KonMari Method Checklist: 5-Step Cheat Sheet (w/ Visual) | Sloww

1. This process may not be realistic for larger spaces or families: This guide is written from the point of view of a single woman in her early 30's who lives in a small flat in Japan.
2. Category sorting may not be as effective if you have a family.
3. Untagging clothes and immediately hanging them in your closet doesn't always make sense.
4. The book doesn't address how to deal with children's toys.

If you're single, or a couple with a small pet in a tiny apartment it may work. But if you're a large family in a larger space you'll have to pick and choose what works otherwise outsource some of the work.

Don't think how you will organise items if you're still considering what to keep. You can only assess available storage space when you're done decluttering.

Sort and throw away first before you put back the stuff you've been collecting in your junk drawer.

Gather all the items of one category in one spot. You can only decide what to keep and what to discard if you know what you have and how much you have.

Categorization is important in the process of decluttering. The five main categories are clothes, books, paper, miscellaneous, mementos. Gather and assess all like items at the same time. If you have two junk drawers, tackle the objects in both spaces at the same time.

Putting things away creates the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved.

Organizing all your junk better does not equal getting rid of clutter. And unfortunately most people leap at storage methods that promise quick and convenient ways to remove visible clutter.

For example, set goals like “clothes today, books tomorrow.” 

We often store the same type of item in more than one place and when we tidy each place separately, we fail to see that we’re repeating the same work in many locations.