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You’ve seen her name everywhere. “Does this spark joy?” Special folding techniques. Gratitude to discarded items.

Marie Kondo’s lifestyle from “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” is penetrating American media and culture. You’ve certainly seen mention of it in the past few weeks as many jumped on the bandwagon with the turn of the new year. If you’ve missed it, we’ll give you a brief overview to get you up to speed.

The KonMarie Method

Marie Kondo is a bubbly and quirky Japanese organization consultant and author. Her most popular book as mentioned is “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” which walks you through her method for simplifying your life and decluttering your home. In the KonMarie way only possessions that “spark joy” remain in your home. Recently, she has launched a new Netflix series featuring clients who have implemented this approach over a series of weeks with Marie herself.

Following the KonMarie method includes walking through the items in your home in categories rather than by room. You then approach each item with the question “does this spark joy?” If the answer is no, then you express gratitude to the item and put it aside to be discarded from your home.

Even if you’re not up for the challenge of the full KonMarie method, doing some spring cleaning can make a big difference in your time, rest, and relationships.

We tried it ourselves, and we have to say- it is freeing. Less clutter has increased our bandwidth and helped us focus on what we really need! Maybe clearing your physical space really can create more mental space.

Spark Joy With Your Tidying by Giving Back

As you can imagine, this decluttering fanaticism can hold great potential for organizations like The Purple Cow! As people hone in on items they really need in their homes, they find freedom to discard some really nice, but maybe not really necessary items. Items like this are treasure to The Purple Cow!

The excess you discover allows us to serve people in our community who have so much less. When you donate items to The Purple Cow, the proceeds from our sales go to funding a ministry called The Christian Outreach Center of Baton Rouge. The COC works with homeless and vulnerable populations in our city by providing them employment training and opportunities. Now that can spark some joy!

While you’re KonMarie-ing your home this month, consider donating your discarded items to The Purple Cow! We take donations at both locations (Jones Creek and Perkins Road). We’d love to help you create the space you want and care for those in the Baton Rouge community in need.