The pandemic has brought our homes’ shortcomings to the forefront, especially as people struggle to find enough space and comfort for full-time living, working, and schooling all under one roof. 

If you or your clients are ready to do a purge, whether to sell a home, find more space, or make a property more comfortable for the coming fall and winter, the bonus is that the process also can help you green your life and home. 

Kristyn Ivey, a KonMari-certified consultant with Chicago-based For the Love of Tidy, says there’s a definite correlation between decluttering and maintaining a green lifestyle. She emphasizes the importance of leaning on that “reduce, reuse, and recycle” adage when purging. 

She helps clients declutter their homes using the method developed by Japanese tidying guru Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Kondo’s KonMari Method encourages people to keep only things that are useful or spark joy. 

Here are four considerations as you begin a purge. 

Define your vision

Ivey, who provides both in-person and virtual consulting, asks clients to develop a detailed vision of their ideal living environment. 

She explores their wishes through a series of questions and statements, including: 

•    How would your life change if your home were clutter-free?

•    Keeping your ideal lifestyle in mind, walk through a perfect day in your life.

•    Pretend you've reached the end of your KonMari Tidying Journey. Describe in detail how you envision your home will look and feel post tidy. 

You can rely on your written vision throughout the tidying process, especially when motivation flags or indecision about letting go of objects creeps in. 

Find your method 

The KonMari method entails tidying by category rather than by location. Necessities and things that spark joy get to stay. Everything else gets donated, sold, or discarded. 

Explore other tidying methods too. 

Apartment Therapy launched a 2020 Decluttering Cure in September to help people tidy during 20-minute clean-ups. 

FlyLady sends daily emails outlining tasks to complete each day. The approach helps participants steadily build good habits as they declutter their homes during timed sessions.  

Flylady suggests answering the following questions during declutters: 

•    Do I love this item?

•    Have I used it in the past year?

•    Is it really garbage?

•    Do I have another one that is better?

•    Should I keep two?

•    Does it have sentimental value that causes me to love it?

•    Or does it give me guilt and make me sad when I see the item?

Rehoming your clutter 

Consider the best places to drop off your stuff. Find specialized recyclers for outdated electronics, for example, and look for supply houses that accept and recycle unwanted building materials. 

For some, a service like 1-800-GOT-JUNK is the answer. 

If you wonder what happens to your unwanted things, Ivey has answers. 

During her podcast with Malaysia-based author Adam Minter, he discusses what happens to the stuff we offload and the global impact of our excess things. He’s delved into such topics in two books, Junkyard Planet and Secondhand.

Items that 1-800-GOT-JUNK hauls away don’t automatically end up in landfills. The company first tries to recycle items, an effort that keeps about 70 percent of its finds out of landfills, according to a podcast Ivey conducted with Brian Heiser of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. 

Tip: To recycle oddball items, including balloons, Barilla® Ready Pasta pouches, and coffee pods, see Terracycle.  Also, visit Earth911 to locate recyclers. 

Mindful consumption

“Recycling is so glamorized and gets so much focus that we forget about the impact we can have through reducing,” Ivey comments.

She believes the Kondo-style purge makes for a more conscious consumer. “It's not only the reducing that happens during tidying events, but it's also the reduction that happens when you become more mindful about what you consume after having made decisions about literally everything in your home,” she adds.  

Once you start decluttering, Ivey says that the lessons often seep into other aspects of your life. “There’s so much potential to take this idea of what sparks joy to the next level and to KonMari your social media feeds junk mail, and finances,” she says.