Marie Kondo\u2019s book \u2018The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying\u2019 is definitely worth a read, especially for those with a general interest in the topic of introducing some order into a pile of chaotic objects, and also for those who have even a vague feeling that they would like to live in a tidier home. Her experience and passion for the subject jumps out from just about every page with an almost religious fervour. However, I\u2019m happy to say that, towards the end of the book, she says quite unequivocally \u201ctidying is not actually necessary\u201d, \u00a0\u201cYou won’t die if your house isn’t tidy\u201d, and \u201ctidying is not the purpose of life\u201d; hence, for those with a desire to give it a go, she espouses doing a complete assessment of every item you possess as quickly as possible to get it over with. Having done so, she believes you will have a changed mindset, and that you will naturally continue to keep things in order.<\/p>\n
While there are many points in the book that are of great relevance to the investigations in this blog, there are two major differences; the book makes hardly any reference to digitising things, whilst harnessing the power of digitisation is a key thrust of these investigations; and the book is focused on tidying ALL of a person\u2019s possessions in their home (or their place of work), whilst this blog is looking at particular subsets of a person\u2019s possessions. Having said that, the approach, rationale, and impacts that are described can all contribute to the understanding that I am trying to explore in these pages.<\/p>\n
Kondo\u2019s approach is pretty straightforward. Take a category of your belongings; assemble EVERY item in that category from EVERY part of your house, into a big pile; take each item, hold it in your hand, and decide if it gives you a spark of joy – If it does, keep it, and if it doesn\u2019t, discard it; assign a specific space to store everything you keep; when you store \u00a0things, make them as visible as possible, and avoid piling things one on top of the other. This process is intended to be a one-off, all inclusive, exercise to be done on every possession you have.\u00a0 In Kondo\u2019s experience it usually takes about half a year.<\/p>\n
The two key questions, of course, are what constitutes a spark of joy, and is having a spark of joy for an individual item the only criteria one should have. Take books. I love books and enjoy having them around me. Some of the individual books I have are less meaningful to me than others; but I\u2019d keep them for the sake of having books on bookshelves around the house. Kondo doesn\u2019t seem to recognise this. In the several examples she quotes about books, the outcome always seems to be the disposal of tens if not hundreds of books. To be fair, she does make it clear that the decision about what to keep has to be made by the individual concerned. I guess she would just advise that, in the absence of a spark of joy, you should be clear about why you are keeping something.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think I came across an explicit answer in Kondo\u2019s book to the question \u2018why bother to keep your house tidy?\u2019. However, it contains a number of assertions which collectively suggest it\u2019s a good thing to do. The simplest assertion is that one of the reasons why clutter eats away at us is because we have to search for something just to find out if it’s even there; so if we have a tidy house we can find things easily and quickly and feel more content. Another is that we keep things because either we become too attached to the past or that we have a fear of the unknown\u00a0 future. Kondo believes both things hold people back in their lives \u2013 being too attached to the past means that we can\u2019t move on; and having a fear for the unknown future signals our reluctance to try out new things. However, Kondo\u2019s overall rationale is even more complex than that. She believes that we fail to get to grips with clutter as an instinctive reflex to avoid thinking about the other issues in our lives. By discarding the things that are not truly precious to us, we are better able to see what is important to us; we are able to address the issues that are troubling us; and we can become more content with our lives.<\/p>\n
Are any of these valid points? And if so, are they good and sufficient reasons for being tidy? To take each one in turn: a lot of clutter undoubtedly makes it more difficult to find things in most cases. However,\u00a0 there is anecdotal evidence that some untidy people can still find the things they need by having a clear memory of where they place things.\u00a0 In general, though, it seems reasonable to assume that being tidier can help many people find the things they need more quickly.<\/p>\n
The notion that being untidy may be constraining people from moving on or from being able to try out new things, I feel is a more tenuous point: I think I have known many untidy people for whom these assertions are totally untrue. The best that can be said is that it may be constraining some people. As to whether a thorough tidy can help those people \u2013 well, according to Kondo\u2019s experience with what sounds like an extensive client list, it seems that this is probably true.<\/p>\n
Kondo\u2019s final, rather bold, assertion that a thorough tidy can help us address issues that are troubling us and change our lives, is one that I have no way of assessing. Again, we have to rely on Kondo\u2019s own experience with her clients – apparently, she has observed this occur many times, so we can only assume that, for some people who try out her approach, this is a possible outcome. Even if it\u2019s only a possibility, for those who are seeking to address such issues, it may be a good reason to try out Kondo\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n
Now, turning to the impact that Kondo\u2019s approach has on people, the most tangible and immediate impact seems to be the disposal of numerous bags of possessions. The numbers quoted are rather large:<\/p>\n
These are big numbers and I found myself wondering a) if they are all shopaholics in Japan (where Kondo is based), and b) if they weren\u2019t filling the bags to their capacity. But, anyway, it\u2019s clear that disposing of such large amounts of stuff would probably make a very tangible difference in an average house.<\/p>\n
Other impacts that Kondo cites are largely to do the mindset of the individual. She claims that \u2018Tidying dramatically changes one’s life. This is true for everyone, 100 per cent.\u2019 Particular changes she describes include the following:<\/p>\n
These are dramatic changes \u2013 but then the process that Kondo guides her clients through is also quite dramatic so perhaps it\u2019s not unreasonable to expect some significant impacts on people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
So far I\u2019ve really only spoken about the book\u2019s general approach and impacts. However, it also provides a wealth of detailed and very useful guidance on how to deal with specific types of objects and on setting up different types of storage.\u00a0 There is too much material to discuss here, but I\u2019ll finish this summary with just a couple of quotes which I particularly liked:<\/p>\n
Marie Kondo\u2019s book \u2018The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying\u2019 is definitely worth a read, especially for those with a general interest in the topic of introducing some order into a pile of chaotic objects, and also for those who have even … Continue reading