By Lauren Antkowiak 2019 is the year of “Tidying Up,” apparently. In January, Netflix released a new show based off Marie Kondo’s book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of De-cluttering and Organizing” called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Over the course of the show K...

By Lauren Antkowiak

2019 is the year of “Tidying Up,” apparently. In January, Netflix released a new show based off Marie Kondo’s book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of De-cluttering and Organizing” called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Over the course of the show Kondo visits people’s homes to help them tidy up. It has created new terminology, created a new movement and has cemented a place in our pop culture.

Since the premiere of the show everyone is talking about sparking joy and how they “Kondo’d” their homes. For those not in the know, these terms relate to Kondo’s specific method of de-cluttering. She suggests that you commit, imagine your ideal lifestyle, finish discarding before organizing, tidy by category and ask yourself if it sparks joy. These steps insure that you properly “tidy up” and get the most out of your experience. Kondo suggests that you clean by category instead of location because people more than likely store the same things in various places. This way, you make the most of your time, and don’t miss anything.

The categories she refers to are clothes, books, documents, miscellaneous, and mementos. As you go through each category, she recommends you put everything in one pile to go through one at a time. If It sparks joy, you keep it, and if it doesn’t, you get rid of it.

Kondo believes your home should be filled with things that mean something to you. We as a society have become very materialistic and we don’t value the things we are lucky enough to have. Kondo helps with this problem by allowing us to think about our belongings and evaluate what they mean to us. With so much going on in the world, it’s comforting to have a place filled with positivity and the things that matter most to us. And it’s good not just for you, but for others, as well.

There have been reports of an increase up to 30 percent in donations to organizations such as Goodwill after Kondo’s show aired. People are not only de-cluttering their lives, but are trying to bring joy to others with the things they no longer need. This method may not be for everyone, but it may be the different approach you need to tackle your spring cleaning and start living a de-cluttered and tidy life.