The KonMari method, built around Marie Kondo’s ‘does it spark joy’ question, is one of the most widely known decluttering approaches — but it works differently depending on the person and the category of items involved.
Where it works well
For categories like clothing, books, and decor, the joy question is genuinely useful because these are personal, discretionary items where emotional attachment is a fair criterion for keeping something.
Where it struggles
For purely functional items — a specific wrench, a spare phone charger — ‘joy’ isn’t really the right question. Usefulness matters more than emotional response for these categories.
The category order matters more than the joy test
One of the method’s most useful ideas is sorting by category across the whole house rather than room by room, which reveals just how many duplicates exist — five identical black pens scattered across every room, for example.
The folding technique has lasting value
Independent of the emotional framework, the vertical folding technique from this method is genuinely effective for drawer organization and has outlived the broader trend.
Adapt rather than adopt wholesale
Most people get the most value by borrowing the parts that fit their personality — the category-based sorting and folding technique — while adjusting or skipping the parts that don’t resonate.
The KonMari method isn’t a one-size-fits-all system, but its core ideas — sort by category, fold to see everything, and be honest about what you use — hold up regardless of how literally you follow the original book.