Japan’s Queen Of Storage Marie Kondo: The Rules Of Organizing Are Popular All Over The World, But They Have Been Defeated By Three Children

No more clutter after the New Year: Professional organizers teach you the practical rules from "setting up a flag" to "really fragrant"

After years of house cleaning, we clenched our fists and made the vow to "break up". Why can't we survive the first month of the year? Look at Marie Kondo, the so-called "Queen of Storage" in Japan. She even chose to compromise and give up on having three children. In this situation, we seem to have found a reason to let go. However, please pause and wait for a moment. What the Queen actually gave up was to let go of her obsession with "perfection" and move towards a more sensible direction of controlling the focus of her life. There are changes.

As a professional home storage organizer, I want to tell you that real storage is not about creating an "empty" model room. It is about using scientific space planning and layout optimization to make the home container better serve everyone in it, especially "naughty children". The following practical guide may help you get rid of the curse of "getting things done before the year and getting back to the original shape after the year".

1. Spatial diagnosis: from “thumping” to “easy to use”

There is a concept whose core idea is to leave objects that can make you feel that "thumping" feeling inside. This concept comes from Marie Kondo. However, among families with children, it is even more necessary for us to go one step further on this basis: carry out "moving line planning". Observe your family’s daily behavior and activities, and then place items in the most “convenient” locations.

For example, picture books and toys owned by children should not be left high and unused. Instead, there should be a shelf with the right height for open storage in the living room, bedroom, and other areas where children often spend most of their time. Use brightly colored and lightweight storage boxes for classification, and label them with patterns (because preschoolers do not know words), so that they themselves can complete the actions of "taking" and "putting". This is really the true meaning that the Queen wants to convey through children's picture books – to make children a part of the tidying up, not to passively become the object of tidying up.

2. Partitioning method: Give each item a "home"

The reason is that there is no fixed place for things to be placed, so there is a messy and disorderly situation. We use the so-called "28 principles" to implement classification and storage:

The living room and entrance hall in the public area belong to the 20% of the display area. Only the most exquisite, commonly used, or items that best reflect the family's aesthetics are placed. This occupies 20% of the space and plays a decisive role in the appearance and temperament of the home.

There are some areas, that is, the inside of the wardrobe, which is a very important place for storage, as well as storage rooms, and cabinets with doors, which are the main power of storage. With the help of things like drawer dividers, retractable partitions, and storage tools such as stacked shelves, the vertical space can be utilized to a very high extent, and items that are not frequently used, seasonal items, or hoarding items can be well "hidden".

Taking the children's room as an example, we can use the "golden area" rule. In the place where the child can reach, that is, the area 60 to 120cm above the ground, place toys that will be played with every day and books that are often read. The height above 120cm is used to store souvenirs that are not often played or items taken care of by parents. The height below 60cm is used to use large-capacity storage boxes under the bed to store clothes or quilts needed for changing seasons.

3. Practical Steps: Five Steps from “Garbage Dump” to “Warm Home”

Don’t be intimidated by the step-by-step instructions in the show, let’s break down the organization into executable steps:

First, take out all the items in an area (like a wardrobe) and spread them out randomly on the bed or the floor. This is the most impactful and critical step, allowing you to understand the "inventory" you own in an intuitive way.

2. Detachment (decision): Touch every item. For those clothes that no longer make people's hearts throb, are damaged, or are outdated, take photos first to keep as a souvenir, and then process and discard them. This process is not just for "throwing", but actually for selecting the ones that are truly worth keeping.

3. Space planning: Re-plan the space in the cabinet according to the quantity and type of items left. Where should I hang my long coat, where should I stack my T-shirts, where should I put my bag? Do you need to add a honeycomb storage box to separate socks and underwear?

4. Classification and storage (storage): Collect items of the same category for storage, and attach clearly visible labels. Remember, the upright folding method is the key savior of your wardrobe, as it makes each piece of clothing visible and does not clutter your "neighbors" when you pull it out.

5. Maintenance (habit formation): This part is the most difficult. The "giving up" that Marie Kondo performed was actually giving up the stubborn idea that "I must maintain perfection myself." Build a family "mini habit": spend 5 minutes every day before going to bed, and work with the children to return those "wandering" items to their original places. This is more effective than a weekly "spring cleaning."

4. Multi-scenario plan: The trap of “over-storage” in the kitchen and entrance hall

When many people organize the cooking room and entrance area, it is easy to fall into the strange cycle of so-called "over-storage". They purchase a large number of small bottles with the same specifications and pour all the soy sauce and vinegar into them separately. In the end, the burden of cleaning those bottles and re-packaging is increased.

<strong>Kitchen: Its core lies in<strong>“smooth moving lines” . There must not be any obstacles in the area near the moving line formed by washing – cutting – frying. As for seasonings, pots and knives, they should all be within this so-called golden triangle area. With the help of<strong>wall hanging rods Complete the storage of commonly used kitchen utensils to free up countertop space. It is important to remember that the purpose of storage tools is to reduce the amount of housework, not to create new housework troubles.

The entrance is the so-called "first impression" of a home, and it is also an area that can easily become a place where clutter accumulates. It is necessary to configure a entrance cabinet that integrates "hanging, placing, and hiding". There is a wall for hanging keys and bags, an area for placing shoes, and a table with drawers. This table is used to store small daily items such as knives for unpacking express delivery and masks. There is also a multi-layer shoe holder, which can double the space utilization of the shoe cabinet in an instant.

5. Effect Comparison: From “Visual Anxiety” to “Inner Calmness”

When the space is properly planned and every item has a clear ownership, you will find that home is no longer a place that requires you to "watch" and "fight" all the time. It changes from disorder to order, and conformity becomes transparency.

Effect comparison chart (text description) :

The sofa where the clothes are piled, the coffee table where the sundries are gathered, and if you want to find a nail cutting tool, you have to dig through three drawers. When I come home every day, I am faced with clutter, and I feel immediately depressed.

Afterwards, there was no object placed anywhere on the countertop. After the closet was opened, it appeared as neat and orderly as a store. The child could find the building blocks on his own. After playing, his mother guided him to put them back to their original location. Home has truly become a haven where people can relax and replenish their energy.

The "giving up" mentioned by Marie Kondo is precisely the highest level of "organizing". She organized her life priorities and made the choice to accompany her children instead of being bound by housework. The ultimate goal of learning to accept is not to pursue some ultimate "ideal life" model that can cause anxiety, but to organize our own life and heart, so as to find a calm rhythm that suits us.

Become your own "life organizer", starting from today, starting from a small drawer. This time, the flag we have established can be stable and we can move forward further.