Are you terrified of the paper in your home?

Marie Kondo is known for her progressive stance on paper. As quoted from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up :
“My basic principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away.”

We understand that this may be uncomfortable for most people and, as always, we aren’t here to insist that you live a paper free life. But we definitely believe you can live a much more joyful life with a lot less paper.

In this episode we discuss the Paper Category, which is the third category within the KonaMari Method.

If you're just getting started with KonMari or need a refresher, we recommend you head over to Episode 1: KonMari 101 prior to listening to this episode.

We want to hear from you! Tell us your burning tidying questions or share stories about how KonMari has impacted your life. Find us at www.sparkjoypodcast.com and click “Ask Spark Joy” to leave a question or comment for a chance to be featured on next week’s show.

While you’re there, sign-up to join our Spark Joy podcast community and get notified when each episode airs. You can also join the Spark Joy podcast community on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at the handle @sparkjoypodcast.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

Joy Checks:
Karin- I’m upgrading my medicine supply cabinet with some pretty new containers - A tidy home style upgrade!
Kristyn- I was featured on the ChooseFI podcast where I got to discuss my path to Financial Independence and its overlap with tidying.

• Here are a couple of upcoming Netflix series to look forward to:
  Tidying Up with Marie Kondo
  Playing with Fire

• News about the KonMari App

• Hear listener Sharon’s email question about the paper category, which inspired today’s show.

• Review our episode on the importance of tidying by category:
  Episode 9: Tidying by Location is a Fatal Mistake

• Learn about Delete, Delegate, Diminish, Defer:
  Episode 16: Stress Free Holiday Joy with Amanda Jefferson

• Find all the manuals you’ll ever need:
  Manuals Online

• Review our discussion on keeping paper and other clutter categories under control for the long-term: Episode 41: How to maintain a Tidy Home Post Konmari

• Learn about shredding services:
  Shredding Services at Staples
  Shredding Services at Office Depot
  Identity Theft Protection Stamps

• Kristyn's favorite paper storage solution:
  Locking File Chest

• Learn about scanning options:
  Cam Card
  Cam Scanner
  Artkive App
  Google Drive
  Evernote
  DropBox

• How to get off mailing lists:
  Catalog Choice
  DMA Choice
  Hear about DMA choice on: Episode 8: Make Bold Moves with The Traveling Organizer Holly Southerland
  Opt Out Prescreen
  PaperKarma App

Gems:
“My basic principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away.”

"Paper is really not that scary and completing the category has the potential to free up so much space in your mind and home."

"When thinking about the paper you have stored now, how often have you needed to get something out of your paper storage?"

"What necessary documents do you have that are available in another format?"

"Keep paper where you will use it."

"I have an amount of paper that I’ve deemed reasonable to the point where I can sift through it easily, so it doesn’t require a lot of micro-organizing and labels, and again, additional attention."

"My square footage is valuable and I don’t want to waste precious activity space on something that has a limited amount of joy like the paper I’m required to keep."

" We promise you’ll be amazed by how little paper you actually need in your life."

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home
You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy

We’re so happy to celebrate the one year anniversary of Spark Joy! To thank our faithful listeners, we're also launching a special giveaway that will run through November 13, 2018.

We want to hear from you! Tell us your burning tidying questions or share stories about how KonMari has impacted your life. Find us at www.sparkjoypodcast.com and click “Ask Spark Joy” to leave a question or comment for a chance to be featured on next week’s show.

While you’re there, sign-up to join our Spark Joy podcast community and get notified when each episode airs. You can also join the Spark Joy podcast community on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at the handle @sparkjoypodcast.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

• Joy Checks: Spark Joy podcast has been downloaded over a quarter million times!

• The history of Spark Joy podcast

• Our big giveaway 12 lucky Spark Joy listeners have a chance to win a SIGNED copy of Marie Kondo's book Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up!

To enter visit http://www.sparkjoypodcast.com/itunes for instructions on how to leave us a star rating and written review. After you've submitted your review, send an email to contact@sparkjoypodcast.com with your screen name to be eligible to win.

• The difference between Marie Kondo's books: The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

• Five of our top reviews on iTunes

Contest runs from September 4 - November 13, 2018. Winners will be announced during our Best of 2018 show on November 27, 2018.

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home
You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy

Have you ever considered what it would be like to travel the country in an Airstream, living an RV life of joy?

Today’s guest is Brenda Massei. Brenda is a fellow certified KonMari Consultant who has been blogging since 2010 about her family’s Airstream living adventures across Illinois, Tennessee and, Wisconsin. She currently lives in Southeast Wisconsin surrounded by cornfields and soybeans and launched her KonMari business, Zen Tidy, in 2017.

We want to hear from you! Tell us your burning tidying questions or share stories about how KonMari has impacted your life. Find us at www.sparkjoypodcast.com and click “Ask Spark Joy” to leave a question or comment for a chance to be featured on next week’s show.

While you’re there, sign-up to join our Spark Joy podcast community and get notified when each episode airs. You can also join the Spark Joy podcast community on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at the handle @sparkjoypodcast.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

• The moment Brenda decided to sell her home and start a long adventure with her family and how KonMari influenced that transition

• How Brenda was well prepared for this major lifestyle change because of her family's previous travel experiences

• How Brenda's love of national and state parks influenced the necessary items her family brought on the road

• The realities and challenges of RV living, especially with kids (hint: it's not always as joyful as it looks on Instagram)

• How Brenda's family embraces the lack of privacy in an RV by exploring the outdoors

• How Brenda cleans her RV and manages her children's toys and collectables

• Brenda's new "fixed" home Wisconsin that she built with her husband over 5-6 months

• The one thing that Brenda missed when she didn't have a traditional home

Brenda's favorite tidying tip: Get a library card.

What sparks joy for Brenda: Growing her own garden.

To connect with Brenda, visit www.zentidyhome.com and follow her on instagram at @zentidy.

Gems:

"The things you really love at home that provide new experiences for you, you don't need to bring any of that along because every day is a new experience."

"Definitely think necessity before you think anything else."

"If you can get through a day with a little bit less..why not try another."

"Just go for it...you can learn on the road."

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home
You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy

Special Guest: Brenda Massei.

Are you terrified of the paper in your home?

Marie Kondo is known for her progressive stance on paper. As quoted from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up :
“My basic principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away.”

We understand that this may be uncomfortable for most people and, as always, we aren’t here to insist that you live a paper free life. But we definitely believe you can live a much more joyful life with a lot less paper.

In this episode we discuss the Paper Category, which is the third category within the KonaMari Method.

If you're just getting started with KonMari or need a refresher, we recommend you head over to Episode 1: KonMari 101 prior to listening to this episode.

We want to hear from you! Tell us your burning tidying questions or share stories about how KonMari has impacted your life. Find us at www.sparkjoypodcast.com and click “Ask Spark Joy” to leave a question or comment for a chance to be featured on next week’s show.

While you’re there, sign-up to join our Spark Joy podcast community and get notified when each episode airs. You can also join the Spark Joy podcast community on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at the handle @sparkjoypodcast.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

Joy Checks:
Karin- I’m upgrading my medicine supply cabinet with some pretty new containers - A tidy home style upgrade!
Kristyn- I was featured on the ChooseFI podcast where I got to discuss my path to Financial Independence and its overlap with tidying.

• Here are a couple of upcoming Netflix series to look forward to:
  Tidying Up with Marie Kondo
  Playing with Fire

• News about the KonMari App

• Hear listener Sharon’s email question about the paper category, which inspired today’s show.

• Review our episode on the importance of tidying by category:
  Episode 9: Tidying by Location is a Fatal Mistake

• Learn about Delete, Delegate, Diminish, Defer:
  Episode 16: Stress Free Holiday Joy with Amanda Jefferson

• Find all the manuals you’ll ever need:
  Manuals Online

• Review our discussion on keeping paper and other clutter categories under control for the long-term: Episode 41: How to maintain a Tidy Home Post Konmari

• Learn about shredding services:
  Shredding Services at Staples
  Shredding Services at Office Depot
  Identity Theft Protection Stamps

• Kristyn's favorite paper storage solution:
  Locking File Chest

• Learn about scanning options:
  Cam Card
  Cam Scanner
  Artkive App
  Google Drive
  Evernote
  DropBox

• How to get off mailing lists:
  Catalog Choice
  DMA Choice
  Hear about DMA choice on: Episode 8: Make Bold Moves with The Traveling Organizer Holly Southerland
  Opt Out Prescreen
  PaperKarma App

Gems:
“My basic principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away.”

"Paper is really not that scary and completing the category has the potential to free up so much space in your mind and home."

"When thinking about the paper you have stored now, how often have you needed to get something out of your paper storage?"

"What necessary documents do you have that are available in another format?"

"Keep paper where you will use it."

"I have an amount of paper that I’ve deemed reasonable to the point where I can sift through it easily, so it doesn’t require a lot of micro-organizing and labels, and again, additional attention."

"My square footage is valuable and I don’t want to waste precious activity space on something that has a limited amount of joy like the paper I’m required to keep."

" We promise you’ll be amazed by how little paper you actually need in your life."

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home
You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy

In this episode we'll explore the maintenance aspect of the tidying process and reassure you that permanently tidy home is not only a possibility, but certainly attainable with some hard work upfront.

Note: We recommend you listen to this episode if you're at the tail end or end of your KonMari tidying journey. We're providing these recommendations with the assumption that you’ve completed tidying across all categories. This is when the magic of maintaining the lifestyle truly shines!

If you're just getting started with KonMari or need a refresher, we recommend you head over to Episode 1: KonMari 101 prior to listening to this episode.

We want to hear from you! Tell us your burning tidying questions or share stories about how KonMari has impacted your life. Find us at www.sparkjoypodcast.com and click “Ask Spark Joy” to leave a question or comment for a chance to be featured on next week’s show. While you’re there, sign-up to join our Spark Joy podcast community and get notified when each episode airs. You can also join the Spark Joy podcast community on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at the handle @sparkjoypodcast.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

• Joy Checks: Karin prepares for an upcoming long weekend in PA and Kristyn's parents enjoy visiting her new tidy apartment in Chicago.

• We answer five common questions associated with maintaining a tidy lifestyle:

1. My KonMari event is complete. What now?
   Ref: Episode 5: The KonMari Lifestyle

2. What should you do when your home feels cluttered all of a sudden and you feel like you’ve relapsed?
   Ref: Episode 39: Closet Joy Part II: Build Your Capsule Wardrobe

3. How do I handle items I come across that, over time, seem to be losing their joy value?

4. What do you do when things are crossing the threshold of your home and they don’t have a designated place rest?
   Ref: Episide 31: Shopaholic No More

5. How often should I joy check?

• We conclude this episode with five tips that will help you get back to KonMari basics:

1. Recall and reconsider the vision of your ideal life and express appreciation for items that no longer serve your vision and send them on to their next life.

2. Reset your home to zero by setting everything back into place and make adjustments as needed

3. Consider whether the items you love and use are stored in their best permanent home

4. Ensure your shopping decision making criteria isn’t conflicting with your ability to handle any influx of new clutter

5. Joy check as needed or desired based on the natural life cycle of items in your home

Gems:

"Celebrate and appreciate the joy that surrounds you and the vision of your ideal lifestyle."

"We hope that post-konmari, you're able to happily allow family and friends to enjoy each other and create happy memories.

"The reality is, things in your home will get out of order KonMari or no KonMari."

"Rebound is the state where things without a designated storage place begin to crowd your home all over again."

"Establish a pattern of expressing appreciation as you finish using or wearing an item."

"KonMari is a method or approach or mental model that you can always fall back on in times of transition."

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home

You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy

In this episode, we discuss how we discovered KonMari, how we became KonMari Consultants and what it’s like to have a KonMari consulting business.

Now, we want to hear from you. Tell us your burning tidying questions or share stories about how KonMari has impacted your life. Find us at www.sparkjoypodcast.com and click “Ask Spark Joy” to leave a question or comment for a chance to be featured on next week’s show. While you’re there, sign-up to join our Spark Joy podcast community and get notified when each episode airs. You can also join the Spark Joy podcast community on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at the handle @sparkjoypodcast.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

• Joy checks!
  Kristyn sold her starter condo and rental property in Virginia and is now completely settled as a Chicagoan. Karin loves Springtime in New York City!

• How Karin and Kristyn tidied their own homes and started down the path of certification

• More examples of KonMari fans becoming KonMari Consultants: Consultants Share the Moment KonMari Changed Their Lives

NOTE: This episode was published on April 17, 2018. Any of the information shared regarding training guidelines and procedues is subject to change as the program evolves.

On August 27, 2019, Spark Joy Podcast received this update from KonMari Media, Inc.:
"Starting this fall, due to Marie's very tight schedule, she is no longer available to take individual photos with each attendee."

• The Steps to becoming a consultant:

-Step 1: Read the Marie Kondo Books

-Step 2: Tidy Your Home
KonMari App

-Step 3: Attend a Seminar

-Step 4: Join the Community

-Step 5: Submit Tidying Reports

-Step 6: Complete the Exam

-Step 7: Apply for Certification

• What it’s like to meet Marie Kondo

• A day in the life of a KonMari Consultant

• The business considerations associated with being a consultant

• Why Clients Hire Consultants

• Tools to help prospective consultants and trainees: The Tidy Mastermind and an open letter to KonMari Consultant Trainees

• On the fence about becoming a consultant? Schedule a Joy Call with Kristyn to discuss your unique situation

Gems:

"Her Mission, which is Organizing the World!"

"All different walks of life can bring things to KonMari."

"The fact that I was very sure that I had chosen the right thing to do totally trumped any fear I had about entrepreneurship."

"Everyone at the seminars is super passionate about tidying and living their best lives."

"It's important for you to believe that you have something to provide that's valuable to people because you are."

"I never know what to expect when that door opens."

"As much as I love KonMari, if I didn't feel I could create a sustainable business around it, I would have have had to let go of the idea."

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home
You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy