outlook. She transforms life. I am not kidding. Here are just a few of the testimonials I receive daily from former clients.

“After graduating from your courses, I quit my job, started my own business, and now I am doing what I dreamed of doing since I was a child.”

“Your course helped me understand what I really need and what I don't. So I filed for divorce. Now I feel much happier. "

"Recently I was contacted by a person with whom I have long wanted to meet."

“I am delighted to report that after I cleaned out my apartment, I was able to significantly increase sales.”

"There was a much greater understanding between me and my husband."

"I was amazed to find that by throwing out some things, I have changed a lot myself."

"I finally managed to lose three kilograms."

My clients are glowing with happiness, and the results show that cleaning has changed the way they think and approach life. In essence, she changed their future. Why? A more detailed answer to this question is given throughout the book; but, if in a nutshell, when putting his house in order, a person puts his affairs and his past in order. As a result, he quite clearly understands what he needs in life and what is not needed, what is worth doing and what is not.

I am currently offering courses for clients in their homes and for business owners in their offices. All these are private lessons, taking place one-on-one with the client, but there is no end to those who wish. Currently, my waiting list has stretched for three months, and I receive daily inquiries from people recommended to me by former clients or heard about my course from someone else. I travel around Japan from end to end, and sometimes I go abroad. Tickets for one of my public lectures for housewives and mothers were completely sold out in one evening. Not only a waiting list was drawn up in case of refusal from classes, but also a list of those who just wanted to get on the waiting list. However, the number of repeated calls to me is zero. From a business perspective, this may seem like a fatal flaw. But what if the lack of reruns is really the secret to the effectiveness of my approach?

As I said at the very beginning, people who use the KonMari method never litter their homes and offices again. Since they are able to maintain order in their space, there is no need to return to class. From time to time I contact people who have completed my courses and find out how they are doing. In almost all cases, their home or office is still in order; not only that, they also continue to improve their space. The photographs they send show that they now have even fewer things than they had when they graduated from my course, and that they have purchased new curtains and furniture. They are surrounded only by the things they truly love.

Why is this course transforming people? Because my approach is not just a technical method. The act of cleaning is a series of simple actions in which objects are moved from one place to another. It means moving things to the places where they should be. It seems that everything is so simple that even a six-year-old child should be able to do it. However, most people fail to cope with the task. Soon after cleaning, their space turns back into a chaotic mess. The reason for this is not a lack of skill, but rather a lack of awareness and an inability to clean effectively. In other words, the root of the problem lies in thinking. Success is 90 percent dependent on our mental attitude. If we exclude from the total number of people the lucky few, for whom ordering is a natural process, for everyone else, if we do not deal with this aspect purposefully, the reverse effect is inevitable, no matter how many things are thrown away or how reasonably the rest are ordered.

So how do you get this correct mental attitude? There is only one way to do this, and, paradoxically, this way is to acquire the right method. Remember: The KonMari Method I describe in this book is not just a set of rules for sorting, ordering, and storing. This is a guide to getting the right mindset for creating order and becoming a neat person.

Of course, I cannot say that all my students have mastered the art of cleaning perfectly. Unfortunately, some of them, for one reason or another, had to interrupt the course without completing it. Others stopped classes because they expected me to do all the work for them.

As a fanatic and an organizer professional, I can tell you right now: no matter how hard I try to organize another person's space, how perfect a storage system I design, I can never get another person's house in order in the true sense of the word. Why? Because a person's awareness and point of view on their own way of life is much more important than any sorting, storage or anything else skills. The order depends on personal values ​​that determine the desired lifestyle for a person.

Most people would prefer to live in a clean and tidy space. Anyone who has contrived to clean up at least once will want everything to stay that way - cleaned up. But many do not believe that this is possible. People try a variety of cleaning approaches - and find that the situation soon returns to "normal". However, I am absolutely convinced that everyone is able to maintain their space in order.

To do this, it is imperative to thoroughly review your cleaning habits and attitudes. This may sound like a lot of work, but don't worry! By the time you finish reading this book, you will be ready and eager to get the job done. People often tell me: “ I am a person who is not organized by nature. I can not do it" or " I have no time"; but disorder and sloppiness are not hereditary qualities, and they are not associated with a lack of time. They are much more strongly associated with the accumulation of misconceptions about cleaning, such as: it is best to deal with one room at a time; or it is best to clean up a little every day; or storage must match the streaming plan.

In Japan, people believe that actions such as cleaning their room and keeping the toilet spotless are good luck, but if your house is cluttered, the effect of polishing the toilet will still be small. The same is true for practice. Feng Shui... Only after you put your home in order will your furniture and decorative items begin to sparkle with life.

Why can't I keep my house tidy?

You just don't know how to clean up properly

When I tell someone that my job is to teach other people how to clean, they usually get a goggle look. " Is it really possible to make money from this?"- this is the first question of my interlocutor. And it is almost always followed by another: “ Do people really need cleaning lessons?»

Indeed, while a wide variety of instructors and schools offer courses in almost every discipline, from cooking and gardening to yoga and meditation, finding a cleaning course can take a lot of work. It is generally accepted that cleaning is not taught, that its skills arise naturally... Culinary skills and recipes are passed down from generation to generation as a family heirloom, from grandmother to mother, from mother to daughter; however, no one has ever heard of the secrets of cleaning being passed from hand to hand in a family, even in the same household.

Go back mentally to your own childhood. I'm sure most of us scolded for not cleaning our rooms; but how many parents deliberately taught us to clean? For many, this was part of their upbringing? In one study on this topic, less than half of the respondents answered in the affirmative to the question “ Have you ever received formal training in cleaning training?". Yes, our parents demanded that we clean our rooms, but they themselves were never taught how to do it. When it comes to cleaning, we are all self-taught.

Cleaning education is not paid attention to not only in the family, but also at school. Home economics classes in Japan and around the world can teach children how to cook hamburgers in a cooking class or use a sewing machine to tailor an apron; but unlike cooking and cutting and sewing, there is little time for the topic of cleaning.

Food, clothing and a roof over our heads are the simplest and most important human needs, so one would think that the conditions in which we live should be considered as important as what we eat and wear. However, in most societies, cleaning, the job that makes a home a living space, is overlooked due to the misconception that basic cleaning skills are learned through experience and therefore do not require special training.

Are the people who are cleaning during the more years, than others, cope with it better? The answer is negative. Twenty-five percent of my students are women in their fifties, and most of them have been housewives for about thirty years, making them practically veterans of the job. But can we say that they do better cleaning than twenty-year-olds? The opposite is true. Most of them have been using conventional approaches that do not work for so many years, that their homes are now overflowing with unnecessary items and they struggle to keep clutter under control with inefficient storage methods. How can you expect them to have effective cleaning skills if they have never studied the topic properly?

If you also do not have the skills for effective cleaning, do not despair. Now is the time to learn. By studying and applying the KonMari Method presented in this book, you can avoid the vicious circle of clutter.

Putting things in order once and for all

« I do the cleaning when I suddenly realize how unclean my house is, but as soon as I am done with the cleaning, everything soon becomes a mess again.". This is a common complaint, and the standard recipe suggested by magazine columnists is: “ Don't try to clean an entire house in one go. You will only achieve the opposite effect. Make it a habit to do a little each time.". I first heard this old song when I was five years old. As the middle child in a family with three children, as a child, I could not complain about the lack of freedom. My mom was busy caring for my newborn little sister, and my brother, who was two years older than me, was busy playing video games. As a result, I spent most of my time at home on my own.

Growing up, my favorite leisure activity was reading housewife lifestyle magazines. My mother had a subscription to ESSE- a magazine filled with articles on interior decorating, making housework easier, and containing reviews of new products. As soon as the magazine was delivered, I snatched it out of the mailbox even before my mother knew about it, opened the envelope and plunged headlong into its contents. On the way home from school, I liked to go to the bookstore and flip through Orange Page, a popular Japanese food magazine. I couldn't read all the words yet, but these magazines with pictures of delicious food, delectable tips for removing stains and grease, and ideas to save extra yen, fascinated me as game guides fascinated my brother. I folded the corners of the pages that attracted my interest and dreamed of putting these tips into practice.

I have also come up with a wide variety of singles "games" for myself. For example, after reading an article on how you can save money, I immediately jumped into a game called "save energy", during which I scoured the whole house and pulled out appliances that were not working at the moment, although I did not know then nothing about electric meters. After reading another article, I started filling plastic bottles with water and putting them in the toilet tank in an individual water saving competition. Storage articles inspired me to turn cardboard milk cartons into drawers for my desk and build a letter rack by shoving empty video cassettes between two adjacent pieces of furniture. At school, while the rest of the kids were playing tag or leapfrog, I sneak away to clean up the bookshelves in our classroom or check the contents of the mop closet, constantly complaining about improper storage methods: “If there was an S-hook here, everyone it would be much easier to use ... "

But there was one problem that seemed insoluble: no matter how much I cleaned, very soon any space turned into chaos again. The boxes in my desk drawer, made of milk cartons, were soon overflowing with pens. The letter shelf, made of videotape cases, soon found itself so packed with letters and papers that they spilled out onto the floor. In cooking or sewing, skill can indeed be achieved with practice, but although cleaning is also a subtype of housework, I have not been able to achieve any improvement, and, no matter how often I cleaned, the order in any room did not last long.

“There’s nothing you can do about it,” I consoled myself. “The reverse effect is like a natural disaster. If I do all the work at once, it bodes well for me only disappointment. " I have read these words in many articles about cleaning and have come to the conclusion that they are correct. If I had a time machine now, I would go back in time and say to myself, “This is not true. If you take the right approach, there will be no reverse effect. "

For most people, the phrase “reverse effect” is associated with diet, but in the context of cleaning it does not lose its meaning. It seems logical that a sudden and drastic reduction in clutter can have the same effect as a significant reduction in calorie intake - short-term improvement is possible, but it won't last long. But don't be fooled. The moment you start moving furniture and getting rid of unnecessary things, your space changes. Everything is very simple. If you tidy up your house in one gigantic effort, you will completely clean it out. The reverse effect occurs because people mistakenly believe that cleaning was done thoroughly, when in reality they have only partially sorted and stored things. If you put your house in order correctly, you can always keep it clean, even if you are lazy or sloppy by nature.

Clean a little every day - and you will clean forever

What about the assumption that you have to clean up a little every day? While it sounds convincing, don't be fooled. The reason you feel like cleaning never ends is precisely because you are cleaning a little at a time.

Changing lifestyle habits acquired over the years is often extremely difficult. If you have never been very good at keeping order until now, you will soon find that it is almost impossible to train yourself to clean up a little. People cannot change their habits without first changing the way they think. And this is not easy! After all, it's very difficult to control your own thoughts. However, there is one way to radically transform your way of thinking when it comes to cleaning.

The topic of cleaning first came to my attention when I was in middle school. I came across a book called "The Art of Getting Rid of Unnecessary Things" ( The Art of Discarding) Nagisa Tatsumi, which explained the importance of throwing away unnecessary things. I picked up this book in the store on my way home from school, intrigued by a topic that I had encountered before, and still remember the thrill I had when reading it on the train. I was so carried away that I almost passed my station. Once home, I went straight to my room with a bunch of garbage bags with me and locked myself there for a few hours. Although my room was small, by the time I finished, I had eight bags full of rubbish - clothes I never wore, textbooks from the times primary school, toys that I have not played with for more than one year, collections of erasers and seals. I simply forgot about the existence of many of these things. After that, I sat on the floor for almost an hour, like an idol, staring at a bunch of packages and thinking: "And why did I even need to store all this nonsense?"

What shocked me most, however, was how different my room began to look. After just a few hours, I was able to see areas of the floor that had never seen daylight before. My room was completely transformed, and even the air inside it became so fresh and purer that my head immediately brightened. It turns out that cleaning can have a much greater impact than I could have imagined. Struck by the magnitude of the change, from that day onwards, I shifted my focus from cooking and sewing, which I once considered essential as a housewife, to the art of cleaning.

Cleaning gives visible results. The cleaning service never lies. The main secret success is this: if you remove in one fell swoop, and not gradually, then you can forever change your thinking and life habits. My clients don't develop the habit of cleaning up gradually. They've all gotten rid of the clutter forever since they started their cleaning marathon. This approach is the key to preventing kickbacks.

If people litter their premises again, even when they clean often, the problem is not the premises themselves or the number of things, but the way they think. Even if they initially experienced a surge of inspiration, it is difficult for them to stay motivated, and their efforts gradually fade away. The main reason for this lies in the fact that they do not see the results or feel the impact of their efforts. That is why success depends on the ability to immediately experience tangible results. If you apply the right method and focus your efforts on getting rid of the trash thoroughly and completely within a short period of time, you will see instant results that will give you the strength to keep your space in order - now and always. Anyone who has experienced this process for himself, whoever he is, will swear to himself never to litter the premises again.

The goal is perfection

« Don't aim for perfection. Start small and just throw away one item a day". What pleasant and comforting words for those who lack confidence in their ability to clean or who are convinced that they do not have enough time to complete this task properly! I stumbled upon this advice while avidly reading every cleaning book ever published in Japan ... and took the bait — along with the hook, line and float. The momentum, which had been given the impetus by my unexpected insight into the possibilities of cleaning, began to run out of steam, and I began to get overwhelmed by despondency due to the lack of stable results. It seemed to me that these words make sense. After all, it seems so difficult to strive for perfection from the very beginning! Moreover, perfection is supposedly unattainable. By throwing away one item a day, I could get rid of 365 items by the end of the year!

Convinced that I had found a very practical method, I immediately began to follow the instructions in this book. In the morning, I opened the cabinet doors, wondering what I would throw out this today. When I saw a T-shirt that I no longer wore, I stuffed it into the trash can. Before heading to bed the next evening, I opened a drawer on my desk and found a notebook there, which seemed a little too "babyish" to me. I threw it into the trash bag. Noticing a stack of sticky vouchers in the same drawer, I thought to myself: “Oh, I don’t need that anymore, either,” but, already reaching out to take them and throw them away, I hesitated as I had a new thought. "I can save them to throw away tomorrow." And I waited until the next morning to throw the sheets away. Another day passed, and I completely forgot that I needed to throw something away, so a day later I threw out two objects at once ...

To be honest, I didn't even last two weeks. I'm not one of those people who like to pore over something for a long time, moving forward in small steps. For people like me who tackle problems just before the deadline, this approach just doesn't work. Also, throwing away one item a day does not compensate for the fact that I go shopping and buy several items each time. Ultimately, the rate at which I was cutting back on items could not keep up with the pace of acquiring new items, and I had to admit the discouraging fact that my space was still cluttered. It didn't take long before I forgot to follow the rule of throwing one object a day.

So I'll tell you from my own experience: you will never get your house in order if you clean it up half-heartedly. If, like me, you are not a hardworking, persistent type of person, then I recommend that you set yourself the goal of perfection right away.

Many may protest against the word "perfection", arguing that it is an unrealizable goal. But don't worry! After all, cleaning is just a physical act. The work done in its process can be roughly divided into two types of actions: decide whether or not to throw out a particular item, and then decide where to place it. If you are capable of these two operations, then you can surely achieve perfection. Items can be counted. All you have to do is look at each item, picking them up one at a time, and decide whether to keep it or not, and if so, what place to allocate for it. Nothing else is needed to do this job. It is not so difficult to carry out a perfect and complete cleaning in one fell swoop. In fact, any person can do it. And if you want to avoid the reverse effect, then this is the only way.

Cleaning "reboots" your life

Has it ever happened to you that you couldn't get down to class the night before an exam and instead started a frantic cleaning up? I confess: this has happened to me. In fact, for me it was commonplace. I collected piles additional materials which was littered with my desk and threw them into the trash can. And then, unable to stop, she collected all the textbooks and papers that cluttered the room, and began to arrange them on the bookshelves. Finally, I opened the drawers of the table and began to organize all sorts of pens and pencils. Before I had time to look back, the clock was already half past three in the morning. Frustrated with sleep, I woke up jerkily at five o'clock in the morning - and only then, in a state of complete panic, would I open my textbooks and sit down to study.

I thought that this irrepressible urge to do the cleaning before the exam was my peculiarity; but after meeting quite a few people who do the same, I realized that this is a common phenomenon. Many people feel compelled to clean up when they are stressed, for example before an exam. But this urge does not arise because they want to clean their room. It arises because they need to tidy up something else. In fact, their brains are eager to immerse themselves in activities, but when it notices a cluttered space, the focus of attention switches to the thought "I need to clean my room." The fact that the motivation to clean up rarely "stays alive" after a crisis is over proves this theory. As soon as the exam ends, the energy that poured into the cleaning the night before is dissipated and life returns to normal. Any thoughts about cleaning are erased from the human mind. Why? Because the problem has been solved, that is, the need for classes for the exam has been "removed".

Visual clutter distracts us from the true source of clutter in our lives.

This is not to say that cleaning the room will actually calm your overexcited mind - although it may help you temporarily feel refreshed, since you haven't addressed the real cause of your anxiety. If you allow yourself to gain temporary relief by tidying up your physical space and thereby deluding yourself, you will never recognize the need to cleanse your psychological space. In my case, it was. When I was distracted by my "need" to clean the room, cleaning took so much time that I always sat down too late to study, and the result was always terrible grades.

Let's imagine a cluttered room. Disorder does not arise by itself. It is you, the person who lives there, making the mess. There is such an expression: a mess in the room - a mess in the head. I look at it this way. When a room becomes cluttered, the reason is not just physical. Visual clutter distracts us from the true source of clutter in our lives. The very act of cluttering is actually an instinctive reflex that distracts our attention from the root of the problem. If you are unable to relax in a clean and tidy room, try to deal with your anxiety. This way you can shed light on what really bothers you. When your room is clean and uncluttered, you have no choice but to explore your inner state. You gain the ability to see the problems that you have avoided and are forced to deal with them. From the moment you start cleaning, you are forced to “reset” your life. And as a result, life begins to change. That's why the task of tidying up your home should be done quickly. This allows you to tackle the problems that really matter. Cleaning is just a tool, not a final destination. The true goal should be to establish the lifestyle that you desire the most - immediately after tidying up your home.

Storage Experts - Hoarders

What's the first problem that comes to mind when thinking about cleaning? For many, the first and quickest answer is storage. My clients often want me to teach them what to store and where. Believe me, I can understand this - but, alas, this is not the real problem. The booby trap is in the very word "storage". Articles on how to better organize and store things and products always contain boilerplate phrases that make it seem like a simple matter; for example, "organize your space in a minimum of time" or "make cleaning quick and easy." People tend to take the easy ways, and most people are susceptible to storage methods that promise quick and convenient ways to get rid of visible clutter. I confess that I, too, was once enchanted by the storage myth.

Being a fan of housewife magazines since childhood, every time I read an article on how to clean things, I immediately tried to put the proposed methods into practice. I made boxes out of boxes and smashed a piggy bank to buy all sorts of pretty things invented for storing things. When I was in high school, on my way home, I dropped by the DIY store or skimmed through the magazine rack so as not to miss out on any new ideas. Once I even called the office of a company - a manufacturer of storage items that interested me in particular and pestered them with demands to tell me how these things were invented. With a sense of my duty, I used these objects to organize my things. And then I got up in the middle of the room and admired the fruits of my labors, pleased with how comfortable my world was becoming. Based on this experience, I can declare with a clear conscience that storage methods do not solve the clutter problem. Ultimately, they are only a superficial solution to it.

When I finally came to my senses, I saw that my room still did not look clean, despite the fact that it was jam-packed with magazine shelves, bookshelves, drawer dividers and all sorts of other storage gadgets. Why does my room still feel cluttered - even after I've worked so hard trying to organize and tidy up my things? - I wondered. In desperation, I began to revise the contents of each item for storage - and then a revelation overtook me. I absolutely did not need - for the most part - the things that were in them. Although I thought I was cleaning, in reality I was just wasting my time shoving things and getting them out of sight, hiding what I didn't need at all. When things are not visible at first glance, it creates the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved. But sooner or later, all storage facilities overflow, the room floods again, and it becomes clear that some new and “simple” storage method is needed, which creates a negative spiral. That's why cleaning should start with getting rid of unnecessary items. We need to exercise self-control and resist the urge to store our belongings until we finish figuring out what we really need and want to keep.

I started to study cleaning in earnest when I was in middle school, and most of that study consisted of continuous practice. Every day I cleaned one room — my own room, my brother’s room, my sister’s room, and the bathroom. Every day I planned where I would clean up, and single-handedly started "campaigns" that resembled with their mottos of sale at bargain prices: "The fifth of every month is the day of the living room!", "Today is the day of cleaning the pantry," lockers in the bathroom! "

I kept this habit even as I entered high school. Arriving home, I immediately went to the room that I decided to clean that day, without even changing school uniform for home clothes. If my goal was plastic bathroom cabinets, I would open the doors wide and unload everything from one drawer, including cosmetic samples, soap, toothbrushes, and razors. Then I sorted it all into categories, organized it with drawer dividers, and returned it to the locker. Finally, I stared at the neatly organized content for long periods in quiet admiration before moving on to the next drawer. I would sit on the floor for hours sorting things out of the locker until my mother called me to dinner.

When cleaning, we often just shove on the shelves what we don't need at all.

Once I was sorting the contents of a drawer from a dresser in the hallway and suddenly froze in amazement. “This seems to be the same box that I processed yesterday,” I thought. No, the drawer was different, but the items inside were the same - cosmetics, soap, toothbrushes and razors. I sorted them into categories, put them in boxes, and returned them to the big drawer, just like I did the day before. And at that moment it dawned on me: cleaning based on the location is a fatal mistake. Sadly I must confess that it took me three years to figure it out.

Many people are surprised to learn that this supposedly viable approach is in fact a common pitfall. The problem is rooted in the fact that people often store items of the same type in different places. When we clean each place individually, we lose sight of the fact that we are repeating the same work in many places - and we find ourselves in a vicious cycle of endless cleaning.

To avoid this, I recommend cleaning by category. For example, instead of deciding that you will be cleaning a particular room today, set a goal like "clothes today, books tomorrow." One of the main reasons so many of us fail to succeed in cleaning is that there are too many things. This excess is due to the fact that we simply do not know how much we actually have. When we distribute storage locations of the same type of items throughout the house and clean one room at a time, we are unable to estimate their total volume - and therefore, we cannot finish cleaning in any way. To avoid this negative spiral, clean by category, not by storage.

There is no need to search for “your” cleaning method

Books on cleaning up and disposing of trash often argue that the causes of clutter depend on the individual's personality and that we should therefore look for the method that best suits our personality type. At first glance, this argument seems compelling. “So that's why I can't keep my space clean! - we think. "The method I used does not fit my character." We can even check a handy table that shows which method works for lazy people or busy people, picky people or promiscuous people - and choose the one that works for us.

At some point, I got carried away with this idea - to classify cleaning methods by type of character. I read books on psychology, asked clients what their blood type, what were the characters of their parents, etc., and even paid attention to their dates of birth. I have spent over five years analyzing my discoveries, looking for general principle which would dictate the best method for each personality type. Instead, I discovered that there is absolutely no point in changing your approach to fit your personality. Most people are lazy and too busy when it comes to cleaning. As for legibility, everyone has a special relationship to one particular thing, not all. Studying the proposed personality categories, I realized that in one way or another I fall under each and every one of them. So by what standards should I have classified the reasons that lead people to slovenliness?

I have a habit of trying to categorize everything, probably because I've spent so much time thinking about ways to organize. When I started out as a consultant, I worked diligently to classify clients and tailor the content of my services to suit each type. However, now, looking back, I see that I was driven by some ulterior motive. For some reason, I imagined that a complex approach, consisting of different methods for different types of character, would help me look more professional. However, on reflection, I came to the conclusion that it makes much more sense to classify people according to their actions, and not according to some generalized personality traits.

Using this approach, people who are incapable of maintaining order can be classified into just three types: the type "can't throw away", the type "can't put in place" and the type "both together." Then, looking at my clients, I realized that ninety percent of people fall into the third category - “can't throw away and can't put in place”, while the remaining ten percent are “can't put in place”. I have yet to meet a single person who is of the pure "can't throw away" type - probably because anyone who is unable to throw away soon has so many things accumulating that storage space overflows. As for the ten percent who can throw away, but don't know how to put things back in place, when we start cleaning up in earnest, it soon becomes apparent that they could throw away a lot more, because these people collect at least 30 bags of garbage.

Effective cleaning involves only two essential steps: getting rid of the unnecessary and determining where to store the necessary.

What I mean is that cleaning should begin with getting rid of things, regardless of the personality type of their owner. If my clients learn this principle, I don't need to change the content of what I teach in a way that suits the individual. I teach the same thing to everyone. Of course, the way I present it and how each client applies it in practice happens differently, because each individual is as unique as the way he furnishes his home. Effective cleaning involves only two essential steps: getting rid of the unnecessary and determining where to store the necessary. Of these two actions, throwing should come first. This principle does not change. Everything else depends on the degree of neatness that you personally want to achieve.

Make cleaning a special event

I begin my course with these words: "Cleaning is a special event that happens once in a lifetime." Usually, these words are followed by a few moments of stunned silence. And yet I repeat: cleaning should only be done once. Or, more accurately, the cleaning job must be done once and for all within the same space.

If you think cleaning is a never-ending boring duty that must be done on a daily basis, you are seriously mistaken. There are two types of cleaning - “daily cleaning” and “special cleaning”. Daily cleaning, which consists of using things and putting them back in place, will always be a part of our life as long as we need to use clothes, books, writing utensils, etc. But the purpose of this book is to inspire you to organize it as soon as possible. A "special event" - putting your home in order.

By successfully completing this one-of-a-kind challenge in a lifetime, you will achieve the lifestyle you aspire to and enjoy the clean and uncluttered space of your choice. Can you honestly swear that you are happy surrounded by so many things that you don't even remember what you have? Most people are desperate to get their home cleaned up. Unfortunately, most of them are unable to treat this task as a "special event" and instead live in rooms that look more like storage rooms. It may take decades while they unsuccessfully try to maintain order through daily cleaning.

It is difficult to get real order if you have too many things.

Believe me! Until you accomplish the one-of-a-kind event of tidying up your home in your life, any attempt at cleaning every day will be doomed to failure. Conversely, once you get your home in order, cleaning will be reduced to the very simple task of putting things away where they belong. In essence, it becomes an unconscious habit. I use the term "special event" because it is imperative that you get the job done in a short period of time while you are energized and excited about what you are doing.

You may be afraid that when this event is over, your space will return to its former disorder. You probably enjoy shopping and imagine your belongings starting to pile up again. I know it’s hard to believe if you’ve never tried it; but once you're done with that massive cleanup, you won't have any more difficulty putting things away or deciding where to store new things. As incredible as it sounds, you only need to experience the state of perfect order once - and you will be able to maintain it. All you have to do is take the time, sit down and look at every item you own, decide if you want to throw it away or keep it, and then decide where to store what you keep.

Have you ever said to yourself something like this: "Cleaning is just not mine" or "You shouldn't even try: I was born a slob"? Many people cultivate such a negative self-image for years, but it disappears the moment they feel their own, ideally clean space around them. This dramatic change in the perception of oneself, the belief that you can do anything if you set yourself such a goal, transforms behavior and lifestyle. That is why my students never come back to me. Once you feel the powerful impact of a perfectly tidy space, you, too, will never return to clutter. Yes, I mean you!

It may sound difficult by ear, but I give you my word of honor, there is nothing difficult here. When you are cleaning, you are dealing with objects. Items are easy to throw away and move from place to place. Anyone can do it. Your goal is clear and clear. The moment you put everything in its place, you crossed the finish line. Unlike work, research, or sports, there is no need to compare your accomplishments with others in cleaning. You are the same standard. Moreover, the only thing that every person considers the most difficult - continuing to maintain order, is completely unnecessary. You only need to decide where to put your things once.

I never clean up my room. Why? Because it has already been put in order. The only cleaning I do happens once or twice a year, and each time it takes about an hour in total. The days I spent cleaning without seeing any lasting results were so many that now it seems almost unbelievable to me. Now, on the contrary, I feel happy and content. I have time to feel bliss in my free space, where even the air itself seems fresh and clean; I have time to sit sipping herbal tea as I reflect on my day. When I look around, my gaze falls on a painting bought abroad, which I especially like, and a vase of fresh flowers in the corner. Although the space in which I live is small, it is decorated only with those things that somehow touch my heart. My lifestyle makes me happy.

Wouldn't you like to live the same way?

It will be easy - once you know how to truly tidy up your home.

First - get rid of unnecessary

First, get rid of the unnecessary - in one fell swoop

You think that everything was perfectly cleaned, but only a few days pass - and you notice that your room starts to get cluttered again. Time passes, you acquire some more things - and before you have time to look back, your space has returned to its previous state. The reverse effect is caused by ineffective methods that stop cleaning halfway through. As I mentioned, there is only one way to avoid this negative spiral - by removing everything efficiently at once and as quickly as possible to create the perfect, junk-free environment... But how does this create the right mental attitude?

By completely removing your space, you transform the "scenery" around you. This change is so fundamental that you will feel like you are living in a completely different world. It deeply affects your mind and causes a persistent aversion to the old cluttered state to which you no longer want to return. The main thing is to make this external change so sudden that you experience a complete mental change. Such an impact cannot be achieved in any way if the process is gradual.

To achieve this sudden change, you need to apply the most efficient cleaning method. Otherwise, before you have time to look back, the day will pass, and you will not make any progress. The longer it takes to clean, the more tired you get, the more likely you will give up after only doing half the job. And when things start piling up again, you will find yourself in that very downward spiral. In my experience, “fast” means about six months. It may seem like a long period of time, but it's only six months in your life. Once the process is complete and you get a feel for what it is like to live in a perfectly cleaned space, you will forever free yourself from the mistaken idea that cleaning is not your path.

The secret to success is to remove everything in one go, as quickly and completely as possible, and you should start by getting rid of the unnecessary.

For the best results, I ask you to strictly adhere to the following rule: clean in the correct order. As we have already seen, the cleaning process involves solving only two problems: throwing away the unnecessary and deciding where to store things. Yes, there are only two tasks, but throwing should come first. Make sure to fully complete the first task before taking on the next. Don't even think about cleaning up until you've finished the process of getting rid of unnecessary items. Failure to follow this order is the only reason people fail to make continuous progress. In the middle of the garbage disposal process, they start thinking about where to put things. And as soon as the thought arises: “I wonder if this will fit in that box? ..” - the work on getting rid of unnecessary things stops. You will be able to think about where to put things away when you’re done getting rid of anything you don’t need.

To summarize, the secret to success is to remove everything in one go, as quickly and completely as possible, and start by getting rid of the unnecessary.

Before you start, visualize your ultimate goal.

By this time, you already understand why it is very important to throw away unnecessary things before you start thinking about where to store the necessary ones. But to start throwing away the unnecessary without thinking everything in advance would mean preparing yourself for failure even before starting work. Instead, start defining your goal. There must be some reason why you picked up this book. What initially motivated you to clean? What are you hoping to achieve by cleaning?

Before you start throwing things away, take the time to think carefully about everything.

This means visualizing the ideal lifestyle that you dream of. If you skip this step, you will not only delay the entire process, but also expose yourself to a much higher risk of doing the opposite. Goals such as "I want to live without clutter" or "I want to learn how to clean things up" are too general. You need to think much deeper. Think in concrete terms so you can vividly imagine what it would be like to live in an uncluttered space.

One client of mine (not older than 30) defined her dream as "a more feminine way of life." She lived in a cluttered room "on seven mats" - in Japan this means a room measuring seven tatami, that is, an area of ​​3 × 4 meters - with a built-in chest of drawers and three shelves of different sizes. It should have provided ample storage space, but wherever I turned, the only thing that caught my eye was clutter. The closet was so overflowing that its doors would not close and things peeped out of the inner drawers like a burger filling. The cornice above the bay window was hung with so much clothing that curtains were unnecessary. The floor and bed were covered with baskets and bags filled with magazines and newspapers. When my client went to bed, she moved things from her bed to the floor, and when she woke up, she put them back on the bed to clear the way to the door and get to work. Her way of life could not be called "feminine" even with the most titanic efforts of the imagination.

- What do you mean by "feminine lifestyle"? I asked.

She thought for a long time before finally answering:

- Well, suppose when I come home from work, the floor will not be littered with anything ... and my room will be as clean as in a good hotel, and my eyes will never cling to ... I would have a pink bedspread and white lamp in antique style. Before going to bed, I would take a bath, light incense sticks and listen to classical piano or violin music while doing yoga and making herbal tea. I would fall asleep with a sense of unhurried spaciousness.

Her description was as vivid and vivid as if she really lived in this environment. It is important to achieve just this level of detail by visually imagining your ideal lifestyle and describing it on paper. If this is difficult for you, if you are not able to mentally picture yourself the kind of life that you would like to live, try looking in interior magazines for photos that will grab your attention. It can also be helpful to visit a couple of exhibition houses. Examining a range of different rooms will give you a rough idea of ​​what you like. By the way, the client I described above now really enjoys baths, aromatherapy, classical music and yoga. She emerged from the abyss of confusion to find for herself the very feminine lifestyle that she aspired to.

So now that you've envisioned the lifestyle you're dreaming of, is it time to move on to getting rid of unnecessary things? No, not yet. I understand your impatience, but in order to prevent the reverse effect, you need to move forward in the right way, step by step, implementing this one in life event. Your next step is to determine why you want to live this way. Review your notes on your desired lifestyle and think again. Why do you need aromatherapy before bed? Why do you want to listen to classical music while doing yoga? If your answers are like this: “ Because I want to relax before bed" and " I want to do yoga to lose weight"- ask yourself why you want to relax and why you want to lose weight. Perhaps your answers will be: “ I don't want to feel tired when I go to work the next day." and " I want to go on a diet to be prettier". Ask yourself the question "why?" for each of these answers. Repeat this process three to five times for each topic.

As you continue to explore the reasons that lead you to believe this is the ideal lifestyle, you will come to a simple realization: the whole point of getting rid of unnecessary things and keeping what you need is to be happy. It may seem obvious, but it is important to feel this realization for yourself and let it be imprinted in your heart. Before you start cleaning, take a look at the lifestyle you are striving for and ask yourself, "Why do I need to clean up?" When you find the answer, then you will be ready to move on to the next stage - the study of what you own.

Selection principle: does it cause joy?

What standards do you use when deciding what to discard?

When it comes to throwing away unnecessary things, there are several common patterns of behavior. One is to throw things away when they are no longer functional, such as breaking down and beyond repair, or when part of a complex item or set becomes unusable. Another approach is to throw away items that are outdated, such as clothes that are out of fashion, or items associated with a long past event. It is easy to get rid of things when there is an obvious reason to do so. It is much more difficult when there is no clear motive. A variety of experts suggest different criteria for throwing away things that people find it difficult to part with. These criteria include rules like “throw away everything that you haven't used in a year” and “if you can't make a decision, put those things in the box and look at them again after six months.” However, the moment you start focusing on how to choose what to throw away, in reality you are deviating significantly from the course. It is extremely risky to continue cleaning in this state.

At some point in my life, I practically turned into a living “waste disposal facility”. Having discovered the book The Art of Getting Rid of Unwanted Things at 15, I focused entirely on getting rid of things, and my research efforts doubled. I was always looking for new places to practice, be it my brother and sister's rooms or school lockers. My head was jam-packed with cleaning tips, and I had the complete - albeit mistaken - confidence that I could clean any room.

My specific goal at the time was to get rid of as many things as possible. I applied every criterion offered in various books to reduce the amount of things that fell into my hands. I tried to get rid of clothes that I hadn't worn in two years, throw away one of my old clothes every time I bought something new, and throw away anything I wasn't sure I needed. In one month, I got rid of 30 bags of garbage. But no matter how much I threw away, not a single room in my house began to seem more tidy.

What's more, I've found myself going shopping just to relieve stress and sabotaging all my attempts to reduce the total number of things in the most miserable way. At home I was in constant stress, constantly looking for unnecessary things that could be thrown away. When I found something that had not been used for a long time, I vengefully pounced on this thing and threw it into the trash can. Unsurprisingly, I became more and more irritable and tense and could not relax even in my own home.

One day, when I came home from school, I opened the door to my room to start cleaning it as usual. At the sight of this messy space, my patience finally snapped. "I don't want to clean anymore!" I exclaimed. Sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, I began to think. I spent three years cleaning and throwing things away, but my room still felt cluttered. Please, someone tell me why my room is still a mess, even though I put such a lot of effort into cleaning! Even though I didn't say these words out loud, in my heart I almost screamed. And at that moment I heard a voice.

"Take a closer look at what is here."

What do you mean? I look at what is here every day - so carefully that I could drill a few holes with my eyes. With this thought in my head, I fell asleep soundly. If I were a little smarter, even before I became so neurotic, I would have realized that focusing solely on throwing things away can only lead to discouragement. Why? Because we should choose what we want save, not what we want from get rid of.

When I woke up, I immediately understood what that voice in my head meant. Take a closer look at what is here... I was so focused on what should be thrown away, on attacks on unwanted objects around me, that I completely forgot to appreciate the things that I love, the things that I want to keep. Through this experience, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away - take each item in your hands and ask: "Does this cause joy?" If it calls, save it. If not, throw it away. This is not only the simplest, but also the most accurate yardstick for judgment.

You may doubt the effectiveness of such a vague criterion, but the trick is to hold each item in your hands. It is necessary not only to open the wardrobe and, casting a diagonal glance at it, decide that everything in it will delight you. You must pick up every cloth. When you touch a piece of clothing, the body reacts to it. His reactions to each subject differ from each other. Trust me and try it.

I chose this algorithm for a reason. What is the general point of cleaning? If it is not that our space and the things contained in it give us happiness, then, I think, it makes no sense at all. Therefore, the best criterion for choosing what to keep and what to throw away is to answer the question whether keeping this item will make you happy, whether it will give you joy.

Are you happy wearing clothes that do not give you pleasure?

Do you feel joy when surrounded by piles of unread books that do not touch your heart?

Do you think owning accessories that you will never use will bring you happiness?

The answer to these questions must be negative.

Now imagine that you live in a space that contains only those things that carve sparks of joy from your soul. Isn't this the lifestyle you dream of?

Save only those things that resonate in your heart. And then take the decisive leap - and throw away the rest. By doing this, you will be able to "reset" your life and choose for yourself a new style of being.

Let me start by telling you what no need make. Do not start the selection and discarding process based on the location of the items. Don't think, "I'll clean the bedroom first and then go to the living room," or "Walk through the drawers of my desk, starting at the top and working downward." This approach is a fatal mistake. Why? Because, as we have already found out, most people do not take the trouble to store similar items in one place.

In most households, items that fall into one category are stored in two or more locations scattered throughout the house. Let's say, for example, you start out with a wardrobe in your bedroom or a dresser. After you finish sorting and throwing away what is stored in it, you will inevitably stumble upon clothes that were kept in another closet, or clothes thrown over a chair in the living room. After that, you will have to repeat the entire process of picking and storing; under such conditions, you will be wasting time and energy and simply will not be able to accurately assess what you want to keep and what to throw away. Repetition and wasted effort can kill motivation and should therefore be avoided.

For this reason, I recommend that you always think in terms of category, not location. Before deciding what to keep, collect all the items that fall under one category at the same time. Take each of these items and arrange them all in one place. To illustrate the whole process, let's go back to the clothing example above. You start by deciding what you want to organize and tidy up your clothes. The next step is to search every room in the house. Bring all the items of clothing you find to one place and put them together. Then grab each piece of clothing and wonder if it makes you happy. These - and only these - things should be preserved. Follow the same procedure for each item category. If you have too many clothes, you can create subcategories - for example, tops, pants and skirts, socks, and more - and browse things by category.

Collecting all of the items of the same category in one place is extremely important as it gives you an accurate idea of ​​how many items you have. Most people are shocked at the very volume of a pile of things, which is often at least twice the amount that they imagined. Plus, by collecting things in one place, you can compare items that are similar in design, making it easier for you to decide if you want to keep them. There is another good reason to pull all items of the same category out of drawers, cabinets and dressers and put them together. Out-of-sight things are sleeping things. This makes it much more difficult to decide if they make you happy or not. When you expose them to the light of day and revive them, so to speak, you will find that it is surprisingly easy for you to determine if they touch your heart.

By sorting out just one category within one time frame, you speed up the cleaning process. So try to really collect every single item in the category you are working on. Let nothing slip unnoticed.

Start right

You start your day, burning with a fiery desire to put things in order, but before you have time to look back, the sun is already setting, and you just had time to approach your things. With a trembling glance at your watch, you feel that you are beginning to drown in remorse and despair. And what is it that you are holding in your hands now? Most often it turns out to be one of your favorite comics, a photo album, or some other object that evokes pleasant memories.

My advice to start cleaning not by room, but by category, collecting all the items in one place and at the same time, does not mean that you can start with any category of your choice. The degree of difficulty in choosing what to keep and what to get rid of can be very different depending on the category itself. People who get stuck halfway usually do it because they start with the things that are most difficult to make decisions about. Things that evoke memories, such as photographs, are not a great start for a new cleaning person. And the point is not only that the volume of items in this category is usually larger than in any other; it is much more difficult for us to decide whether to keep them.

In addition to the physical value of things, there are three other factors that add added value to your things: functionality, information, and emotional attachment. And when an element of rarity or uniqueness is added to all this, the difficulty of choice increases many times over. People find it difficult to throw away things that they can still use (functional value), that contain useful information (informational value) and with which sentimental ties are associated (emotional value). When such items are difficult to acquire or replace (rarity factor), it becomes even more difficult to throw them away.

The process of deciding what to keep and what to get rid of will go much smoother when you start with items that are easier to make decisions about. As you gradually work through the more challenging categories, you will hone your decision-making skills. With clothes it is easiest, because in this category the rarity factor is extremely insignificant. On the contrary, photographs and letters are not only of high sentimental value, but are also one of a kind, therefore, they should be left "for dessert". This is especially true of photographs, since they usually unexpectedly and accidentally come across when we sort out other categories of things, moreover, find ourselves in the most unexpected places, for example, between the pages of books and among documents. The best sequence of actions is as follows: first clothes, then books, documents, category "miscellaneous" ( komono) and, finally, "sentimental" items and gifts.

Before you start cleaning, clearly imagine what kind of lifestyle you are striving for.

This procedure has also proved to be the most effective in terms of difficulty levels in solving the next task - storage. Finally, if we adhere to this sequence, it sharpens our intuitive sense of which particular objects make us happy. If you can dramatically speed up your decision-making process by simply changing the order in which you throw things away, shouldn't you at least give it a try?

Don't let your family peek

The cleaning marathon throws out a lot of rubbish. At this stage, the only catastrophe that can create even more chaos than an earthquake is the arrival of a recycling expert, who is also popularly known under the pseudonym "mom".

One of my clients, whom I will call M., lived with her parents and sister. They moved to their current home 15 years ago, when M. was still in elementary school. She not only loved buying new clothes for herself, but she also kept those things that were of sentimental value to her, such as school uniforms and T-shirts made for a variety of events. M. kept them in boxes, which she placed on the floor until the floorboards were completely out of sight. It took five hours to sort and remove all these things. By the end of the day, she had 15 bags of discarded items filled, including 8 bags of clothes, 200 books, many stuffed animals and crafts she made at school. We neatly stacked all these bags near the door on the floor (which is now finally visible), and I was just about to explain to M. one very important point.

- There is one secret of getting rid of all this rubbish, which you should know ... - I began, and then the door opened and the client's mother entered the room, holding a tray of cold tea in her hands. "Oh no!" I moaned mentally.

The woman placed the tray on the table.

“Thank you so much for helping my daughter,” she said, and turned to leave. And at that moment her gaze fell on the pile of things at the door. - Oh, are you really going to throw it away? She asked, pointing to a pink yoga mat on top of a pile of bags.

- I haven't used it for two years.

- Truth? Well, maybe then I'll use it. - And she began to rummage through the bags. - Wow, maybe this too ...

When the woman finally walked out the door, she was carrying with her not only the yoga mat, but also three skirts, two blouses, two jackets, and some stationery.

When the room became quiet again, I took a sip of cold tea and asked M.:

- How often does your mother do yoga?

- I've never seen her do it.

Before her mother entered M.'s room, I was going to say this: “Don't let your family members see what's going on here. If possible, take out the trash bags yourself. There is no need to let your family know what exactly you are going to throw away. "

I especially recommend my clients not to show thrown items to parents and family members. It's not that there is something to be ashamed of here. There is nothing wrong with cleaning. However, the sight of what their children throw away is extremely stressful for parents. The volume of the trash heap itself can cause anxiety in parents, making them wonder if the children can live with what they have left. In addition, despite the fact that they should have enjoyed the independence and maturity of their child, it can be very painful for parents to see clothes, toys and souvenirs from the past in the trash heap, especially if they themselves gave these things to their child. To hide this rubbish from their eyes is to be tactful. It also protects your loved ones from purchasing more items than they need (and in which way they can make them happy). Up to this point, your family has been happy with what they had. When relatives see what you have decided to throw away, they may feel guilty about such outright waste, but the items they “rescue” from your trash heap will only add to the burden of unnecessary things in your home. And we should be ashamed to make them bear this burden.

In the vast majority of cases, it is mothers who “save” the things thrown out by their daughters, but they rarely wear clothes that they take away. My female clients, who are in their fifties or sixties, invariably end up throwing away the things their daughters gave them, without ever putting them on. I think we should avoid creating situations like this where a mother's attachment to her daughter becomes a burden. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, as long as other family members actually enjoy things that you don't need. If you live with your family, you can ask your family, "Are there any items you need that you are planning to buy?" - before you start cleaning, and then, if you happen to find exactly what you need, give them this thing.

Focus on your room

"Even if I clean, the rest of my family is making a mess again."

“My husband is a typical hoarder. How can I convince him to throw away unnecessary things? "

If your loved ones don't work with you to create the “perfect” home, this can be very annoying. I myself have encountered this problem many times in the past. At one time I was so absorbed in cleaning that it was not enough for me to clean my own room. I just couldn't help but take care of my brother and sister's rooms and all the other rooms in the house. And my messy family upset me all the time. The main reason for the despondency was the common chest of drawers in the middle of the apartment. It seemed to me that at least half of its contents were unused and unnecessary junk. The clothes hangers were full of outfits that I had never seen my mother wear, and my dad's suits that were downright outdated. My brother's boxes of comics cluttered the floor.

I waited for the right moment and approached the owner of the things with the question: "You don't need this anymore, right?" But I always heard the answer: "No, you need to!" or “I'll throw it out myself later,” but it never happened. Every time, looking into this closet, I sighed and complained: “Why is everyone doing nothing but accumulating things? Can't they see how much energy I spend to keep the house in order? "

Knowing full well that I am a "black sheep" when it comes to cleaning, I was not going to give up. When my frustration reached its limit, I decided to use the tactics of theft. I have identified items that have not been used in many years, judging by their design, the amount of dust accumulated on them, and the smell. I moved these items to the farthest part of the closet and watched what happened next. If no one noticed them disappearing, I got rid of them - one thing at a time - just like the plants in the garden are thinned out. After three months of applying this strategy, I managed to get rid of 10 bags of trash.

Notes (edit)

This reduces the volume of water drained from the tank. Brick is recommended in Europe ( approx. ed.).

Today we want to tell you about unique cleaning methods from a girl from Japan, Mari Kondo, who became the author of the book “Magic Cleaning. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life ”. Let's say right away that the book is not about how to clean (mopping, dusting, etc.), it is about how to get rid of trash in the house.

1. Do everything at once and now

Methods of gradual decluttering (one room or one corner) are categorically rejected, as in practice they turn our life into eternal cleaning. The Mari cleaning method is expected to take several hours.

2. First discard unnecessary items, then sort and remove

It makes no sense to put things in order if there are a lot of unnecessary things on the shelves. Start with the trash, and then start cleaning up.

3. Start Easy

Start with items that have no emotional value, such as a wardrobe, books, or paper.

4. Tackle categories, not rooms

In most families, it is customary to store clothes, books or utensils in several places. The Japanese cleaning method implies that all things of the same category should be nearby: in one place - clothes, in another place - dishes, and so on.

5. Throw away everything you don't like.

Mary Kondo believes that a thing is good if it makes the heart beat faster, and advises to leave only the most beloved things in the house.

6. Get rid of paperwork

Each of us has a bunch of unnecessary papers that we sort out every few months. Throw out all the pieces of paper at once.

7. Let go with love (gifts and souvenirs)

Sometimes it can be difficult to get rid of old toys that warm the heart with pleasant memories. However, it is better not to make a warehouse out of your home, but to keep memories in your heart and soul.

8. Don't buy expensive and complicated storage devices

According to Marie, there is no need to spend a lot on newfangled storage devices, all these pretty containers and boxes. She thinks that the best place for things is an ordinary shoebox.

Tired of endlessly cleaning up your house? And it is not necessary! There is a way to clean up once and for all.

Today the Japanese woman Marie Kondo is known all over the world: her book “Magic cleaning. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life " v short time has become a bestseller and has been published in over 30 countries.

From the age of 5, Marie liked to flip women's magazines reviewing pictures of delicious dishes reading about how to remove grease stains or save money. “The articles on storage methods inspired me to turn cardboard milk cartons into drawers for my desk drawers,” says Marie in her book. Looking at their daughter's hobby, the parents thought that she would become an ideal housewife, but she invented her own method of cleaning, began to help people get rid of trash in their homes and earned millions on it. This is because the "KonMari method" really works.

CLEANING: ONCE AND FOR A LIFETIME

If you are already familiar with the "flylady" system, according to which you do not need to strive to instantly turn your house into an ideal picture and it is better to "put out fires" in problem areas every day, forget about it. Marie Kondo claims the opposite: “You need to clean up once and properly. If you clean up a little every day, cleaning will last forever. ” In relation to cleaning, Marie uses the term "special event", which must be performed once and for all within a single period of time.

“If you put your house in order correctly, you can keep it clean at all times, even if you are lazy or sloppy by nature,” says Marie. There is nothing complicated in the magic cleaning method itself.

Effective cleaning involves only two essential steps: getting rid of the unnecessary and determining where to store the necessary.

But you shouldn't even think about where to put the necessary things until you get rid of all unnecessary ones. Ejection should come first.

GET RID OF UNNECESSARY ONE MOTE

More often than not, people easily part with things that have ceased to be functional (for example, broken), aged or out of fashion. But there are many unnecessary things in the house for which there is no obvious reason to throw them away. Marie Kondo does not recommend using advice in such cases, such as: “throw away everything that you have not used for a year”, “you cannot throw it away now - put it in the box and come back to this question later” - they do not work.

CLEAR BY CATEGORIES

Housekeeping should be done not by room: "today is the bedroom, tomorrow is the nursery," but by categories, for example, "today is clothes, tomorrow is books." Before deciding what to keep in the house and what to throw away, collect all the items that fall under one category in one place. “Collecting all the items in one place is extremely important as it gives you an accurate idea of ​​how many items you have. Most people are shocked at the very volume of a pile of things, which is often at least twice the amount that they imagined, ”explains Marie.

The cleaning process should start with simple items that are easiest to make a decision about: clothes, then books, documents, "miscellaneous" (CDs and DVDs, cosmetics, accessories, electrical appliances, writing utensils, household supplies, etc.) and only at the very last queue of "sentimental" items and gifts.

DON'T LET RELATIVES INTERFERE

The cleaning process is akin to meditation, and therefore should be cleaned in a calm atmosphere. Also, Marie Kondo in no way advises showing thrown things to parents and other family members: “There is nothing wrong with cleaning. However, the sight of what their children are throwing away is extremely stressful for parents. The volume of the trash heap itself can cause anxiety in parents, making them wonder if the children can live with what they have left. "

In the vast majority of cases, mothers “save” the things thrown out by their daughters, but they rarely wear clothes that they take away. My female clients, who are in their fifties or sixties, in the end invariably throw away the things given by their daughters, even without ever putting them on.

DO NOT TURN UNNECESSARY CLOTHING INTO HOME

Many people, starting to disassemble things, instead of throwing out those that have not been worn for a long time, leave them “for home”. Do not do that!

It is wrong to leave clothes that we do not like to “relax” in them at home. Our home time is a precious part of life. Its value should not diminish simply because no one sees us at home. So, starting today, end the habit of demoralizing clothes that you are not fond of, putting them in the category of homemade.

PARTY UNNECESSARY SOUVENIRS

The hand does not rise to throw away gifts that were bought especially for you by a person dear to your heart? The situation is common. “The true purpose of a gift is to be accepted. Gifts are not "things", but a means of conveying human feelings, - reflects Marie. - If you look at the case from this point of view, then there is no need to feel guilty when throwing away someone's gift.

Just thank him for the joy he caused you when you received him. Of course, the ideal would be a situation in which you could enjoy the gift. But surely the person who handed it to you will not want you to use it only out of a sense of duty or put it aside, not using it, tormented by remorse every time you look at it. "

HOW TO STORE THINGS CORRECTLY

Once you make the right selection among things, you are left with only the amount that fits perfectly in the space at the moment. If your goal is an uncluttered room, then you need to store these things so that you can immediately tell where what is.
You need to store all related things and objects of the same type in one place and as close to each other as possible.

KEY SECRET - VERTICAL STORAGE

Perhaps the revolutionary discovery of Marie Kondo is in the convenience of storing things and objects not in stacks, but vertically. This principle applies not only to books, documents and papers, but also to clothes in dresser drawers.

It is very important to learn how to fold things correctly - in a simple smooth rectangle. And then they can always be rolled up and placed vertically in a drawer, like towels in a bedside table under the sink from the IKEA catalog. Such a storage system will give the most complete overview, and you can always easily take out any item without disturbing the rest.

BEST STORAGE - SHOE BOX

There is no need for special storage devices - they are only a superficial solution to the problem of clutter. You just need to get rid of unnecessary things. And the rest is most conveniently stored in empty shoe boxes.

The scope of shoe boxes is practically unlimited. I often use them to store socks and tights in dresser drawers. The shoebox height is ideal for storing rolled-up tights. In the bathroom, they can be used to store bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and are also ideal for storing detergents and other household cleaning items.

See how Marie Kondo herself packs a dozen items in a small shoebox:

ORDER IN THE HOUSE = ORDER IN LIFE

In her book, Mari Kondo writes that by tidying up his house, a person is putting his affairs and his past in order. As a result of "dealing" with things, he begins to clearly understand what he needs in life and what not, and what he wants to do.

The best way to find out what we really need is to get rid of what we don't need. This no longer requires trips to distant countries or unrestrained shopping. All that needs to be done is to eliminate what is not necessary by properly approaching every item that belongs to you. Life really begins after you put your home in order.
For more motivating photos for cleaning, see our gallery.

P.S. Such a prosaic topic as cleaning the house is the subject of the feature film “Life is the Exciting Magic of Cleaning”. The plot is dramatic, and the folding of clothes - exactly according to the method of Maria Kondo - is filmed as a gripping ritual.

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Unread books
"Someday" means "never"

The most common reason people don't throw out books is "I might read it again" or "I might want to read it again." Take some time to count your favorites - books that you've actually read more than once. Are there many of them? Some of them may have only five, and some outstanding readers may count at least a hundred. However, the people who read and reread so many books are usually from specific professions, such as academics or writers. It is very rare to find a completely ordinary person like me who reads so much. Let's face the facts. Surely you will be rereading only a few of your books. As with clothing, you need to take a break and think about what purpose these books serve.

Books are essentially paper, sheets of paper covered with in block letters and intertwined together. Their true purpose is to be readable, to convey information to their readers. It is the information they contain that matters. It makes no sense for them to just sit on your shelves. You read books to relive the reading experience. The books that you have read have already been experienced, and their content is within you, even if you do not remember it. So, when deciding which books to keep, forget and think about the fact that you will re-read them again, and do not wonder if you have internalized their content. Instead, take each book in your hands and decide if it touches you or not. Save only those books that will make you feel happy just by looking at them, only those books that are on your bookshelves that awaken love in you. This also applies to my book. If you have no joy in holding it in your hand, I would rather you toss it away.

What about books you've started but haven't finished reading yet? Or books that you bought but haven't started reading yet? What about books like these that you intend to read "someday"? The internet has made it a lot easier to buy books, but it seems to me that as a result, people now have more unread books on their hands than ever before. This is not such a rare occurrence - when a person buys one book and then buys the next, barely having time or even not having time to start reading the first one. Unread books accumulate. The problem with the books we intend to read "someday" is that they are much more difficult to get rid of than the ones we have already read.

I remember once telling the president of a company about how to clean his office. His bookshelves were full of books with unpronounceable titles, which are kind of like the president of the company should read, from classics like Drucker and Carnegie to the latest bestsellers. It was as if you were entering a bookstore. When I saw his collection, my heart sank into my heels. And indeed, starting to sort them, he put the books one by one in a pile, which was to be kept, saying that they had not yet been read. By the time he finished sorting, he still had 50 volumes left, and little had changed from the original collection. When I asked him why he kept them, he gave the classic answer from my list of most likely answers: "Because I might need to read them someday." I'm afraid that, relying on my personal experience, I can tell you right now: "someday" means "never."

If you missed your chance to read a particular book, even if it was recommended to you or you intended to read it a long time ago, then this is your chance to part with it. You may have wanted to read it when you bought it, but if you haven't read it so far, then the purpose of this book is to tell you that you don't need it. There is no need to finish reading books that you have only half-read. Their job was to be half-read. So get rid of all those unread books. It will be much more beneficial for you to read a book that truly captures you right now than one that has been collecting dust for years.

By reducing the number of things in the house, at some point you realize how much and what exactly you need.

People with large collections of books are almost always diligent students. That is why it is not uncommon to see many reference books and textbooks in their collections. Manuals and textbooks for acquiring specific qualifications are often incredibly varied, ranging from books on accounting, philosophy, and computer skills to aromatherapy and painting. Sometimes I am simply amazed at what kind of knowledge my clients are interested in. Many of my clients also keep old textbooks from school and notebooks from when they were just learning to write.

So if you, like many of my clients, have books that fall into this category, I urge you to stop claiming that you will ever use them and get rid of them today. Why? Because it is very unlikely that you will ever read them. Of all my clients, less than 15 percent actually use such books. When they explain why they cling to these books so much, their answers always revolve around what they intend to do "someday." " Someday I would like to learn this "," I will do this when I have a little more time "," I thought it would be useful to learn English"," I would like to study accounting, because I am engaged in management“… If you haven't already done what you set out to do, throw this book away. Only by getting rid of it, you will be able to check how eager you are to study this subject. If nothing changes in your life after getting rid of the book, well, so be it. If you need this book so much that, having thrown it away, you are ready to buy another copy, then buy it - and read it this time.

Books to keep
Those who have a place in the "hall of fame"

I now limit my book collection to about 30 volumes at any given time, but in the past I have found it very difficult to get rid of books because I love them. When I first took apart my library, using the measure of the joy they bring, there are about 100 volumes left in my closet. While this is not overkill when compared to the average, I felt I could cut it down even further. One day I decided to take a closer look at what I had left. I started with books that I thought it was absolutely impossible to part with. In my case, the first on the list was "Alice in Wonderland", which I've been rereading since elementary school. Such books, which fall into a person's personal book "hall of fame", are easy to identify. Then I began to look closely at books that were enjoyable, but did not reach this high bar. The contents of this category have changed significantly over time, but these are the books that I definitely want to keep at the moment. One of them was "The art of getting rid of unnecessary things", the book that first opened my eyes to cleaning, although I no longer have it. Books that provide this kind of enjoyment are worth keeping too.

The most difficult case is those books that are moderately enjoyable; which contain words and phrases that touch your heart and that you might want to reread again. They are the hardest to throw away. And although I did not feel an urgent need to get rid of them, I could not ignore the fact that they gave me only moderate pleasure. I started looking for a way to get rid of them without regrets and over time came across what I called "the volume reduction method." Realizing that what I really wanted to keep was not the book, but only certain information or specific words that it contained, I decided that if I kept only what was needed, I could throw out the rest.

My idea was to copy the sentences that inspired me into a notebook. In time, I thought, this notebook will become personal collection my favorite aphorisms. It will be great to reread it in the future and keep track of the path my interests have taken me. Enthusiastic, I pulled out a notebook I liked and set to work on my project. I started by underlining the places I wanted to rewrite. Then I wrote the title of the book into a notebook and began to rewrite. However, as I started, I realized that this process would take too much work. Rewriting takes time, and if I want to be able to reread these words in the future, my handwriting must be neat. It would take at least half an hour to rewrite just ten quotes from a single book, and that's a very optimistic estimate. The thought of doing this with 40 books made my head spin.

Then I decided to use a copier. I will copy the fragments that I want to keep, and then I will cut them out and paste them into my notebook. This, I thought, should be much faster and easier. But when I tried to do this, it turned out that I got even more work. Finally, I decided to rip out the pages I needed right from the book. Pasting the pages into a notebook also took some effort, so I simplified the process by inserting the torn pages into a file folder. At the same time, each book took only five minutes, and I managed to get rid of 40 books and at the same time keep those statements that I liked. I was incredibly happy with the results. After two years of using this “volume reduction method,” a sudden realization overwhelmed me: I never did not look into the folder that I created. All these efforts were spent only in order to calm their own conscience.

I recently noticed that having fewer books actually amplifies the impact of the information I read. It became much easier for me to recognize the necessary information. Many of my clients, especially those who threw away a significant amount of books and documents, also mentioned this. In the case of books, timing is everything. The moment when you come across a particular book is exactly the time when you need to read it. In order not to miss this moment, I recommend that you limit the size of your book collection.

Sorting documents
Rule of thumb: throw everything away

Once you're done organizing your books, it's time to move on to the documents. We are talking, for example, about the shelf for letters, which is overflowing with envelopes; about school notices stuck on the refrigerator; about an invitation lying near the phone to a meeting of classmates to which you did not go; about the newspapers that have accumulated on your desk over the past few days. There are several places in the house where papers tend to accumulate like snowdrifts.

While the general consensus is that there is usually much less paperwork in the home than in the office, this is actually not the case. The minimum amount of paper waste that my clients usually throw away is about two 45-liter garbage bags. To date, the maximum number is 15 such bags. I have heard more than once that the paper shredders owned by my clients are simply choking on their work. It is extremely difficult to cope with such a huge volume of paper, but from time to time I come across amazing clients whose skills in handling documents take my breath away. When I ask, "How do you manage to deal with your papers?" - they give me very detailed explanations.

“Documents related to children are sent to that folder. And this folder is a repository for my recipes. I put magazine clippings here, instructions for electrical appliances in this box ... ”They classify their papers in such detail that sometimes I lose my thread of reasoning already in the middle of the explanation. I admit, I hate folding pieces of paper! I never use binder folders or write shortcuts. This system may work better in an office setting where many people use the same documents, but there is absolutely no need to use such a system. detailed system workflow at home.

My basic tenet of sorting documents is to throw them all away. My clients are speechless when I say this, but nothing is more annoying than paper. In the end, there is no joy from them, no matter how carefully you keep them. For this reason, I recommend throwing away anything that does not fit into three categories: those currently in use, needed for a limited period of time, and those that need to be stored indefinitely.

The term “documents”, by the way, does not include paper documents with sentimental value, such as old love letters or diaries. An attempt to sort these papers will drastically slow down the pace of your progress. Limit yourself at first to sorting out papers that do not bring you joy, and end this work in one sweeping motion. Letters from friends and loved ones can be left out while you are dealing with items of sentimental value.

When you are done with those papers that do not bring you the slightest pleasure, what should you do with the ones that you choose to keep? My documentary method is extremely simple. I divide them all into two categories: documents to be stored and documents to be dealt with. Although my main principle is to throw away all papers, these two are the only categories for which I make an exception. Letters requiring a response, questionnaire documents requiring filling, the newspaper you intend to read - set aside a special corner for the papers that need to be dealt with. Make sure that all such documents are stored in only one place. Never let them spread to the rest of the premises. I recommend using a vertical organizer, in which documents can be stored while standing, and a special place for this organizer. All papers requiring attention can be placed in it without separating them.

As for the documents that need to be stored, I subdivide them according to the frequency of use. Again, the way I subdivide them is straightforward. I divide them into infrequently used and more commonly used. The infrequently used category includes insurance policies, warranty cards and licenses. Alas, they need to be stored automatically, without taking into account the fact that they do not cause any joy. Since you will almost never need to use documents in this category, there is no need to put a lot of effort into storing them. I recommend storing them all in a single regular clear plastic folder without worrying about further categorization.

Another subcategory includes papers that you will retrieve and look at more often, such as seminar materials or newspaper clippings. It only makes sense to store them if you can easily access and read them, so I recommend sticking them into transparent plastic file folders in the manner of book pages. This category is the most difficult of all. While papers like these are not essential, they tend to proliferate. Reducing the size of this category is a key principle in organizing your documents.

Papers are organized into only three categories: those that need attention; those that should be retained (contract documents) and those that should be retained (others). The main thing is to keep all documents from one category in the same container or folder and deliberately refrain from subdividing them into further categories by content. In other words, you need three containers or folders. Do not forget that the container labeled "needs attention" must be empty. If it contains documents, you must understand that you have unfinished business in your life that require your attention. While I have never been able to completely empty this container, it is a goal that we should all strive for.

All about papers
How to organize problem papers

My basic principle, as I said, is to throw away all papers; but there will always be those that are difficult to throw away. Let's think about how to deal with them.

Educational materials

People who love to learn are more likely to attend workshops or courses in a variety of subjects such as aromatherapy, logical thinking or marketing. Recently, there has been a trend in Japan to use the early morning hours to attend morning seminars. Their content and time frames are constantly expanding, giving people a wide range of choices. For the participants of the seminars, the materials diligently distributed by the lecturer are akin to a medal of honor, so it is difficult to part with them. But when I find myself in the homes of such ardent students, I find that these materials usurp a significant portion of the space, creating an oppressive atmosphere in their rooms.

One of my clients was a woman in her early thirties who worked for an advertising company. As soon as I entered her room, it seemed to me that I was in the office. I was struck by the rows of folders with neatly typed headings. “These are all materials from the seminars I attended,” she told me. A seminar fanatic, in her own words, she kept and collected materials from every seminar she ever attended.

People often say, “I want to reread these materials someday,” but most never do that. Moreover, most of them keep materials from many seminars on the same or similar topics at home. Why? Because what I learned at the seminars did not stay in my head. I do not want to criticize anyone, I just point out why it is not worth saving the materials of past seminars. If the content of such courses is not applied in practice, they are meaningless. The value of attending refresher courses comes from the moment we start attending them, and the main challenge is to make the most of them by applying what we have learned from the moment the course ends. Why do people go to the substantial expense of paying for such courses when they can read the same information in a book or elsewhere? Because they want to experience the teacher's enthusiasm and a special learning environment. Thus, the real material is the workshop itself or a similar event, and must be learned live.

When attending courses, do so with an inner determination to throw away all handouts. If you are sorry to throw it away, then take this course again - and this time apply what you have learned in practice. It is paradoxical, but I am convinced that we are not able to apply what we have learned in practice precisely because we cling to such materials. The largest collection of seminar materials I have come across was 190 file folders. Needless to say, I made my client throw them all away.

Credit card statements

Another type of paperwork to throw away is all your credit card statements. What is their purpose? For most people, they are simply a way to check how money was spent in a particular month. So once you've checked the contents of these documents to make sure everything is correct and entered these numbers into your home accounting, the reports have served their purpose and you should throw them away. Trust me! You don't need to feel guilty at all.

Can you think of any other time you really need credit card reports? Can you imagine bringing them to court to prove how much money was withdrawn? This will never happen, so there is no need to keep these records safe for the rest of your life. The same goes for notices of charges from your utility bill. 2
In Russia, unlike Japan, keeping utility bills makes sense for at least a year ( approx. ed.).

Be decisive and take this opportunity to get rid of them.

Of all my clients, two were the hardest to throw away papers, and both were lawyers. Every now and then they asked the question: "What if this document is needed in court?" At first it was difficult to get them off the ground, but in the end, even they were able to get rid of all their papers without experiencing any particular problems. If they can do it, so can you.

www.japantimes.co.jp

If you are often guided by emotions or intuition, then magic cleaning is for you. This is not just an ingenious method of decluttering. The magic begins at the end of the process. For example, you are left with only those things that give true pleasure. And in general, the Mari Kondo method is much more than a regular cleaning.

The book about the Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life has become a world bestseller. “Magic cleaning. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life ”has been published in more than three dozen countries. But that is not all. Its author entered the TOP-100 of the most influential people in the world. according to the American Time magazine! This happened in 2015 when Maria Kondo was only 29 years old.

What did she do? I just wrote a book about cleaning. Yes, yes, despite the mystical name, it's just about putting in order the dwelling.

Magic Japanese cleaning

So, what did Mrs. Kondo invent in terms of organizing home life? It would seem that the topic is hackneyed far and wide. What is there just not. From vintage tips for a young hostess to untranslatable decluttering, fighting unnecessary things. But no! Get more - magic cleaning, KonMari method. It turns out that if you devote your whole life and aspirations to your favorite work, there will definitely be a sense.

It happened with Marie. At the age of five, she was passionate about cleaning premises. “When I saw a thing that was not being used, I would vengefully pounce on it to throw it in the trash,” she recalls in her book. Given the small size of Japanese dwellings, one can understand Mari's family. They did not have time to save precious souvenirs from the raids of a zealous housewife. It is clear that the girl had a hard time. But the trials only hardened Kondo. And, having matured, she took up cleaning in earnest - as a business.

As a home management consultant, Kondo studied the experiences of hundreds of people. She has read and practiced advice from dozens of books. The result is a new method, magical cleaning. She proudly named the method by her name - KonMari.

9 rules and Marie's magic cleaning

The basics of this method can be summarized in several paragraphs. But to be imbued with the philosophy of the KonMari method and feel the real magic of cleaning, you need to read the book.

It is there that you will learn in detail what to do. And you will also understand why to do this and not otherwise. And learn new things about the most ordinary things with whom you share your living space. And also about what it really is - to own a thing.

Here are the basic rules that Marie suggests:

1. Remove everything at once, "in one go." Methods of gradual decluttering (one room or one corner) are categorically rejected. In practice, they turn our lives into eternal cleaning. It is assumed that magic cleaning the KonMari method will take several hours. According to reviews, it may be longer.

1. Visualize your goal. You need to imagine exactly what you want to get as a result of cleaning. Imagine what your home will be like. You need to imagine the result, not the process. “Putting things in the closet and the books on the shelves” is not correct. That's right: "I want to live like a goddess surrounded by beauty."

1. Find a "spark of joy" in every thing... Instead of focusing on throwing away as much trash as possible, Ms. Kondo suggests otherwise. You need to look at every thing with a fresh eye. And then proceed from whether it brings you joy or not. We leave only what pleases. But we also find a "spark of joy" in the objects to be discarded. After all, they once delivered some joyful moments to us. Each thing must, at least, be held in your hands. By the way, Marie often mentions in her book and

1. Store things by category. In most families, it is customary to store clothes, books or utensils in different places. Ms Kondo believes that all things of the same category should be close. For example, in one place - clothes, in another - dishes, and so on. She adheres to the same principle. magic cleaning by KonMari. You need to collect all the clothes (books, trivia) in one place and only then start sorting.

1. Get out in a specific order. The KonMari method starts with clothes. This is followed by books, documents, little things. And finally - things of sentimental value, personal archives. It is interesting that for some reason the dishes did not get into this queue. In our families, it often occupies not only kitchen shelves, but also sideboard slides. Perhaps the point is in the peculiarities of Japanese life. In general, you will have to decide on the order of the dishes yourself.

1. Stack things correctly. A special place in the KonMari method is occupied by the correct approach to storage and folding of things. He is really original. Clothes are folded into a tube and placed vertically. Unfortunately, there are no illustrations in the Russian edition of the book. But this is roughly what it looks like.

1. First we throw it away, then we put it down. Until the garbage bags containing unnecessary things are taken out of the house, it is forbidden to start laying out the remaining ones! The author of the book insists on this.

1. Keep creative. There are rules for organizing storage in a new way. For example, bags and handbags are stored in one another. Marie Kondo encourages creativity and creativity. And he believes that coming up with the best storage options is a great pleasure.

1. Use shoe boxes. According to Ms Kondo, there is no need to spend a lot on storage facilities. All these pretty containers and boxes are useless. She thinks that the best place for things is an ordinary shoebox.

Take a step towards a free life

If you are often guided by emotions or intuition, then the KonMari method is for you. The great thing about it is that no one forces you to follow rules that do not suit you. All these “7 jackets and 10 blouses are the perfect number” or “if you don’t wear a thing for two years - throw it away” are not for emotional natures.

At the end of the cleaning process, you are left with only what gives you true pleasure. You can, for joy, run for new pleasant things to the online store and go shopping.

But actually magic cleaning- it is much more than usual. The little Japanese woman has become famous all over the world because she helps us to do a simple and at the same time difficult thing: to remove from everyday life that which does not bring us joy.