My review of the KonMari Method

When I started reading more about decluttering, I found a lot of post about the KonMari method. From what I heard of it, the book ( The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo) didn’t really seemed like something that "talked" to me.

They didn’t had it at my library, so I asked my mom to borrow it at hers. Here’s what I thought about it.


She tells you to dump everything you don’t want in a garbage bag. As someone who recycled and did compost before she could read, this is way is very polluting. Paper, plastic and metal goes in the recycling bin. Used electronics get recycled in the right places. Things in good shape that can have a second life goes to charity shop like Goodwill. The rest does in the trash (and underwear and bra of course).

She says not to do a project like "trash one thing a day". I do agree. Why not discard  what you need when you see it. Saving an item to discard for tomorrow, because it’s "the rule" is counter-productive

She said we should see a declutter session as a special session, not some unpleasant chore. I’m with her on this.

She ask us to establish the profound reason to our decluttering. I think having less clutter is a good enough reason.

She said to only keep object that brings you joy. I can’t say my kitchen table brings me joy, but it’s needed. My old CRT TV (aka, not flat) doesn’t bring me joy, but the budget is not there to get a flat one. I think this applies to sentimental items, don’t keep something that makes you sad. I think also that something not practical shouldn’t be kept.

The main point of her book is to declutter one category at the time. Like if you’re on clothes, you dump all your clothes from everywhere in the house. This makes it way overwhelming in my opinion. Also, if you don’t finish in one day, you’re screwed. I have limited energy so this would burn it all and would leave me discouraged.

She said that you shouldn’t show you’re family what you are discarding, it’s not good for them. Yes and no. It depends. My mom decluttered some clothes and showed me only stuff she new I would like. Being a little tight on money, having 3 new pairs of pants free is awesome. I think you just have to be selective and not force on the person.

She has a special order for things to declutter.

• Clothes : tops, bottoms, clothes on hangers, socks, underwear, handbags, accessories, special clothes (uniform, bathing suit) and shoes
• Books
• Papers
• Miscellaneous objects

Store clothes vertically. Yes, yes, yes! This is the best thing I took from this book.

She says to fold socks. Duh! Some people don’t? I always did. She mentions it helps the elastic stays "firm".

She said we do not need to store away out of season clothes. I agree. I leave my winter coats in my entryway closet all year because where else would I put it. I don’t store summer clothes elsewhere, I war t-shirt and skirt in the winter anyway (it’s always hot at work)

She tells us to dump book all on the ground then look at them. No way I would do that. Messy and way too much demanding. It’s easier to look at them in the bookshelf than decide  if you need it or not.

She says not to keep books that you plan to read but never did. The moment is gone, you won’t read it. Another one I think is good.

Trash all papers is something she suggests. I beg to disagree. I keep my pay stubs until I get the tax papers (T4 and RL1). I don’t shred them before. I keep all my taxes paper 7 years and bills one year (unless it’s one of those I go paperless). Paperless doesn’t work well for me, I forget about it and forget to pay them. Also I would never trash them, I would shred then off to the recycling.

Don’t keep things just in case is a great advice she gives. I can recall only once I though « I should have kept that » thankfully, it was something from Dollarama which I found again.

She says to get rid of electronic boxes, you don’t need them to honor the guarantee. Wise words there!

We should get rid of unidentified electronic cables. I can’t agree more with that. You won’t need them, you probably don’t have the item it went with anymore.

She suggest to throw away extra button that comes with clothes. I do not agree. I once lost a button and I was very happy that I still had one to replace it. I do think decluterring those from things you don’t have is good.

Non-working electronic must be trashed. I would say, non-working electronics need  to be recycled appropriately.

Get rid of extra bedding for guest room. She said you never need more than one. I agree, even if I don’t have a guest bed. My parents use the « less pretty » of their 3 set for the « hide the bed » downstairs. Beside my aunt and uncle once, I’m the only one sleeping in that bed anyway, I don’t mind.

We should trash those sample size cosmetic products. I used to have a lot of them I would never use so yeah, getting rid of them is good.

She said we should pull out all the pictures of our album and keep only 5 pictures per days of travel. Nope. This is an area where I don’t declutter and certainly I won’t pull out all the pictures, this is exhausting. I do keep them all in an album (those with my ex are in a separate one) and my negatives are in those special transparent pockets you can get at your local photo store.

She thinks it’s a mistake to try to fill any empty space with storing elements. I find that true and I was guilty of it. It creates more clutter. I know, I was guilty of it.

Alike item should be stored together, not all over the place. Yes to some extent, but it needs to be practical. Shoes and boots are not stored together. Comic books are not in the same place as novels. TV series DVD didn’t fit anymore on my DVD shelf so they are separate from other DVD.

She advise against storing by multiple usage frequency. I agree, for me there’s « things I use » and « things I don’t use often » that’s it.

Don’t pile up things is a bit of a no brainer, of course we shouldn’t

She suggests to empty our handbag every night to it "rests". Nope, nope, nope. There a 90% chance I will forget my wallet or Opus card (if I take the metro). This is a waste of time. Doing a clean up once in a while it a much better idea.

She said we shouldn’t keep product on the side of the bath, that it becomes a slimy mess. I don’t have much place in my tiny bathroom so some of the bath product are on the side. I never had a slimy mess. Of course it’s a bit annoying when I need to wash the bath.

She let sponge and cutting board dry outside. Totally not. In the summer I do hand my kitchen rag to dry on my clothes line, but I wouldn’t put a cutting board outside let alone in the winter. That’s a very odd idea.

She suggests to take the tag off clothes ASAP and remove them from any package. This again was a « Duh » for me. I though everyone did this when they get new clothes, you have to do so to wash them. Some people wear unwashed clothes ? Ew!

When you buy a bin, she says we should take off any stickers on it. Obviously, it’s a eyesore if not. My parents didn’t did so on my old under the bed bins (when I was living at home before 2005). Those bin store some of my stuff in their basement, and I can see the sticker of the defunct (since 2013) Zellers store home brand Truly.

She’s big on saying thank you to our objects or home. That’s not me, I find this a bit odd.