Reconstructing the Self One Possession at a Time – Decluttering with the Kon Mari Method

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the experience of Finnish consumers regarding decluttering according to the Kon Mari method. Decluttering has become a popular consumption phenomenon in the wake of material accumulation. Professional organizers, such as Marie Kondo and her popular Kon Mari method, have emerged to help consumers discard and organize their possessions.

The data was obtained by conducting eight phenomenological interviews with Kon Mari practitioners, and was analyzed using McCracken’s (1988) five-stage framework. The findings obtained support and diversify the previous literature on ties between consumers’ sense of self with their material possessions, and shed new light on the motives and meanings consumers associate with their decluttering process.

In this study, decluttering was partially motivated by the culturally constructed roles and demands on order, cleanliness, and control. Through decluttering, consumers managed to discard some of these demands. The Kon Mari method was seen as a meaningful way to label and discard or keep possessions that consumers adopted or threw away as parts of their unwanted identities. The process essentially helped them redefine their self-concept one possession item at a time, shedding unwanted identities in the form of possessions. What emerged was the desire to achieve a life that is “just me”. Furthermore, decluttering transcended beyond the material into other areas of life.

As a result of the decluttering process, informants described feeling liberated and in more control, not only of their households, but also of their lives. The findings of this study suggest that consumers engage in decluttering as a way to regain agency in the marketplace. The results were discussed in relation to identity reconstruction work, voluntary simplicity movement and experiential consumption.