Tidying Up: 5 cleaning rules to follow and one to ignore

Netflix’s Tidying Up with Marie Kondo offers many cleaning and organizing tips for your home. But there’s one tidying up rule you never need to follow.

New year, new you! What better way to kick off a new year than by tidying up your home? Everyone loves living in a clutter-free happy space, and organizing consultant and author, Marie Kondo, is here to help you do just that!

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo is an eight-episode series that follows Marie Kondo as she visits eight families to help them organize their home. Each family desires tidiness, structure and to break free from the mess. Marie Kondo introduces the steps necessary to clean up, changing their lives along the way.

Some of the tips are simple, such as throwing out what you haven’t used (or worn) in years. Other suggestions are interesting ideas that include folding your clothes up-ways or dedicating an entire category to tidying sentimental items. There’s one suggestion, however, not many viewers agree with.

Let’s begin with the five biggest tips we all need to follow if we want a tidy space…

1. Be all in

First and foremost, you have to be all in. Before you even begin, promise to commit from start to finish. If you’ve seen even just one single episode of Tidying Up, you know you’re in for one giant mess right away. Marie Kondo tells her clients to stack all of their clothes and go through them one by one.

Don’t start this project if you only have a couple of hours to clean. Pausing your work until the next time you are free will only cause you more stress. Unless you can store the mess in one room of the house and shut the door, walking by a pile of clothes is going to be frustrating. Even if you do have room to hide the clutter, avoiding it isn’t going to help.

2. Stick to the KonMari Method

Clearing out your schedule for an entire weekend still won’t be enough to organize your entire home. This is why Marie Kondo has developed the KonMari Method, and clients swear by it! What is it, exactly?

The KonMari Method is tidying up your home in the following order: Clothing, books, documents, komono (miscellaneous), and sentimental items. Komono includes other rooms in your home besides your bedroom, so the kitchen, living room and bathroom.

This method was developed for a reason, I’m assuming it’s what works best. Personally, I’ve only done the clothing step so I’ve yet to try the others. It can also take days or weeks to complete it. Remember our first tip: Be all in, one category at a time! Don’t attempt to tackle your entire home in one go.

3. The Spark Joy rule

Hold each item and ask yourself if it sparks joy for you. If it does, keep it. If it doesn’t, throw it out or give it away. I would like to make one thing clear, though, after seeing a few comments about this rule on Twitter. Even if a pair of work uniform pants (for example) don’t spark joy, aka brings happiness, you NEED to keep it — it’s for work and there for something you can’t get rid of.

To me, “sparking joy” includes items that are a necessity. Do not throw all your sweaters out (another example) because they don’t make you feel happy, or you’ll be left without any sweaters to wear and therefore pretty cold.

4. Fold your jeans/pants up

I’ve seen many very cool-looking and neat closets with jeans hanging next to the shirts. But really, why buy hangers for pants when you can just fold them up like Marie Kondo? Bonus: If you fold your jeans instead of hanging them, you’ll have more room to hang shirts! Shirts that spark joy, of course.

5. Boxes are your best friend

Boxes, boxes, boxes! Inside a drawer, put a small box inside a bigger box inside an even bigger box and your drawer will automatically be 100 percent tidier. This makes separating your jewelry, intimates, casual T-shirts (you name it) so easy! Have fun with it! Pick colorful boxes that match your personality. Joy will spark each time you open your dresser.

One rule to ignore: Get rid of books

Finally, here’s what you should never do. Or, at least, don’t do it with such ease. According to Marie Kondo, one should get rid of old books and/or those you haven’t read in a while. This is a big no-no for avid readers. Books are precious and need to be treasured. Don’t get rid of books simply to clear up space. However, if you have a few books you know you won’t read or a book you didn’t enjoy, donate them.

Which tidying up tips will you be picking up? Tidying Up is streaming on Netflix.