After you’re done konmari’ing your home and life you want to maintain your newly tidy space. All of your items will have a home and you’ll know exactly where to put back your things and “tidy up” quickly. For new items that enter your living space, you want to find them a proper home. Doing this is key if you want to keep up your KonMari lifestyle.
Typically, if you have gone through the entire KonMari process thoroughly, you will likely have changed your shopping behavior after completing your tidying festival. That is, you will shop more mindfully and often far fewer items in general. You only buy items that spark joy and allow them to enter your space.
But what about items you receive for free? The barriers for letting these items enter your home are likely lower than for items you exchange money for. Because, well, they’re free, right? I talked about receiving (unwanted) gifts here. So you might want to check that post out if that’s an issue for you. Today, however, I want to talk about a sub-category of gifts. I want to talk about accepting free stuff in the form of little freebies, samples and small gifts you receive from stores, brands and the like.
You typically receive those freebies for marketing purposes. Companies show appreciation for you as a customer or they want to win you as a new customer. You might receive a bonus gift in addition to something else you bought. Those things might be a lotion sample included in the package with other products you ordered. Or they can take the form of a toothbrush you get from your dentist at your bi-annual dentist appointment.
Whatever form those gifts take, beware of them! Don’t let those freebies swamp your space involuntarily. In fact, apply the spark joy concept when offered or given those items. If you determine that it sparks joy, listen deeper and determine if it sparks joy because it’s free or if the item genuinely sparks joy and you would have bought it if it wasn’t free. Only if it’s the latter, accept the item.
Keep in mind that you can only cherish a limited amount of things. Be selective of the items you allow to enter your space. With freebies, it’s easy to fall into the trap of “it’s free, so I can just keep it to use it “someday” or “I’ll keep it just in case”. Treat your home like a sanctuary and only keep items that truly speak to your heart and spark joy. If you remember those very KonMari principles, it should be easy for you to not be swayed by those vicious freebies.
How do you determine if you keep a freebie or not?
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