The vast majority of my possessions fall into the category of komono, and somewhere in this category is when I started losing the most steam for the process. Leaving komono piles out for the duration of the sorting process was pretty uncomfortable and it almost made me give up several times. Here is where my to do lists came in clutch! Even if it felt hopeless in the broad scale, I tried my best to focus only on one section at a time until it had all been sorted. Aafter a long organizing process I finally was able to distill the process down to a few major questions.
If you want to follow along with this post for your own konmari you can download the printable here!
Where can things go?
It's incredibly hard to decide where to put things if you don't know what your options are! To find out where to put things, I had to first discover where I could put things. So I think ideally step 1, before even starting to put anything away, is to just go down your komono list and picture where you would use these items during an ideal day. I got overwhelmed when I tried to think about exactly where each item should live, but thinking about the category broadly in terms of a general use was much easier to do!
Electronics would probably mainly be used in my living room, on my couch or at the TV. Board Games are used in the dining room where there's the most table space. I use skincare products in the bathroom where the sink is. Thinking through these categories as well as daydreaming about an ideal day in my life, I started getting a pretty clear picture about the "zones" in my apartment, and what function each one serves:
- Entryway: Where I get ready to go out or set down my things when I get home
- Home office: Where I work, but also where I play computer games after work
- Living room: Where I relax and play games, watch shows, read, or just hang out
- Kitchen: Where I cook
- Laundry nook: A place to tuck all my laundry items away
- Craft corner: Easy access to all my craft supplies
- Dining room: For eating, crafting, and board games
- Bathroom: For skincare routines and self care
- Hallway: Mainly just some extra storage
- Bedroom: For sleeping and relaxing
- Vanity and Closet: For getting cute
Where does each category belong?
With the boxes clearly defined, the next step is to pick which box each category belongs to. This part became pretty easy when I was able to keep in mind the purpose of each space and what activities each category belongs to.
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After laying all this out, all that remained was to play tetris with my items until it felt right. This still didn't always end up being easy, but it felt so much less daunting knowing exactly where I was ultimately trying to end up at the end of the day.
Even though this process seemed never ending, it was really fun to do it little bits at a time, and it was really encouraging to see my home slowly become more and more comfortable and enjoyable! I think this process took an exceptionally long time for me because I tackled both organization and decoration at once. If I were to do this again I think I would have advised myself to just work on organizing things first with a focus on ease of use and tidying. Once all the categories had been cleanly stored away and processed, that would have been a better time to focus on decor. It wasn't bad doing both at once, but decorating definitely created a moving target feeling that easily made it feel like I wasn't making any progress even when I worked really hard 
My next installment will cover discards and how I handled donations with most thrift stores closed due to covid. Thank you for reading!
P.S. : This is part 5 in my Konmari series! Click the links below to read the rest.
- Konmari Part 1: Planning
- Konmari Part 2: Sorting by Category
- Konmari Part 3: Clothing
- Konmari Part 4: Books
- Konmari Part 5: Komono <- you are here
- Konmari Part 6: Discards
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