Will Konmari make you a Minimalist?

Isn’t that a question! Well, before I can even attempt to answer it, I want to set out what I mean by “Konmari” and “minimalist”.

Konmari is a Japanese decluttering method created by Mari Kondo and outlined in her book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Possessions are subdivided into categories. For each category of items, you round up all of those items from around your home and pile them in one massive pile on the floor. Then you touch each item and ask if it “sparks joy”. If so, keep it. If not, it goes. Once you’ve worked your way through each category, you’ll have touch each object in your home and then you can organize what’s left.

I’ve been through the decluttering process once and am currently working through it again and I can say from personal experience that you will jettison a lot of stuff during this process! It truly is life changing!!

What a minimalist is a bit harder to tie down. Typically, you think of bare white walls and a mostly empty home. Konmari will not turn you into this kind of minimalist unless almost nothing in your home sparks joy. A more general definition would be a person who strives to live with a minimal amount of things. (The exact amount of items will depend on the person and their life.)

Using this definition, Konmari will not make you a minimalist. Sparking joy and having a minimal amount of items aren’t mutually exclusive but also don’t go hand in hand. For most of us, many, many items will spark joy so we’ll end up with a decluttered home full of things we love after Konmari rather than with a minimalist home.

My personal favorite definition of a minimalist, however, is a person who is intentional about the things in their life. This resonates with the Konmari ideas of keeping only what sparks joy (intention in choosing objects) and by the end of the process, you will have gone through each item in your home and they will now “intentionally” be there. Where Konmari fails this definition of a minimalist is that there is no mention of changing the inflow of items to the home only increasing the outflow. Also, most minimalists would agree that sparking joy is not a good enough bench mark for whether an item stays or goes.

In my own experience with Konmari, I found that while I had hit my spark joy click point, I still felt like I had too much stuff! That’s one of the reasons I decided to do Konmari again. Minimalism really changes your relationship with things and goes beyond the bounds of Konmari decluttering. It’s really on a whole different level.

So, the real answer is no, Konmari will not make you a minimalist.

Having said that, I do recommend the Konmari process. It is a great way to declutter your home-wannabe minimalist or not. If you are looking to start a minimalism journey, it’s a perfect jumping off point. While there are plenty of other decluttering methods out there, Konmari really shines is in going by category rather than room so you really have to face how much of each type of item you really do own, in the idea of spark joy as a requirement (why do we keep so much stuff we don’t even like??) and in the organization of categories from easiest to hardest so you don’t get bogged down with the hard stuff at the beginning.

If you are looking for a well-organized, rapid process for decluttering your home, Konmari is for you. If you are seeking a minimalist life, you’ll have to continue to dig a bit deeper to find your “enough” below all the stuff that “sparks joy”.

Konmari Round 2: Skin Care

More Konmari! Yay decluttering! I'm not one to have a ton of personal care/skin care items and I actually want to improve my skin care routine this year but I still figured I had some old stuff I could get rid of. What is it about beauty products that make us want to keep them even if they have gone bad, we didn't like them or we haven't used them in months?

Konmari Round 2: Makeup (Project Pan 2016 Intro)

It's time to talk makeup! When I went to go Konmari my makeup collection again, I didn't find anything I just wanted to trash. Even though I was a bit bored with the things I had, I did like them all and didn't want to just trash a bunch of stuff so I could go buy new stuff.

Then I found the world of makeup panning on Youtube! Hitting pan on makeup is when you use up enough of it to see the bottom of the container or pan. Panning projects aim to hit pan on makeup or completely use something up. I thought this would be a great way to deal with those consumables that are still perfectly good but are still taking up space.

So I'm embarking on a panning project for the remainder of 2016 to use up some old makeup. I've picked the Tarte beMattnificent palette to pan as well as two Red Apple lipsticks, my Garnier BB cream and one deluxe sample of Benefit's Porefessional primer. As I finish these products, I can then replace them with new things so I'm clearing out my stash, getting to try some new fun products and keeping my makeup stash from growing too much.

This will also help me keep from shopping my using my favorite minimalist shopping technique-waiting. By waiting, I often find that I don't really want the thing I thought I needed. I may find that I have something else already that will work in it's place or that I don't need it at all. If I still want to make the purchase, I have plenty of time to do some research which will help me have the best chance of making a good purchase.

Currently, I'm looking at purchasing one of the Urban Decay Naked palettes (either the original or 3 ) and possibly one more colorful palette. I know lots of fun things will come out over the holidays so waiting until the holiday season to purchase will allow me to take those options into consideration. I'm wanting to replace the coral lipsticks with a nude and a fun colored lipstick. The BB cream will get replaced with some sort of foundation product as well.

Konmari Round 2: Home Decor

There's something about a good piece of art that makes me go weak at the knees. My husband also enjoys art so we've amassed a rather eclectic collection of pieces over the years. In this round of Konmari, I wanted to limit our art collection to the pieces that we really loved and wanted to display in our new apartment. So let's Konmari home decor and art!

Konmari Round 2: Books

I'm rolling right along with Konmari. This week, I'm tackling books. I adore books! Growing up, you would never find me without one. But adulting leaves a lot less time for reading. While I do have more time for reading since embracing minimalism, I'm still out to let go of a few more books.

Konmari Round 2: Kitchen (Nonfood)

Oh, the kitchen! One of the more dreaded categories of Konmari because it's so huge! Last go around, I subdivided the kitchen category into several smaller subcategories. Since I did such a good job of streamlining the kitchen in my first round of Konmari, I decided that I only needed two subcategories this go around-food and nonfood.

This week, I tackled nonfood items-dishes, utensils, small appliances, pots, pans and anything else you can't eat. I really wanted to do a great job in the kitchen since our new kitchen is going to be tiny, like almost tiny house tiny but with full sized appliances. Storage is going to be at a premium so only the essentials are coming!



I'll be coming back to food items much closer to my actual moving date although we are trying to finish off between now and then.

Konmari Round 2: Sewing Patterns

Crafters are not the sort of people you would expect to be minimalists, but they can be! One of the secrets to being a minimalist and a creative is to curate your collections and stash of craft supplies. Being realistic about what you actually like and will use will help get your crafts under control. So I'm definitely going through my crafts again!

This week, it's sewing patterns! Since they don't take up much space, it can be tempting to keep them all but they are not all staying. In round 1, I got rid of quite a few of my sewing patterns but I still have more than I'll probably sew in my life. So let's go through them again.

Konmari Round 2: Scrapbooking and Knitting

I just adore crafting and creating! Unfortunately, most craft stashes like they'd be more at home on an episode of Hoarders rather than on Tiny House Hunters. But minimalism and crafting don't have to be opposites! I knew that my crafting supplies would need a second go through so they were high on my list of categories to do for Konmari Round 2.

Crafting supplies can be so hard to get rid of because they all seem useful. But I could use that one day! It's hard to be objective when craft supplies spark so much joy. But I read a really excellent quote by Joshua Becker in his new book, The More of Less that really helped me with this category:

"Sometimes parting with our possessions means a dream must die. .... 

Sometimes, it takes giving up the person we wanted to be in order to fully 

appreciate the person we can actually become."

Why I'm Doing Konmari... Again

If you're reading this post, you've probably heard of Mari Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and her decluttering method that involves only keeping things that spark joy. I've already worked through the method one time and now I'm ready to address one of her more fantastical claims. Kondo states in her book that you will only need to do her method once to have your home completely tidied or decluttered for good.

Well, I'm working through her method again! I was able to get rid of quite a bit during my first journey through the Konmari method. So much decluttering! So why am I doing it again? There are a few reasons that I'm having to disagree with Mari's assertion that once is enough.