One day, absolutely HAD IT with the piles of clutter piling up –  a burst of super human motivation may follow causing the entire upper wardrobe to be emptied out, and everything on the floor or not put away for the past month is pushed into a corner.   The missing tennis racquet and part of the something you need in the other room is found.

Unfortunately, you have after a sneezing fit from the dust mites and silverfish, you take a coffee break to contemplate the dilemma about the whether the spare bedsheets need to be wash right now? And should the tennis racquet be stored with the beach gear?

By the time you get cracking back into it, even with high tempo music playing,  the workload is too much to finish today.   Perhaps your family come home to a giant pile of stuff and go mental over the mess… or you might be one of those who realise their clean freak partner is about to come home and shove everything back in haphazardly – 3 shelves finished to divine Home magazine perfection and the rest a shemozzle to finish another day.

Veterans of the Get in and Go Method of decluttering already know that when things aren’t properly done,  nothing gets properly sorted and you might end up with 5 sticky tape holders and 99 marker pens and but be unable to find scissors or tape when you need them.

Fortunately, the world of cooking has a wonderful process so this will never happen to you. The Preparation Steps are borrowed from a cooking prep philosophy called Mise en place, or “everything in its place” meaning gathering, setting up before you begin.

Mise en place applied to Decluttering will provide a system to:

• Finish Mari Kondo.  This is the secret to dramatically increase the odds of success.
• Get Unstuck on Komono (Miscellaneous) items in the middle.
• Buying more stuff when your eye catches something shiny whilst dropping your unwanted clothes to the thrift shop.
• Actually remove the bags of junk out of the house… Get them out of the garage, store area, top shelf, attic, spare room, –  with little effort or annoyance.
• Ensure all discarded items are reused by someone who finds them useful and valuable.

Once you’ve nailed it, you’ll be able to replicate and do it again next spring, next house move, kid born or move up or out or other major life change.

Here are the Steps of Mise en Place applied to Decluttering.

1. Choose your recipe

The first principle of mise en place that is universally agreed upon – choose your recipe.  If you were preparing a holiday meal, this may look like – talking to your family and relatives about allergies and tastes and number of guests, then nominating to do the same roast vegetables you did last year and a gluten free dessert from a new cookbook.

Most people never commit to a specific criteria to gate keep what stuff comes into or out of their home.  Instead, they remain stuck testing out options stumbled upon that vary in degrees of helpfulness and effectiveness.  Fed up with the mountain of clutter, one might frantically click through articles and you tube videos of tips, some which are pretty light on detail and often contradict the other method you started for room 1,  or just a way to sell you a wall to ceiling storage solution or personal organiser to come to your home.

Although surprising and unpleasant discoveries in the back of the storage baskets can’t be avoided, the whole stop start chop change can be limited by choosing one recipe and sticking to it and not starting until preparation is done.

Congratulations!  By reading this article, major decision fatigue can be avoided.  Your decluttering “recipe” is now decided – it’s the Mari Kondo Method.  Her method is the gold standard of decluttering However,  don’t believe me – trust 8 million book sales worldwide and a popular Netflix series.

Why Mari Kondo?

Mari Kondo is a Japanese personal organising consultant who has worked in Buddhist temples so brings a bit of spiritual and respectful approach to rifling through possessions.  Rest assured, you can be of any religion or an atheist and employ the tactics without any  reference to spiritual deities.  However, it is this engagement of the human spirit that makes her method unique and actually life changing.  Your recipe book for this task is called The Life changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Before you order the book, beware – choose a reading time at night perhaps, and in the meantime follow the preparation steps below thus far to avoid overloading yourself with information in the book.  The book is wonderful, don’t get me wrong but if you really want to  not get stuck in the middle you need to set up your stuff first.  Order the book and read it at night.

So, you may have a copy of The LIfe changing Magic of Tidying Up.  It’s both a guide and also fascinating read about the discoveries Ms Kondo made on her tidying journey.  The discoveries she made whilst observing herself and working with others led to her view about 6 Rules for Tidying up

• Commit yourself to tidying up.
  • This means really having a crack to go through your stuff, committing the time and discomfort and hassle to finish it well.
• Imagine your ideal lifestyle.
  • You may spend a lot of time hating the clutter, what if it was cleaned up?  How would you spend your time? How much tidying do you want to do daily? What feel are you after at home?
• Finish discarding first.
  • This means the stuff that you don’t want needs to go before moving on to next category
• Tidy by category, not by location.
  • All clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous and sentimental items from all parts of the house and car, not just living room, bedroom etc.
• Follow the right order.
  • Clothes first and personal items before bossing family or housemates around
• Ask yourself holding each item you own if sparks joy
  • This is the main criteria Mari Kondo uses to choose what to keep and there is more about this later.

The book goes into wonderful detail about stuff and our relationship to stuff and the pitfalls of clutter and discarding but can be a little light on some details for people maybe outside Japan.

Although not intended to be “eco-friendly”,  Mari Kondo teaches how to hone personal tastes and preferences, which actually usually leads to less unnecessary consumption.

The heart of Ms Kondo’s philiosphy is CHOOSING what to keep by considering “Does it Spark Joy?”

2. Study your Recipe

If you were preparing for a special holiday meal, you might review the requirements of all the dishes you’ll be preparing.  Do the ingredients need to be melted or at room temperature?  Does anything need to be chilled before serving or kept warm?  How many potatoes will feed 40 people and is there a big enough baking tray?

If you were decluttering, you might start by throwing things out.  If so, STOP.  Read this first.

If you do absolutely NOTHING else and don’t read the book, watch this video where Mari Kondo Explains how to decide if an item sparks joy.

Lots of people have criteria like “Have you used it in a year?” Or Would you buy it again?  But knowing exactly what sparks joy, gets a reaction of excitement in your body, your heart racing a little – you should feel a pulse and a slight mood lift.  This will totally wake you up to what really works for you – and what doesn’t.  Knowing this is the first step for minimising purchasing mistakes and regrets in the future and also just having a joyful life.   If you are reading this blog, hopefully natural materials, durable and recyclable goods spark higher joy than flimsy, non recyclable toxic junk

Mari Kondo demonstrates taking every item one by one in your hands and asking” Does it spark joy?”  Items hat really spark joy give a physical sensation in the boyd – a thrill.  The easiest way to see if an item sparks joy is to pick up something you know you like – an item of clothing, a book or even your favourite spoon or cup.  Then compare your bodily response to something you know ou don’t like.

For items that are very useful but not necessarily fun or enjoyable, say a screwdriver – don’t focus on the item so much but what it does for you.  I bet you love being able to assemble flat pack futnrite items or tightne up that chair that came loose.

ACTION:  Watch Spark Joy Video

3. Shop/ Get out your ingredients — ah I mean..Reverse shop / Find out where to Donate & Recycle & Give

Ok, if we were baking  a cake, we’d check we had flour, or beans, eggs, cocoa in and make a shopping list and go buy the items.

For Decluttering, Let’s be honest, the DE part of clutter.. Is discarding…   Pretty major part actually. The letting go of stuff is also very hard – feelings of guilt, of wasting items.   So as this is a zero waste as much as possible blog, we aren’t going to mindlessly chuck everything nor feel so bad we bought something and don’t want it anymore.

Relax, we aren’t actually chucking anything yet, just stopping a major barrier – knowing where to take our trash to become another man or woman’s treasure.  So let’s get our Reverse Shopping List ready.

This is a very tedious task AFTER decluttering and you might be tempted to put items back in the garage or the top shelf again.  Or chuck to landfill. Then once you know your system for ripped clothes vs clothes that don’t fit but are good, you’ll put them in place and move them out cyclically.

Now, when baking a cake or roasting vegetables, one can go to the supermarket or shopping centre or a specialty shops.  Or even get some from others they know.

For decluttering, let’s face it – some stuff will need to say Good bye.  You will need some sort of bags or baskets to help you sort things into piles to keep, fix, give, or recycle.

Do not BUY any storage or sorting items right now unless you are completely out of bags.

By the way, something wonderful is emerging finally.  Many large retailers and manufacturers are making it ieaser to recycle than ever before.  It’s far from perfect but way better than ever.  For instance:

• Zara and H&M take back clothes and they are made into rags.
• Nike run a scheme for old runners and turn them into basketball courts.  Imagine playing on a court made by old runners? 
• Some pharmacists and dental surgeries recycle toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and electric toothbrush heads.
• Pens, ink cartridges, batteries and e waste is easy to recycle at Officeworks.

Of course its very tedious and time consuming to look up how to recycle every single item ever not to mentiaon time consuming and not very ecological if it involves driving across town or for rural people maybe not even a viable option.

However,… 5 minus for real now and then next time you’ll find it a breeze.  At this stage, consider –  where is the nearest thrift shop?  Are you in your local Buy Nothing Facebook Group yet?  Do you go near H&M or Zara on a particular day or the local transfer station / tip on a particular day or have a relative or friend living that direction?

So I recommend you start with clothes.. And even books. Find out a bunch of charities, and recycling options for those items NOW.

3. Measure ingredients —and time and space

.If you were doing mise en place for the chocolate bean cake, this is where you’d measure out 420g can of beans is 1 ½ cups of cooked beans, you might puree at this step too  If you need salt, baking powder and bi carb soda, you might measure out but for simplicity’s sake and to reduce washing up, keep them in one bowl or container as would be added at same time.

For decluttering, this is where you need to measure out the workload – namely sorting out your items, beginning with your clothes.The main component of decluttering is Time – Mari Kondo says a large house with a family could be up to 6 months.  There is tidying every day and a Tidying Festival.  Of course each category can be broken down – she says Follow the order of categories.  This is a great order for clean up too – clothing always first off floor and away then books and papers then the miscellaneous.  It’s a decision made.

Early mornings are best.  Ideally, 1 morning for clothes and another to take and discard and another to mend.

The other thing to measure out here is literary your shelves and if you have a car, the boot length and height and width.

Sample Time for session:

Preliminary Prep: Reading book and notes 30 minutes, Reverse shop – finding out research and rining 30 minutes, taking there 30 minutes , Prepping workstation 30 minutes, Arranging items and tools 15 minutes if easily available  Pulling stuff down from storage arranging on workspace 16 minutes, Picking up and seeing if it sparks joy – making joy and no joy poiles, 50 minus 4 x 14 min sessions fold and put back 15 minimum, fix and main – ages,

CTA: book off calendar and decide timeframe – best even same each dat

4. Prepare your workstation —

Clear space – method involves tidying by category not location.  This means if you have clothes in car or hall closet they are to come into the same area.  Consider if you are going to need the bed to sleep at night, small children interruptions and energy.  Ideal a clear surftase or even floor.

Clear bed, table outside, or area before you begin. Get idea of where everything is at least in clothing.

Great so let’s see – you have idea of spark joy what items you like, where to take broken stuff at least in clothing category, and give.  You also now know mornings are best and do do an

DO NOT BUY anything here Danger zone.  Do not bring more things into your home yet.  Use something existing.

Damaged and unfixable clothes that are clean – plastic bag ok or any basket

Had Their Day shoes – cardboard box, old bucket

CLEAN ME – for broken and fine clothes that need to be laundered

CLEAN ME – all good and ;inappropriately dirty discarding shoes

MEND ME – clothes – even if you hate sewing put stuff needing hemming buttons etc yere

MEND ME  – shoes that need an insole or lace or even a polish

GIVE – whether to a thrift shop or your mother, put htem all in one pile for now, except hse

Sub category bakets – sorting scarves, hats, underwear, socks, etcG

In fact, after your massive declutter, you’ll want some kind of system.

Sewing kit – check it

Laundry – stain removal, eco wash, iron – steam out the iron, wipe it down, wash ironing board cover,

Clothes do get stains that can’t come out.

Make fist Loop –

6. Arrange your tools — namely in this case maintenance and cleaning quip

If you were to bake a cake, you’d need a wooden spoon and working oven or electric frypan of some sort of contained heating vessel.  I

In decluttering, Mari Kondo, you’ll be stopped and hate the process if you aren’t prepared to fix and maintain your stuff as you go alone.  So as tedious as this step seems, it’s really worth setting up at the start.  DAGAIN don’t go buy anything right now, and if you really are out, then buy small samples

Kon Mari method starts with clothing then books papers, makeup skincare then the other items.  Cleaning items is a category on it’s own – so again don’t buy new stuff just where possible use what you have but set it up right now.

You’ll need to clean the laundry area.  Put the washing machine on super hot wash with either manufacturer cleaner or ¼ cup vinegar.  Wipe out the seal and the machine.

Loopy HOmes is big on eco cleaning – i/e bi carb and vinegar – a sprinkle of bi carb and spray of vinegar for the laundry sink.

Set up bi carb in a sprinkle box, spray bottle vinegar.

Stain remover.  Washing soap.

Line to dry – weather…  Dryer people lint

Iron – wipe it down, steam out, ironing board cover wash

Sewing kit – needle, thread, spare buttons, check location – can declutter it later but just check it’s useable.
Shoe polish

Sunlight pure soap

Scrubbing brush

Bucket or tub.

Sticky tape, ;wiping clothes – can use old clothes in a bit.

Back of car – is it clean, and clear do things need to be removed.

Baskets need dusting and aring and sun

Bi carb –

CTA  laundry music – folding music and time, monthly hot wash on washing machine and tub and iron clean – or set Wash everything Wednesday for sheets and towels.

Chain of command: Don’t fail – stay motivated.Enlist help

Sous chef, dishwasher.  Mari Kondo says start with your own personal items first NOT your partner’s or kids stuff.

The Book – finally now you are fully prepared if you’ve followed steps thus far to overload yourself with the book.  The book is wonderful don’t get me wrong but if you really want to  not get stuck in the middle you need to set up your stuff first.  Order the book read it at night

Order book, if you have emotional issues or too much hire someone.  Decide a budget and get it booked.

Session 1 Start with Off season – absence can make the heart grw fonder

Now, you are pretty much ready to begin.  But before you do, Mari kondo says start with stuff You aREN’t succrently wearing – off season clothes.  This may include breastfeeding clothes or non breastfeeding, maternity clothes, skinny clothes, fat clothes.

Lets recap: spark joy – you know the thrill, other questions: The recipe is Does it spark joy, and the first sub is off season clothes,  You are baking decluttering non current attire
What if I lose weight don’t lose weight

Discard list – H&M, Nike, thrift shop, Buy Nothing group
Baskets ready

Workstation ready – bed, table,

Tools: washing and mending items there, sunny day

Chain of Command: Book, delutering person, partner, family member, friend if needed, dial in

Session 1: off season clothes – where are they – bring them out into the space and hold one by one and ask if it sparks joy?   If you were that size tomorrow, or it was summer/winter would you wear?  Great

Arrange by subcategory.  Heart items first – underwear, tops pull close

Put discard in their baskets to give away

Mending – fix, immediately

Store back:  CTA Folding Video:

Apply to off season or spare materials: toilet rolls etc

The nitty gritty – list here Plan the fist sub TINY break it down

Tiny steps hide your fear.  Don’t bake a wedding cake – start with entree.  Even a drinkk

Starting: clothes

Gather category clothes 1 place, not by room,

Sub category order:

Start with the heart -st uff that covers the chest – bras, vest/singlets, tops, tshirts, shirts, blouses

Start with off season – would you wear if back in session.

Plan your session accordingly; Where is the off season stuff.

Mat clothes etc.

AWAY AND DISPLAY