Marie Kondo Is Wrong: Tidying Up Should Start With The Pantry

Marie Kondo Is Wrong: Tidying Up Should Start With The Pantry

I love Marie Kondo. Who doesn’t, right?

For those who may not know of her, she is an organizing consultant and author of the best-selling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. 

Marie Kondo has inspired millions to tidy up, declutter, and live a more minimalist lifestyle. Having quite the evangelical following, many of her fans say that she has transformed their lives. In fact, some even go as far as describing her as part genie, part pixie, part saint.

Because of her popularity, she now has her own show on Netflix called “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”. With her adorable personality and life-changing magic, who wouldn’t want to Netflix and chill with Marie Kondo?

Netflix is smart. It was no coincidence that they scheduled her season premiere two weeks ago, on January 1, 2019.

Being the start of the new year, it’s a time when everyone and their mom is making New Year’s resolutions. And I’m pretty sure that “decluttering” or “tidying up” is up there on many peoples’ list of resolutions.

The KonMari Method

Through her trademarked KonMari method, Marie Kondo effectively helps people declutter their lives in a way that is mindful and introspective.

To summarize, she has six basic rules of tidying:

1. Commit yourself to tidying up
2. Imagine your ideal lifestyle
3. Finish discarding first
4. Tidy by category, not by location
5. Follow the right order
6. Ask yourself if it sparks joy

Rules 4 and 5 are very specific.

In general, most people clean by room or space. Not so with the KonMari method. According to Marie Kondo, it is more effective to tidy by category. For instance, decluttering all clothes no matter where they are stored and held.

Additionally, there is a specific order you must follow:

1. Clothes
2. Books
3. Papers
4. Miscellaneous

Therefore, according to the KonMari method, the first order of business is to gather all your clothes in one place and discard all articles of clothing that do not spark joy. Afterwards, move on to books, then papers, then everything else.

Perhaps I may be oversimplifying the process, but that’s really what it is in a nutshell.

As a personal anecdote, the KonMari method is very effective. My wife and I used it to help declutter our home and live a more minimalist lifestyle. Her tactics work.

See exhibit A…

However, I think Marie Kondo is wrong about one thing.

Instead of starting with clothes, it would be much easier for people to start with the food in their pantry.

 

Tidy Up the Pantry First

There are many reasons why starting with food in the pantry is easier and more beneficial.

Here are some of the reasons why my wife and I did it.

1) Food is easier to discard

When we first started decluttering our home, I found the KonMari method to be intimidating and challenging.

By starting with clothes, I was a bit lost. How am I supposed to know if this t-shirt sparks joy? How much joy should it spark for me to keep it? For me, the idea of sparking joy is highly subjective with a broad spectrum. I really had a hard time thinking about what to keep and what to discard.

Food is much easier.

Is it expired or rotten? Toss it. (Ideally, you should compost it.)

Are there a gazillion ingredients in it with chemicals that your grandmother wouldn’t recognize? Discard it.

Is it a health-promoting, unprocessed, whole food that is delicious and sparks joy? Without hesitation, keep it!

You get the idea. While I hate the idea of food waste, food is without a doubt easier to discard.

2) Discarded food can be used by others

World hunger is a big problem. And as rich as the United States is, it’s inexplicably sad that hunger and food insecurity exists here too.

Therefore, your nonperishable food that you discard can be donated to food pantries and food banks that can help feed people who are hungry. Most likely, your discarded food will be put to good use.

The same can’t be said about your clothes. Sure, you can donate your discarded clothes to Goodwill, but less than 20% of it will actually be purchased and used by someone else. The rest of the unsold clothing is either “recycled” or dumped in a landfill.

Knowing that your discarded food can potentially help someone in need, it makes it easier to let go.

3) Food has no sentimental value

When my wife and I moved into our current home a few years ago, we tried to be intentional in deciding which of our belongings to take with us.

Nevertheless, I ended up taking all of my clothes with me. I’ll admit that I could have donated a lot of clothes that I hadn’t worn in a long time. But they all had some kind of sentimental value. Each piece of clothes had some fond memory associated with it. For this reason, I was not ready to bid them farewell.

Food, on the other hand, has no sentimental value to me. It’s much easier to discard something when you have no emotional attachment to it. We donated a lot of our canned foods, some cooking ware, and other miscellaneous kitchen and pantry items.

After getting rid of all our pantry goods, we had clean slate for our new pantry. We filled it with foods that not only spark joy, but promote health. The result is what you see in the featured image.

4) Food items often have less monetary value

As a relatively frugal person, I find it difficult to discard something that has monetary value.

For instance, I had a hard time letting go of a pair of jeans that I spent $50 on ten years ago. Even though they didn’t fit anymore and was just taking up space, I just couldn’t bring myself to donate them. It was hard, especially knowing how much I had paid for them.

Food items, in general, are much cheaper. This makes it quite a bit easier to stomach the loss of discarding food.

5) Starting on a smaller scale

Unless you are a chef or super enthusiastic about cooking, chances are that you have more closet space in your home than pantry space.

Imagine emptying out all of your closets and sorting through all your clothes. It’s overwhelming and intimidating. At least it was for me.

In my opinion, it’s much easier to start on a smaller scale first.

That’s why I think it’s best to start with the food in your pantry. Afterwards, you can then tackle the clothes in your closet.

6) Decluttering your pantry can lead to health benefits

The food that we eat plays a major factor in our overall health and wellbeing.

After decluttering and discarding the unhealthy food in our pantry, my wife and I became significantly healthier. If you are curious about our philosophy on food, it is described in this post.

By tidying up your pantry and eating healthier, you will have more energy to declutter the rest of your home. At least that was the case for us.

 

Final Thoughts

Marie Kondo has helped millions of people tidy up their home and declutter their lives.

Still, there are people who may find her KonMari method to be overwhelming and intimidating. It was for me.

To make decluttering less challenging and to promote healthier eating habits, I think it is easier and more beneficial to start tidying up the pantry first!

 

What do you think? Have you decluttered using the KonMari method? Was it easy or challenging? Share your thoughts!