Japanese Organizing Strategies and Techniques to Reinvigorate your Home

Cleaning and organising your home can be, in most cases, a tiring process. Still, you don’t need to worry about this anymore, as you can adopt Japanese principles that will help you reinvigorate and renew spaces and make a positive impact on your mind. The Japanese techniques are known everywhere for bringing harmony and order into living spaces while focusing on functionality and mindful minimalism.

These strategies emphasize joy in thoughtful decluttering and simplicity so that you will create a proper environment that supports your physical and mental health. 

The organization tips go beyond being just tasks, as they also serve as transformative rituals. Japanese decluttering and cleaning techniques are renowned for their balance of pragmatism and simplicity. So, by following these methods, you can refresh your mind and renew your space. 

MA

The concept of Ma translates to “negative space” and focuses on creating areas that promote decluttering of mind and serenity. This practice values furnishing sparsely and clearing any non-essential items to create a calming and more thoughtful environment. Particularly nowadays, we are constantly looking to buy new things to fill each corner of our house. Ma teaches us to stop for a while and have a well-organized space to keep away chaos.

Incorporating a minimalist design allows us to breathe calmly without being visually overwhelmed. The Ma technique focuses on:

• Decluttering to have a more open space and remove unnecessary items.
• Not incorporating too many items so that your eyes can rest.
• Achieve spatial balance by arranging furniture in the right way. To ensure this, you must leave open areas to offer a sense of flow and avoid overcrowding. 
• Create functional zones.

KonMari

The KonMari method is an organising and decluttering technique that prioritises focusing on the products that spark joy and removing the rest. With the help of this method, you will have a better-organised space that will bring a sense of harmony and happiness and align with your values. If you want to incorporate this strategy into your life, it will be good to imagine your ideal lifestyle and think about the type of house you would like to live in. Then, consider the items that will help you achieve your perfect environment and let go of the others. 

In this method, decluttering comes naturally, as you will determine the products you need to keep and the ones you should remove from the start. The KonMari considers the emotional aspect of organising and why people often struggle to give up on their sentimental items. 

Oosouji

Oosouji is the organizing and cleaning technique perfect for a fresh start, meant to cleanse your mind and house. In this way, you can achieve mental order through the therapeutic act of cleaning. Oosuji emphasizes that it is not good to let unfinished businesses linger, so you should always solve them to benefit from new beginnings. Traditionally, this task is done on the 28th of December, but no one stops you if you want to practice it all year round.

If you want to use this technique, you will need a clear plan in mind. Then you need to identify the areas in your house that require attention and plan activities and tasks focusing on urgency and importance. This can be made by:

• Decluttering room by room, recycling, donating, and disposing of items you no longer need or use.
• Making a deep clean in each room, and paying particular attention to the often-neglected or hard-to-reach areas.
• Organizing your home to maximize accessibility, which can be done by evaluating the furniture arrangement and placing items for better flow and functionality. This will also increase the appeal of all the rooms including the kitchen, that needs to have a good accessibility in order to prepare delicious food. Plus, this will make grey kitchens look even more fabulous.

Danshari

Danshari is the art that uses decluttering to simplify the space and detach from unnecessary possessions. Hideko Yamashita invented it, and it is structured in three Japanese words that also represent the three crucial stages in this process, such as:

• Dan (Refuse): This is when you decide to declutter and detach from all the items you don’t need anymore. In this process, you must detach from the attachment of material possessions. 
• Sha (Dispose): The next step is to get rid of the unnecessary items you thought about in the “dan” stage. As a result, you will eliminate the possessions that don’t bring joy or serve a purpose. 
• Ri (Separate): Here, you will need to clear out your attachment from the material possessions. This idea involves having a mindset that values relationships and experiences over material belongings. 

With the help of this technique, you will simplify your space to have a harmonious and more fulfilling environment. This is made with the help of minimalistic design, where you will benefit from a more clutter-free and intentional lifestyle. 

 5S

The 5S method is composed of five Japanese words that start with the letter “S” and are different ways of maintaining and organising a productive work environment:

• Seiri (Sort) implies going through the items you already have and keeping only the essentials by removing those you don’t need.
• Seiton (Set in order), where you will need to organise efficiently and logically what remained in the previous step. 
• Seiso (Shine) to inspect and clean everything, and should be done on a schedule and regularly. 
• Seiketsu (Standardise), you need to find ways to keep the space organised long-term. 
• Shitsuke (Sustain) is the part in which you need to stick with the previous habits until they become a routine. This can be done with discipline that will maintain efficient practices long-term. 

Last Considerations

These techniques have many similarities, as they will all help you clear your mind and your space. So, if you want to reinvigorate your home, you will have great advantages if you keep in mind the techniques mentioned above. Even if you don’t follow each step, with these methods, you will realis how simple it is to have a calmer environment and why you should organize your house better.