KonMari Insight Blog Series.

You have chosen to bring joy into your life. Maybe you’ve decided to regain room in your home, get rid of the junk that’s weighing you down and create a happy place. Or maybe it’s  not decluttering, but some other project that you are compelled to complete. Perhaps it’s to change jobs, or get proficient in one of your hobbies, get married, or move to a new home.  That’s great!  What you need now is a plan to get it done!

I know, a plan sounds like a lot of work.  It was hard enough to decide to grab your joy and start your project in the first place. You just want to get going! You already “know” what you want to do. Why do I need a plan, you ask?  A plan will just delay the progress, you think.

Actually, it will probably save you time in the long run.

Look at it this way, how much time would it really take to create a plan vs. marching into the great unknown, starting and stopping, getting frustrated and overwhelmed, or even worse: quitting and never finishing at all!

Below are some suggestions to planning your KonMari Festival. However, these guidelines can be customized for whatever project you want to do.

• Set a Date. Look at your project, whatever it is.  And pick a date to finish it. Make it as realistic as possible.  If it’s a time consuming project, or labor intensive, like decluttering your home, you’ll also need to build in reasonable breaks to rest and celebrate.  If you don’t factor in those things, you can easily become overwhelmed in the process. It’s also possible that you already have a “drop dead end date” that can’t be changed, due to a move or school, or something else.

• Establish Your Available Time. Grab your calendar and identify all of commitments going on during that time frame.  Include your work schedule, kid’s commitments, date with your SO, vacations and so on. Even weather can have a major impact, so you might give that some consideration too.

• Go Small. Identify what tasks you need to do. Break  your project into chunks that make  sense and are manageable to do.  With Konmari, that’s fairly easy to do because the method is already broken up into categories. You can break up those categories into smaller ones or leave them whole, depending on what works for you and your situation. When you get to your Komono, (misc. items), break them up into as many chunks as make sense for you. When you get to sentimental items, build in a little more time than you think. Those items can take a lot longer to purge, because of the emotions involved.

• Set Realistic Goals. For each “chunk” decide how much time you need to complete it.  Can it be done in a day? Weekend? Week? Write down the amount of time you want to commit to spend on it. Do this with each category chunk on your list. Ask yourself questions: Who needs to be involved with each of your “chunks?” What supplies do you need to have ready?  Are you hiring someone to help? Do you need to schedule donation pick ups, a truck to move things, or talk to family members to pick up things that they are storing at your home? Write them down next to each category.

• Coordinate. Take your information and combine it with your calendar.  Again, do it by chunks, adding in notes about scheduling and supplies. Go through each category in this manner.

• Compare. Now, take a look at the date you originally set for the project and compare it to the end date you just wrote. Do they meet up or is there a huge discrepancy between the two? If they are close, then great, you can just finalize your plan.  If there is a huge gap between the time frame and end date, then you’ll need to readjust your plan. If your original date is written is stone and absolutely can’t change (like a move, for example), then you’ll need to change something to make the timing fit.  Maybe get more people involved, or more tools to make the job easier. The good thing is that you know this now, instead of later. That in itself is a huge stress reducer.

• Adjust. A plan is just a tool. Real life happens.  So don’t be surprised if you have to readjust your plan a few times during the process. Maybe a category takes longer than you thought. Or maybe you change jobs, or there’s an illness, or a wedding. Who knows?  It’s all okay. A plan is a living thing, change what you need to, and keep going.

And Finally:

• Celebrate!