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Over the past year, Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has become an overnight sensation. I’m sure most of us have either read the book or know someone close to us who has read the book. It’s full of awesome decluttering inspiration that will really make you look at your possessions in a whole new light.

However, Kondo’s tips are not always the most practical for the everyday mom. I mean, what mom do you know that completely empties her purse every time she comes home?! It’s just not realistic. 

If you’ve read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, but struggled to find practical ways to apply it to your everyday life as a wife, mom, or homemaker then these 7 tips might help you weed out the unnecessary and find the useful in this book!

7 Practical Tips for Moms when using the Konmari Method

1. Read it from the perspective that not everything will apply to you.

This book is written by a single woman in her 20s. If you are married, a lot of what she says will not apply to you. If you have children, even more of what she says will not apply to you. If you are an empty-nester, a lot of what she says will not apply to you. She is very quick to say that everything can be adapted. However, I believe that as her life evolves, so will her methods of teaching. So for now, I just take what I can use and leave the rest.

2. Does it spark joy?

Kondo uses the phrase, “Does it spark joy?” several times throughout her book. It’s just a way of saying, “Does this make me happy?” or “Does this item bring enjoyment into my life?” Her method is simple. If you answer yes to this question, the item stays. If you answer no, it leaves. This seems very straight-forward, however for moms we may have items in our homes that don’t really spark joy, but are necessary items for us to own.

Take a vacuum for example. My vacuum is wonderful. It sucks up all of the dust from my carpets providing a very clean carpet. Would I say that it brings me enjoyment? Probably not. It actually brings me frustration on occasion when I’m trying to vacuum around teeny tiny lego pieces that constantly get sucked up. However, it’s a necessary item in my household, so it stays.  

Obviously, use your best judgement on this one. I’m sure there will be some items in your home that don’t necessarily make you happy, but need to stay put. I do think that her teaching of the phrase, “Does it spark joy?” can really help you when decluttering. By using this phrase, I was able to let go of items I was holding onto that really didn’t bring me joy. 

3. You don’t have to declutter everything in each category at the same time

Does the thought of trying to organize all of your clothing in one fell swoop by emptying everything onto your bedroom floor make you go just a little crazy? If so, it’s okay to do thinks in small spurts. Yes, she recommends completely each category at once before moving on, but let’s face it. A lot of us are busy moms with 10-15 minute segments of time we are trying to utilize to declutter and organize our homes between sweeping up Cheerios and building Lego castles. We don’t have all day to sit down in a relaxed setting to declutter. Do what you can with the time you have and keep chugging along! A little bit of progress is better than no progress at all.

4. If her methods of folding don’t work for you, don’t use them

I’ve tried her method of folding all clothing items into squares or rectangles and stacking them vertically. They work wonderfully for me. However, I’m willing to put forth the effort to keep up with this system. They DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT work for my children. I tried. It failed. We moved on. 

My 4 year old enjoys getting himself dressed. This oftentimes means finding just the right pair of pants and just the right shirt. When I folded everything into squares, he would just pull everything out to see what it was and then shove it all back into the drawer. It was so much worse than before. And while I could be an OCD mom and lay out his clothes for him, it’s just not happening. He needs the independence and I need break from just another responsibility as a mom.

So we fold pants in half twice and stack them on top of each other. Yes, this means that sometimes he has to dig to the bottom of the pile to get just the right pair of pants. But he knows how to actually fold this way and can put them back all on his own! That’s a WIN in my book!

5. Touching each item is actually very helpful

I found that her method of handling each item to decide if it sparked joy to be very helpful. Think of it like trying on clothes. If you question whether or not something fits you, you don’t just look at it and throw it back in the closet. You actually give it a second thought and try it on.

Try this with all of the items you are decluttering. Give them a second thought. Hold them in your hands and see if they really bring you enjoyment. I often thought some items would bring me joy, but really only brought me stress because I felt pressured to keep them or they were taking up too much of my time and energy to maintain. 

6. There is really no need for you to talk to you stuff

Honestly, I kind of just grazed right over this part. I’m a Christian woman and as such I don’t have any belief whatsoever that my possessions have feelings and need to be thanked for their service. So just toss them in the donate or trash pile and move forward. Just because you are following the Konmari Method does NOT mean you have to talk to your stuff! 

7. You will probably have to declutter again…

Kondo talks often in her book about her success rate being 100%. To her, this means that once someone she has worked with declutters their entire home in full, they never have to do it again. Well, mamas of the world, if you have children, you will probably have to declutter several times over the next eighteen plus years of your life if you don’t want to end up on an episode of Hoarders. It’s just part of having children.

I would agree that if you are able to keep up with the methods 100% of the time by only keeping things in your life that you love and bring you joy, you wouldn’t have to declutter. But I’m a mom. I don’t always have time to sit and think about whether an item brings me joy so it gets tossed in my drawer or put in the back of a cabinet until I can deal with it later. 

However, I do believe that once you go through the process, the upkeep of your home will become much easier and much less overwhelming. 

Marie Kondo writes from the perspective of a woman in an Eastern religious context. There are several things that I felt did not pertain to me as a Christian woman. However, if you can overlook these things, her book is very helpful, provides many great suggestions on how to declutter your home, and will truly inspire you to rethink the way you look at your possessions.

Have you read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up? What tips or advice did you take away from the book?

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If you enjoyed this post, you may also like:

How to Declutter Your Home When You Don’t Know Where to Begin

9 Reasons to Get Rid of Your Clutter

5 Reasons You Can’t Stay Organized

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