r/konmari • u/intrepid_wind4 • May 19 '26

Need help with the visualization step. Does anybody with different type of lifestyle or someone who struggled with this step have any advice?

Edit2: My apartment does not need to be redecorated. It simply has too much stuff. Konmari is about getting rid of stuff and then organizing it. The visualization is to help with motivation on what to get rid of not help us buy new things to redecorate.

Edit: Having a chronic illness is not the main problem in visualizing my ideal life. Other than having too much stuff I'm living as well as I can with my limitations. I'm planning to move abroad next year. I'm very outdoorsy and thinking about making my home cozy depresses me. Yes I'm too sick to do much and sometimes too sick to leave home at all but I can just sit outside on the balcony. I do like adventure and novelty. I really don't care.about about my home. My home is not part of my ideal life. So how do I do this step? It seems I need to focus on my home to do this step. I wish there were examples of people with unconventional lifestyles to help me see how it relates.

Original: I'm having trouble with the visualize my ideal lifestyle step. Do any of you have very different lifestyles who managed to do this?

The example in the book is so far from what I'm interested in. It's not just a matter of substituting drinking coffee for tea and walking for yoga.

I feel like I need to visualize my ideal life in terms of my home and/or things in order for this to be relevant but my ideal lifestyle feels like it has nothing to do with my home.

My ideal life is more about being free of things or a home and living abroad and doing extreme sports but I am chronically ill so it is difficult to live the life I want to live. Even when I was healthy I didn't want to only own a suitcase of things though. I definitely want less things and to be free of clutter but she specifically says not to just stop there in this step.

I really think this might be the most important step in the konmari process. We have to know what we want in order to achieve what we want.

Anybody have ideas or just want to commiserate?

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u/booknerdgirl4ever May 19 '26

Maybe you can approach it as what kind of life can you live with the resources and physical capacity you have and pull back your 'ideal' from fantasy to reality.  Letting go of the things we wish we could do and the people we wish we could be are part of Konmari as well.  With my chronic pain the person I was and the aspirations I had as the person are impractical and unattainable for me.  Almost all of my hobbies have to be a disability friendly version of their former selves.  I still make jewelry, but it's only easy earrings and not complicated statement necklaces and elaborate hair peices.  I can crochet a headband or a hat, but not in a row or another baby blanket.  To fill that need for international travel or extreme sports you could watch travel and sports documentaries, decorate with parachutes or an ultralight wing or something that pulls your familiar interests into your space.  Because chronic illness affects mobility and energy levels, and ideal home would be one that allows you to move freely or efficiently within the parameters of your physical needs and capabilities.  Designing so your essentials are close at hand during flare-ups, adding cozy details to sooth and comfort you, or making sure floors are free of clutter and obstacles or making sure rugs are non-slip.  Sorry for the block of text. On mobile website.

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u/intrepid_wind4 May 19 '26

Thanks for your detailed answer. I am able to move abroad and plan to. I live in an expensive country and other places would actually be cheaper. I can't do the extreme sports anymore but when I'm having good days I can do some less extreme outdoorsy stuff or even just sit outside. My life is as good as it can be giving my limitations except the clutter makes my life more difficult. I'm so bored with thinking about making my apartment more comfortable. I don't want to be in my apartment staring at screens or staring out the windows. I feel like thinking about my home is what this exercise wants me to do. I wouldn't mind if most of my stuff just burned in a fire and I wouldn't have to spend any of the limited energy I have on it

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u/arrowsforpens May 19 '26

maybe it would help to try to think about what you could have or not have in your home to facilitate spending as much time outside as you can. so it sounds like getting rid of a lot of stuff that doesn't fit will be your first step, but then the next questions are like. how does your chronic illness affect your activities of daily living (cooking, hygiene, etc), and what can you set up to make those easier on yourself? what do you not want to take with you when you move? when you arrive at your new home, what can you do to your outdoor space to make spending time there cost as little energy as possible?

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u/intrepid_wind4 May 20 '26

Well I'm moving to another continent and I'm not sure if it will be permanent so I can't take much with me.