5 Ways to KonMari Your OR

The Marie Kondo method of taking back spaces, finding joy in tidying, and transforming the way people live and work in their physical environment is well-known through her books and Netflix show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.”

Julie Kahn, DNP, RN, CNOR, RN-BC, ACNS-BC, CNS-CP, AORN perioperative practice specialist, sees several key ways the “KonMari” method can be applied to the perioperative setting and even transform the way nurses work within OR spaces.

“Many OR settings are filled with items and have limited storage capacity, which can make it hard to navigate in hallways and can make the space feel cramped, so having only what you need or love, knowing clearly what you have, and keeping a tidy space helps keep people focused on patient care,” she explains.

On the KonMari Method

The KonMari method of tidying is a non-judgmental process to be completed by the person who owns or uses the item the most.

First you determine what you need to keep. When tidying a house, each individual tidies their own clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous items, and then sentimental items. The method involves making a pile of all the items in whatever category you are working on. This gives you a sense of what an overwhelming amount you own. Next the person holds each thing to see if it sparks joy, those items that do should be kept.

In the OR this could be done by reviewing all the positioning supplies that are involved when using the Jackson Table, Cahn suggests. Items to keep should spark joy but perioperative team members also can use the process to note what gets used, what doesn’t, what is broken and what needs to be repaired or disposed of.

“Many people who have used Kondo’s method have reported feeling more at peace in their environment when it is not cluttered,” Cahn notes. “People also share that tidy environments foster better interpersonal relationships that can help reduce disagreements.”

Applying the KonMari Approach in the OR

Here are five ways Cahn suggests perioperative leaders can help their teams to begin applying the KonMari method in their own perioperative setting:

1. Don’t tidy room by room, go through categories of similar things all in one go.

   Completing similar categories of things provides an immediate visual accomplishment when one category is finished, which can inspire future work on other categories of things.

    

2. The people who own or use the items most frequently should be the ones to tidy it.

   Make sure the personnel in specific specialties are tidying the supplies they work with.



3. Keep things of similar use in only one location when possible.

   While this might be hard to apply fully in the OR, it is easy to see how storing items of similar function or usage together might be beneficial in training personnel, ordering and re-stocking supplies, checking for outdated supplies, and supply retrieval. 



4. Start with a category of things that no one will feel strongly about getting rid of.

   Kondo advocates a specific order of categories of things to tidy to help people finely tune their sense of what can be let go of. In the OR, if you have a lounge with tons of old books and binders that no one uses, this might be a good place to start. 



5. Don’t judge what others choose to keep.

   It is important that people feel comfortable in the space that they work in and that the items in that space are organized in a logical manner that makes sense to them. 

Make a Plan for What You Don’t Keep

Certain things might not be able to be thrown out in non-regulated trash so make sure you ask first about discarding potentially hazardous items (such as chemicals), Cahn advises. Catalogue what you donate to ensure documentation if there is a tax benefit for donating the items. If you have an item that you think a resident training program could use, check with them on what they are looking for and what they are willing to take. Additionally, the American College of Surgeons has a great list of donation organizations on their website. 

Cahn encourages perioperative nursing leaders to start the conversation and support their teams in this organizational approach. “As Marie Kondo would say, ‘may you find joy in the process!’.”

Learn more about the Marie Kondo approach in her books, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying UP: Decluttering and Organizing, Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organization and Tidying Up, and The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story.