Law Schools

Marie Kondo Can Help You Tidy Up Your Law School Life

A must-read guide for when things in your law school life are no longer 'sparking joy.'

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Marie Kondo (Photo by Gary Gershoff/WireImage)

The world at large seems to be absolutely obsessed with Marie Kondo and her artful techniques for organizing and tidying up. Yes, we know that the KonMari Method is supposed to be used to declutter physical objects from your life, but sometimes it’s the intangibles that are doing the most damage to your well-being. This got us to wondering: Can Marie Kondo help you with cleaning up your law school life?

Yes, she can!

According to Kondo, these are the steps you need to follow to tidy up:

The KonMari Method™ encourages tidying by category – not by location – beginning with clothes, then moving on to books, papers, komono (miscellaneous items), and, finally, sentimental items. Keep only those things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy. Thank them for their service – then let them go.

Alright, let’s make this a little more relevant to the law school experience. We’ll go through your classes, books, papers, study groups, and finally, the most sentimental “items” of all, your friends. Throughout this process, it’s of great importance that you’re being “mindful, introspective, and forward-looking.” Remember, law school may be a stressful time, but that doesn’t mean you have to be unhappy for three years.

CLASSES
Unfortunately, most first-year law students have to deal with the classes they’re assigned, but when you move up the ranks as a 2L and 3L, you’ll be able to register for classes that you think you’ll actually enjoy — classes that will “spark joy” in your life. Secured Transactions may be on the bar exam, but does a class like that really speak to your heart? Move on and find something you really like.

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BOOKS
Marie Kondo recommends that people limit their book collections to no more than 30. For a law student (or law school graduate), that’s an incredibly difficult goal.

You may have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on law school books, but many of them never sparked even an ounce of joy from the moment you became their owner. Keep only the ones that you think will somehow be useful to you later in your career, thank the rest of them for their service (or curse them if you got a grade you didn’t like), and then sell them online or donate them.

PAPERS
Law students are complete hoarders when it comes to hanging onto papers. If you’re a 3L, do you really need your outline from 1L contracts taking up space in your apartment? What about the outline that you started from a class you later dropped? Please do yourself a favor and take Marie Kondo’s advice: “My basic principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away.” Recycle all of it, or donate it to a student organization’s outline bank.

STUDY GROUPS
Yes, you need to find a study group, but it’s much more difficult to follow the KonMari Method here because you’re dealing with human beings. As with all things in law school, sometimes things can become a bit competitive. If you’ve got toxic people in your study group, it may be time to thank them for their service and gently dismiss them from your study sessions (which is, of course, much easier said than done).

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FRIENDS
Your friends are the most important things you’ve got in law school. They’ll be there for you through the ups and downs, through bad grades and good, through horrible cold-call experiences, and even through the cliquey high-school gossip that dominates law school hallways. What happens when one of your friends stops acting like a real friend? They may be putting you down, constantly picking fights with you, or even demanding too much of your energy. Do you stick it out simply because you’re stuck with them, or do you let them go? If one of your friends is no longer “sparking joy” in your life, you may want to consider politely and respectfully ending the friendship. You’ll find that you’ll ultimately be much happier without such negativity in your life.

See? Marie Kondo’s methods for tidying up and discarding things that no longer “spark joy” really can help you declutter your law school life! Now if only we could apply the same technique to our six-figure law school loans….

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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