Since Chinese New Year is coming, most of the Chinese households are busy doing their spring cleaning. They do this not only to prepare for welcoming their guests, but also to dispel bad luck. Here are the tips to declutter your home this Chinese New Year using the modified Marie Kondo concept:

Focus on one area.

This is the reason why the title is “modified Marie Kondo concept” because Marie Kondo emphasizes on organizing things per category, and not per room. However, it is convenient to organize things and clean the house room by room. Start decluttering in one area of your house. It can be your bedroom, bathroom, kitchen or others, and then move to the next room.

Choose the items in one part of your house that you want to organize first.

After identifying one place, determine the items you want to organize. We are going to follow now Marie Kondo’s advice, which is to sort things per category. For example, you have decided to organize your bedroom, you may want to arrange your clothes first (up to you), then go to another category.

Gather all things together and identify which “spark joy”.

Now that you have selected the items you want to organize first, put all those items in one place. Then, classify them into two: one that “sparks joy” and one that does not “spark joy”.

Discard items that do not “spark joy”. Those items that do not “spark joy” can be donated for other people to use or be thrown away. But before you do that, show gratitude to them by saying “thank you” for having served you well.

Keep things in a vertical manner or in an upright position.

Those items that “spark joy” need a home. Use boxes to store small items. Make sure that you store things upright so that it will be easy for you to retrieve them later. It will save your time because in just one glance, you will be able to find the item you are looking for.

This Chinese New Year, may you have the best spring cleaning in your life by having a systematic way of organizing things using the modified Marie Kondo concept!