I get a happy feeling when I have filled a garbage can full of stuff that I don’t need and no one else needs. This is stuff that I can’t sell, recycle or even give away. It is like losing weight. I feel lighter and happier.
Spring is often associated with cleaning out things (and losing winter weight)
There can also be sadness in getting rid of things.
When I first wrote about the idea of decluttering, it was because I had read some of a book by Marie Kondo
She is a Japanese organizing consultant and now has four books on organizing, and has sold more than two million copies altogether. That book was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
The book is an eclectic mashup of autobiography, philosophy, and practical strategies from clothes-folding tips to ways to get yourself let go of sentimental things.
She has a second book in translation now called Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
The new book has photos and illustrations. It has six unerotic pages about underwear. Stuffed toys get 3 pages. It is a manual on how to declutter and organize throughout the house.
The tough ones for me aren’t things in the kitchen and the basement. It is the personal and hobby collections that make me sad. I’m good about getting rid of old clothing, except for t-shirts. For some reason, I keep buying t-shirts and I don’t get rid of them.
I have lots of books after years of college and grad school as an English major. For many years, I would say “I’m going to read them again.” But I haven’t. They are good books and I could never recycle them as pulp. So, I donate them to book sales and the library. I have even put some of the more collectible ones for sale on Amazon. I told you last month about setting books free via Bookcrossings. I like to think my books will have another life with someone else.
There are some line drawings to illustrate Kondo’s book suggestions that will be great for undiagnosed OCD readers who want to learn her patented folding method as it applies to shirts, pants, socks, and jackets. You can sigh lovingly over perfectly organized drawers, closets, and cabinets.
She also has advice on moving. I have long believed that moving would be an unfortunate but effective way to get me to declutter and organize. My wife keeps saying that the time to do it is now, not the month before we really move.
How do you picture Kondo’s own home? Simplicity, uncluttered, lots of whiteness and a few pale colors. It would be fun to see an exposé that shows her with piles of laundry on the floor and a desk that looks like mine.
When I first heard a few decades ago that there were people who get paid and make a career by helping people organize their lives – life coaches – I was more amused than amazed.
But, there are people who organize closets, rooms and entire homes. There are TV shows and books and blogs about these topics.
Kondo’s method of organizing is known as the KonMari method, and part of that consists of gathering together everything you own and then keeping only those things which “spark joy” (tokimeku in Japanese, which literally means “flutter, throb, palpitate” and then finding a place for everything.
She really recommends getting rid of almost all of your books. (Not her books, of course.)
I think it’s significant that she is only 30 years old. She is going to regret some of those things she has trashed one day.
Part of her philosophy, perhaps partially Japanese and Zen-like, is that most of the stuff we own is pointless, unnecessary and actually burdensome. It holds us back from growing into happy, satisfied people.
Extra stuff is not a sign of prosperity, but a sign of impoverishment. Chew on that for a bit.
I don’t know that there is any real Zen philosophy that formed her approach, but there is definitely ritual involved. I imagine something like a Japanese tea garden where the tea ceremony takes place.
She says that you should place all the items on the floor. Pick up and touch them one by one. The question to ask is not whether or not you need this item, but does it spark joy? I tried it. Even on items that I feel an attachment to, I felt no spark of joy.
I put my essays here in categories. This one is in Read It, Do It, and Think About It. Certainly you can read her books. I recommend my method: go to the library or a Barnes & Noble store. Buying her books just means that at some point you would just have to throw them away. She doesn’t seem to recommend a more tech approach, like having an eBook library. One slim volume on the shelf, even it contains hundreds of books.
Putting cynicism aside, I do agree that your stuff shouldn’t make you long for more stuff. Your stuff should remind you that you have everything you need.
In contrast to that philosophy, it’s not a big surprise that Amazon recommends that I purchase even more stuff when I look at Kondo’s books. How about The Gifts of Imperfection
Here are some free reads I found online that you might enjoy and you will never have to decide to throw away.
tidyingup.com is Ms. Kondo’s website
nymag.com/thecut/2016/01/tidy-profits-of-life-changing-magic.html
newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-origin-story-of-marie-kondos-decluttering-empire
Weekends in Paradelle 
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