In January, 2019, Netflix released Tidying Up with Marie Kondo staring Japanese organizer and author Marie Kondo. In the
series Kondo visits various cluttered American homes and helps families get
organized with the help of her KonMarie Method. The method consists of grouping
all of your items together by category and keeping only the items that “spark
joy”, then finding a “home” or specific place in your household for the items.
While this may sound unexciting,
the show has been a viral success inspiring people of all ages to organize
their spaces. The popularity of Marie Kondo’s KonMarie Method has been proven
at resale stores that are reporting big increases of charitable donations this
year. Meanwhile we’ve discovered that the KonMarie Method can be very helpful
for preparing a St. Louis or St. Charles County home for sale.
Organizing and decluttering the
interior and exterior of a home are of upmost importance to make it look good
to potential buyers. However this task can be daunting if you have lived in a
home for a long time and accumulated a lot of stuff. Getting rid of stuff can
be tough for some people but we’ve found that Kondo’s view to focus only on the
things you really love helps make it easier to say goodbye to the other stuff.
"I was obsessed with what I could throw away… And I realized my mistake: I was only looking for things to throw out. What I should be doing is finding the things I want to keep. Identifying the things that make you happy: that is the work of tidying." – Marie Kondo
Using KonMarie Method on a Home Exterior
Consider all of the items on the
exterior of your home by category, for example patio furniture. Do you have
extra chairs that are just “there”? Get rid of them. Do you have an old BBQ
grill that doesn’t work correctly sitting next to a new one you love? Focus on
the one you love and let go of the other one. What about lawn ornaments? Do you
have more than one? Choose your favorite and donate the rest. Continue to do
this by category until you are really happy with the exterior of your home.
Using KonMarie Method in a Garage
Garages are a great place for extra
stuff to accumulate. Go through the garage by category. Do you have doubles of
any tools, lawn maintenance equipment, or car maintenance equipment? Is
anything broken or no longer needed or that no longer spark joy? Sell or donate
the items. No longer playing a particular sport because you’ve fallen out of
love with it? No need to keep that equipment any more. Someone else would love
to have it. Finally, create spaces within the garage to rehome the items you
are keeping in an organized manner.
Using KonMarie Method on a Home Interior
To best implement the KonMarie
Method on your home’s interior, it helps to make a list of all the categories
of items in your home. This way you can mark off the completed
categories as you go. Categories might include: clothes, shoes, jewelry, towels,
bedding, dishes, placemats, holiday decorations, chairs, couches, tables, porcelain
collectibles, candles, books, keep-sakes, etc. Or, print the Ultimate KonMarie Checklist for a
premade list of categories to use while organizing.
Basically, if you aren’t in love
with something in a particular category enough to use it every year or display
it all the time, it isn’t worth keeping as clutter that hides the things that
truly bring joy to your home and life. When done removing the items that don’t
spark joy, be sure to find specific places to display or store the items you
are keeping.
 |
| Notice the special items displayed at right in an organized way so the homeowners can enjoy them. |
- - -
Check out our more detailed list of
items to be sure to address when listing your home in our article: Prepare a Home to Sell. Or contact The Boehmer Team for a professional consultation on
what you need to do to ready your home for sale. We’ve helped hundreds of folks
determine the changes needed to bring in the most value from their home sale.
Here's a summary of KonMarie Method for reference. Enjoy!
