With the winter deep freeze finally starting to relent and the prospect of Vancouver blossoms on the horizons, our thoughts turn that age old ritual - spring cleaning.
Who’d have thought spring cleaning could ever be trendy, but with the Netflix launch of Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, that could change. The Japanese author and decluttering consultant has turned keeping tidy into a fine art - and one that has us following couples and families as Kondo steps into their homes to help change their lives.
Tune in to help spark some joy in your spring cleaning.
To get started, here are some of Marie Kondo’s top tips when she walks into a home to help transform it.
1. The ‘spark joy’ test. Spark Joy is the name of Kondo’s second book, that followed up the immensely popular The Life Changing Magic of Tidying, and it is also how Marie Kondo suggests you address the task of de-cluttering. For every item, you ask yourself, ‘does it spark joy?’ If it doesn’t, it could be just adding to the clutter that costs you a clean home and takes up countless hours of trying to keep organized.
2. Learn to fold your clothes in the KonMari way. You can see the folding method demonstrated on Kondo’s Netflix show, or check out her videos on YouTube. Basically, everything gets folded in the same fashion and sits upright in a drawer, making it easy to find things instead of having piles that you have to go through to get to the bottom item.
3. Step away from the storage bins. Instead of clearing things out, many of us love to organize by going out and buying more items to organize our stuff in. IKEA Billy bookshelves, Rubbermaid storage bins, filing cabinets - there’s no shortage of items we can fill. But before you head down that route, start getting rid of stuff. Why fill filing cabinets when your paper files can go digital? Do you need rows and rows of paperback books you’ve already read lining your walls? Do yourself and others a favour by donating them, get yourself a Kobo or a Kindle e-reader and only keep those books that spark special joy - whether it’s the first edition Dickens you discovered in an old bookstore or the first book grandma gave you.