6 Lessons Learned from the Kon’Mari Method on “Kimono”

 

Hello again, friends. If you’ve been following along, you know that this past year after reading Marie Kondo’s international best-seller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I was able to transform the way my home functioned, which transformed my family, business, blogging, and perspective on life. And each week this month I have sharing with you the various ways the KonMari Method has helped to improve the organization in my home based on the various categories as outlined by Mari Kondo.

Last week we  discussed how I overhauled our home library using the Kon’Mari method and this week I want to discuss the next Kon’Mari category, Kimono, or as I like to call it “all that’s left.”

 

 

So you may be asking what exactly the category of komono, or what the Japanese call miscellany is? Komono, covers a range of things left over from your first three categories, clothing, books, and papers you might have, from CDs and DVDs to stationery, electronic equipment and beauty products. Once you get to komono, your categories may vary from home-to-home. In my opinion, Kimono isn’t like Kondo’s other categories, but is rather an umbrella term for smaller categories. 

 

So, here is what I have learned from the Kimono category:

 

Just go digital: When it comes to dvd’s and cd’s, I firmly believe less is more. Since becoming a minimalist I no longer own physical CD’s, and the few my husband owns fit in the glove box of his car. I started off with a check mark because my husband and I stream or download movies from Netflix, VUDU, Hulu Plus,  and Amazon Prime. We no longer buy music but instead listen to music on iTunes and Pandora. This step helped me to reinforce what I already knew to be true for CD’s and DVD’s, always go digital. 

Less is more: I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I have long been a beauty product pack rat. Knowing that this stemmed from being both a recovering extreme couponer as well as an avid magazine subscriber, where new deals and articles about the latest skincare craze were around every turn. To combat this I only kept the things that “sparked joy”, products that I knew were very nourishing to my skin, body, and mind. I paid special attention to but keeping only the items we were actively using and discarded items that had expired. I wrote the year on all of the sunscreen bottles that I know we bought this year and donated the rest.

I also implemented a skin care and beauty product rule: if you wouldn’t take it on vacation, use it for a date night out, or isn’t something your family uses at least three times a week, you don’t need it. The beauty of this rule? I’m now on a journey to attempt to make 100% of my own beauty and skin products from scratch. This will be done to limit the amount of unnecessary funds spent on unnecessary beauty products and to learn eco-friendly, zero-waste ways to provide myself with safe, natural cosmetic alternatives, generally costing a tenth of the price of commercial brands.

Re-check your progress: So next on the Komono list, accessories. But then I was left pondering…what is this category? Didn’t we already de-own accessories when we worked through the clothing? I have no idea what Kondo meant by accessories, in this context. Just for giggles I went back through my closet and drawers to double check that no small, little items had crept back into my wardrobe. My lesson in this category? Check and then re-check your decluttering progress as you go. 

Value your valuables: So, you may be asking what I considered valuables to be. For our family, valuables are papers and items that we would need in case of an emergency or to go on vacation. I made sure to check to see if our passports, id’s, voting cards, and the like were placed in one box. I made sure to let my husband know where and what was now in this box, and in case of an emergency we are now good-to-go! My advice? Invest in a fireproof lock box for such documents. Peace of mind, friends! 

Electrical Equipment & Appliances: For me this category took longer than expected. I began by listing all broken and needed repair beyond my scope on my local Freecycle group. Why? They simply don’t spark joy for me, and the idea of keeping items around in case my husband may out of the blue, one day fix them? That’s a joy-killer too! Then I recycled any leftover boxes my appliances came in, and finally we went through your cords. A tip on Kon’Maring cords? Use those plastic bread ties and a sharpie to label your cords. There is nothing worse that a pile of cords behind a television! 

Take your time:  Friends this was the shortest category I undertook in my home. I completed this category in under four hours, just a weekend afternoon. But even though this category looks small or already completed, be sure to take your time and check and re-check your progress as you go. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This goes double for decluttering! 

So friends, this was my progress with the Kimono chapter in the Marie Kondo’s international best-seller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. So, have you also undertaken the Kimono category? Do you have any tips or advice? I’d love to hear about it.

Here’s to decluttering,