Exclusive: Marie Kondo's guide to a clutter-free wardrobe

Marie Kondo’s decluttering revolution has sparked countless home transformations. In an exclusive chat, we talk to her about keeping your wardrobe organised

Marie Kondo’s brand of decluttering magic is something that comes along only once in a while. We are fans of her bestselling book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising,” Kondo’s work is based on the belief that decluttering your life leads to better productivity and ‘joy’ in other spheres of our lives.

She has a step-by-step, practical approach to de-cluttering the home, but here, we zeroed in on the one problem area in everyone’s life- the wardrobe. How often do you end up organizing it and how long before it becomes untidy again? In an exclusive chat with Marie Kondo, we spoke to the organizational wizard about how to maintain a tidy wardrobe. 

1.    Can you share the top three things to remember when organizing one’s wardrobe?
    1) The criterion for deciding what clothes to keep and what to discard is whether or not it “sparks joy”.

    2) Learn the correct way of folding clothes. This allows you to store things efficiently in a smaller space. (See Video)

    3) Store things by simply categorizing them in “items” and “colors”. Know perfectly where each item is stored.

2.    To what extent does having an organized wardrobe impact productivity in other areas of life, according to you?
When deciding what clothes to keep and what to discard, you must go through the process of confirming whether each clothes makes you happy. Through this process, you begin to realize “what is really important to you”, and eventually you will be able to choose “what makes you happy” under any circumstance - for example work and relationships.

Also, you will always be confident in what you are wearing after organizing your wardrobe, allowing you to become more active and live more positively.

3.    What kind of accessories – like say- baskets, organizing trays would be helpful when organizing one’s wardrobe? You have mentioned that getting more storage boxes sometimes adds to the process of acquiring more clutter.
Simple drawers and square boxes (baskets) are helpful.  What is important is not the accessory itself, but “how” to store things inside the accessory (for example, storing your clothes so they stand upright inside your drawer).

The point is to be able to see everything in your drawer at one time.

4.    For most people, organizing their wardrobe is the most challenging part of the decluttering process. What one thing can everyone do on a daily basis to ensure that their wardrobe does not go back to a cluttered state?
To avoid “rebounding”, always put things back to their designated place. Also, creating a beautiful closet (for example, using same closet hangers, lining up clothes so it creates a gradation) keeps you motivated and helps avoid rebounding.