Wow, I love this piece!
Admire the teachings of Kondo. In fact, applied her folding methods when putting away laundry yesterday. Magically, the drawers could hold nearly double the content by folding/rolling garments and stacking them in drawers. Even underwear would magically disappear into the drawer with room left over.
No doubt Kondo has something to tell us about how to approach the world we live in and how to deal with the stuff that we surround ourselves with.
But ultimately, tidying up closets and rooms is only the beginning of a journey to take not just control, but charge of your life.
Becoming more mindful of what matters most, family, work, and how to achieve positive outcomes, in business and more importantly relationships with the those you love and meet along the way.
Perhaps there is a teaching moment here for the nation and for the president too. Maybe a little tidying up in the government would help get things back on track and focus our attention on what is needed most: Productive, healthy and happy people that can live together and spark joy in each other’s lives.
10
My house is full of books, although currently in a state of relative chaos. The chaos does not spark joy, but the books definitely do. When I look through photos of home decor, the rooms I am intensely drawn to are those where the walls have been designed as, in effect, bookshelves. The home library look. Neat, clean and orderly, but floor to ceiling and wall to wall books. Not random “books by the yard” purchased for effect, but a private collection, each book selected by the owner for a specific interest. Those rooms calm me down just looking at photos of them. I want to live in that house.
In that regard, I tend to agree with whoever posited that perhaps an empty desk is a sign of an empty mind. When I walk into an overly clean house with no books, no magazines, and no clutter, as in absolute zero, it feels like I have checked into a hotel room. It’s like nobody lives there. The people who do live there tend to either (a) have nothing interesting to talk about, or (b) lots of servants.
18
To describe Kondo’s prescriptions as being about control is shallow, limiting, and misleading. Kondo’s conception is more about self-discovery than taking back control. Like clearing the old dead tree so that the sunlight can reach the saplings. It always brings to my mind the apocryphal story of Michelangelo claiming he simply chipped away anything that didn’t look like David.
Kondo doesn’t promise control, but rather liberation, it is a meaningful distinction and likely a key reason her system has become a global social phenomenon while the numerous books and systems promising to “defeat clutter and help you take back control” do only middling business on bookstore shelves.
10
Kondo is a sociological phenomenon and she has cleverly capitalized on our oversized appetite for material things.
Good for her. She's recognized a need and made herself wealthy. What's so bad about that? We'd all be better off learning to appreciate and live with less.
Oh, and, she's not going away. My prediction? Decluttering will be the next new fad (entrepreneurs hope you're listening). Nice to know it's actually 2500 years old!
28
When I was a young single mother, having not honed any orderly tendencies, I prioritized having a happy child over a tidy house. (Much to my mother's chagrin.) When my child went off to college a year ago, I devoted the next several months to decluttering every room of our small house and creating new systems of organization, while my husband continued to work on finishing our basement. It was therapeutic; the orderly closets, drawers and cabinets spark joy in me every day even though I still miss having my son at home. I am still working on establishing better routines. But my main point is, at both stages in my life I made the decision that was right for me. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
77
I disagree with the author's ending because orderliness is very much a part of Feng Shui which focuses on our surroundings affecting our moods and our productivity.
One doesn't have to be spotless or excessive about their surroundings. A simple action of pulling up bedcovers can improve a room's appearance 100% and its owners mood upon entering the bedroom. The same holds for every other room in a home.
A family with 3 children can still manage some minimal order in spite of the many demands put on them, and small tasks will produce some sense of peace and comfort versus the alternative of chaos.
24
First of all, ancient Greeks of the class described by Xenophon had ample labor, typically enslaved persons. In Western and East Asian societies, up until World War II, many middle class families had at least one domestic employee. Now our households are drowning in stuff with too little time and labor to deal with it. Marie Kondo is telling us we can break this cycle. And unneeded but usable items can and should be donated. My greatest tidying up inspiration is George Carlin's classic monologue, "Stuff."
79
@Mary Ann- what is unneeded or unusable or doesn't bring joy one day just might the next day. Who knows? Is Kondo a fortune teller too?
13
At age 82, I am going to make an honest attempt to de-clutter. I have too much stuff and spend too much time pawing through the clutter to find a specific item that I need. I have a collection of nearly 100 film cameras, but nearly every photo I take today comes from a smart phone. My wife and I have been avid readers, but it would take about 500 years to finish the books I have in the house. Thank heavens for digital books, magazines and newspapers that take up no space except digital memories. I have five university degrees including two MIT masters, but I still have all my class notes that I haven’t looked at in years, but are still dear to me. How do I find good homes for all my precious possessions? Another problem is my habit of re-reading books I love. Starting at age 12, I have consumed the entire set of Nero Wolfe mysteries written by Rex Stout five times. Maybe I need a psychiatrist.
27
I would Love hanging out with you!!! Keep your books that you read often. Get rid of things slowly. The notes from school though- make a clean break. Loved your comment.
20
Decluttering your apartment really is pretty liberating. I mean, I hate to say it, but Tyler Durden in Fight Club had it right when he said that the stuff we own basically owns us. I allow clutter to accumulate and then it stresses me out - “flushing the toilet” on that stuff feels absolutely amazing.
I live in the DNA of others pasts. Long Live Garage Sales!
3
Marie Kondo is a neat freak with OCD. Lots of utilitarian everyday items aren't sparking my joy but I keep them around anyway -- like oven mitts or my cats when there is a full moon.
4
I'd rather heed Jordan Peterson's advice of "cleaning your room."
According to Plato`s Symposium, the only thing that could make Socrates clean up was Dionysus.
1
Getting rid of stuff, to me, is like asking which of my six children do I want to discard. Maybe it is due a childhood in the depression with a working class father who came from Scotland. He had a week-long fit when I pleaded with my mother to buy a $3 well illustrated book on wildlife. I still have that book that I purchased over 70 years ago, plus a few thousand more.
7
People’s thinking has become remarkably sloppy. Manners are sloppy, homes are sloppy, hygiene is sloppy, organizations are sloppy, there is so much sloppiness in every aspect
There is no such thing as perfect organization or perfect health.
6
To those concerned about the illustration it is The Celebrated Moral Philosopher Socrates while under Sentence of Death at Athens, an etching and engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi from the painting by Angelica Kauffmann, published in 1782. Thanks to the National Galleries Scotland and internet, a few moments "work".
8
The article suggests that Socrates'approval of the absence of clutter came from his observation of a business where economy and use of precious space must conform to the efficiency of a business. But a life is not a business. The values learned in living, in being inspired by things that have nothing to do with earning money or conforming to the value systems of anyone else but one's self is a depressing put down of personal taste and emotional connections with wonderful memories that have poetic values of great power. An ancient and possibly even broken toy from one's childhood or the childhood of a relative or even a loved child who has died may seem like a piece of junk to an efficiency expert but its value to a parent is far too immense to discard. Bright creative people hold on to the oddest things because they contain potentials not obvious to an unimaginative efficiency expert.
20
@Jan Sand For evidence of that, one only has to visit the homes or artists, or go to auctions where the possessions of interesting people are sold.
5
The last paragraph says it all about obsessive organization: “the fantasy of perfect control that household organization offers may appeal most to those of us who feel that we need to have control over every aspect of our lives, even those that resist simple storage solutions. Perhaps the biggest mess is not in our closets but in our minds.”
10
So we declutter so that we have room for more “stuff” because of our addiction shopping?
3
What would Harry Truman have to say about this? Would it embarrass Margaret?
Minor complaint: The engraving of Socrates used as an illustration to this article depicts him writing, but he was historically regarded as illiterate.
5
@x
No.
Socrates is not historically regarded as being illiterate. Plato depicts him as familiar with books and writing.
It's true, we are in possession of no books attributed to Socrates. However, philosophers and historians do not commonly infer that Socrates was illiterate.
5
@x
He thought writing would obliterate the ability of humans to remember accurately.
Me thinks the authors of this piece have it backwards - Ms Kondo is the one "channeling" the old philosophers, not the other way around.
Maybe she read their words? and proceeded to start a new fad?
Maybe she has no idea who they were, but comparing her to these old philosophers ... kind of silly IMHO
4
I differ fundamentally with the proposition that things spark joy. Things are to be used, people are to be loved; get that backwards and no amount of organizing and systematizing will fix the problem.
If we could learn to see what we have as worthwhile only if it helps us care for or connect with people, and as having potential for others to use in that capacity, if we give up what we do not need, perhaps we would not grasp so tightly. Or spend our time purging and organizing, instead of finding joy in those we care about.
13
I agree with you completely. I once made someone very mad at me over my questioning of Kondo’s use of that word.
I’m a designer. I love THINGS. (Not too many all at once.) And I’ve ascribed it to having ADHD, but I have for decades had a rule that every object in my home must have a place or else it goes. I am definitely someone who benefits greatly from being in an ordered space without a lot of clutter.
I find joy not in all the beautiful things around me at this moment but in dancing, playing with children and animals, discovering something new about the universe, loving and being loved.
I have some friends that have real problems managing their stuff. If Kondo can help some folks get their homes in order then yay. I’m glad for that. I saw one episode of the show. That was enough for me.
5
@Kris K Beautifully said. Aloha
@Kris K
What you say is conventional wisdom and most people believe it, or at least say they do. It goes hand in hand with the Abrahamic rejection of the material world that has so shaped modern thought and society.
But you should be aware that it is a moral position that has never been found universally applicable for people. Indeed as cognitive science is beginning to explore happiness and satisfaction in earnest, it has been finding that human beings are deeply conditioned and affected by their environment. Wilderness reduces stress and increases well being. Starry skies create awe and reflection. The color red increases pulse rates and certain pinks calm agression while some yellows increase self confidence and some increase agitation. Blighted or littered spaces make people uneasy and less law abiding, etc. The list goes on and on.
In fact it increasingly seems, as a matter of science, that external objects and sensory experiences do indeed spark joy, as well as other less prized emotions.
3
Clean up everything, but don't toss out the Socrates dialogues. They could spark wisdom instead of joy.
19
I relate the clutter and disorganization issue to the fact of over consumption. In the US shopping has become an entertaining addiction. Better not to accumulate the stuff in the stuff in the first place.
35
I will definitely clean up and sort and spend the rest of my life maintaining the system, but I'm not finished reading my book.
2
I enjoyed working in a firm that had a clean desk policy. I grew up - and in turn raised my son - with the belief that if you do not have a place to put all of your things, you have too many things. This seems to be simple common sense.
13
@Concerned So those who have only small spaces don't deserve to have what others do? Your maxim is not common sense in my opinion. It's silliness.
9
The title of this column is grievously misleading.
We HAVE our revered Socrates, with us now, in this Comments Corner, offering enlightening assessments and debunkments of America's and human civilization's Enemy Within.
Compared to what our Socrates offers, nothing from ancient history is of comparable value to us in the here and now.
7
It always helps to occasionally re-read "Walden" and act on Henry David Thoreau's timeless insights:
"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million, count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail … Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion."
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone."
The Bard of Walden knew a thing or two about how to live an uncluttered, and thus, meaningful, life.
35
@Hasan Z Rahim He did know a thing or two. But he also did not have children, or take care of any individuals in his simple life.
I crave that life! Asceticism is a compelling goal but one that is only possible for isolated individuals.
9
There is tidying up and there is anal retentive behaviour. My father was the latter. My mother and father and I were staying at a hotel.
I called on them in the morning and asked my mother where my father was: "he's in the bathroom cleaning the toilet." I said to him that one reason for staying in hotels is that you don't have to do that stuff.
"We wouldn't want them to think we are slobs," he replied.
18
Well, for sure, lots of genius types sing the praises of order. Ben Franklin said, Simplify, simplify, simplify.
But do you know what is missing in all this organizing, simplification? CONTEXT!
Millions of Americans are still recovering from the mortgage melt down of 2008, in which tens of millions, lost their homes, downsized, or otherwise coped with our shrinking employment market in which there have been fewer and fewer jobs that pay salaries covering the cost of living.
Millenials moved back home into the basement, or found a room for rent in someone else's home, but the rate of household formation is drastically down from where it was at the beginning of this century, prior to 9/11 and 23 trillion of our tax dollar contributions being shelled out to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for oil and heroin cartels, tracking the largest rates of growth in disparity of income between rich and poor ever seen in the US.
And along comes Kondo from the land of tiny condos in Japan to tell us, all we have to do is tidy up to improve our lives.
I don't think so.
I think CEO's making tens of millions of dollars while most working people can hardly afford a closet to live in, in most major American cities is a big part of the problem and pathetic.
Socrates and Franklin may be correct that the pursuit of order in possessions improves comfort, but hey, if someone could tame this wild economy, in which you move for jobs or survival, every few years, that might help too.
18
Plato warns against the dangers of music too. Should we eliminate it as well? There's nothing wrong with tidying up, and a light hearted piece is always appreciated, seeking deep meaning in cleaning up one's house in ancient Greek literature is silly.
5
This Ischomachus sounds like Class A jerk. So he hears things crying out to be put in their proper places... and tells his wife to do it? I think it's women he really likes putting in their place (and Socrates is no better), which hardly makes him either unique or interesting. As for Marie Kondo, except for how she hates books (she actually suggests tearing out the page you like and throwing the rest away!), her sexism probably just reflects the physical reality of the world her clients live in.
10
@Judy
Marie Kondo doesn’t hate books. Her advice on books is to treat them as objects by taking each individually in your hand and, without opening them, seeing if they spark joy. And keeping them if they do.
The point is to separate the book as a physical object that lives in your physical life around you, from the non-physical content. If the book and its contents mean something positive to you, you mind will trigger your emotions just by holding it. If not, you don’t need the physical object, you have absorbed the content (or not) and can let it go.
2
The mess in the closet and the mess in the mind often go together. That is the whole premise of this I believe.
5
Re the picture: amazing, the artistry of ink drawings of the 5th c. BCE!
The editors might have considered not merely cutting and pasting the poorly worded caption directly from the Getty Images site, but at least attributing it to the actual artist - even if he does misrepresent the old guy as writing, which he didn't.
2
@AP I made the same point at, I guess, roughly the same time! (scroll down a bit).
Except Socrates' wife worked full-time as a potter to support Socrates' dalliances and philosophical ruminations!
25
The art and artform of folding a TOGA! What like about "KONDOISM " is that it teaches us humility and serenity. We live isn a world of noise, screaming, dis-organized flotsam and jetsam strewing like a broken NYC sewer line form the 19 the century.
When you decide what brings you joy , you be satisfied with less that brings more. Everything about the poor direction of the country and the vile ogre that runs it screams train wreck.
Let my house murmur Sotto Voce to the notes of a life at peace.
2
Marie Kondo has found a new twist, a new twist in making money. But that is what writing books in America is all about, isn't it.
7
There is no "Kondo fever", let that be clear. Those who worship Kondo are adults who need to be told what to do and how their lives should be run, much like a 10 year old child. Please grow up and get a mind of your own. If you want advice so badly, that is the best advice you'll ever get in your life.
4
Whenever I hear economists say that "the American consumer is the engine of our economy", I want to vomit. We are a nation where 80% of our neighbors have no savings. Our garages are filled with garbage, our rental storage spaces have wait-lists, and our land-fills are over-flowing. Marie Kondo resonates with many, including me, because we are sick of the pointless stuff we buy and accumulate.
65
@Amy But does it always make sense to throw away--or give away--things you may realistically need in the future? That is what Kondo seems to advocate. It can be thriftier, and simpler, to keep some things that there is a real possibility of using in the future, rather than having to buy new ones. Even if they don't "spark joy," or aren't beautifully folded.
I too am strongly against overconsumption, which is a big problem in our society. That doesn't mean getting rid of useful possessions.
Kondo's ideas seem very silly to me, unless one has nothing much to do.
9
Amazing that the NYTimes was able to find an engraving from circa 427 BC (sic), around 2,000 years before the technique was developed. Or are we meant to assume that sometime around 427, an artist said "hey Socrates, I made this picture of you in a style that won't appear for several hundred years."
1
Just read Thoreau.
2
Can you spell, intellectualization, being esoteric and verbose by these authors?
Let's bottom line it folks. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were the first and possibly greatest thinkers, philosophers, teachers of western civilization.
They separated us from Stone Age ish thinking.
Yes they lived in an age of torture, slavery, only men who owned property meant anything but they gave us western civilization's greatest invention, democracy.
It has been refined in the past 2,500 yrs. but basically not changed.
That is a pretty good track record.
6
And I thought you were talking about the forum poster from Verona, NJ....
3
Freud is the one in history that dared to formulate the dark side of neat and tidy and orderly in the notion of obsessional neurosis. Yung only touches on this dark point at the end. But the ethical and aesthetic consciousness which infuses and modulates the anality of organizing, and leavens the driven quality one finds in garden variety compulsive behavior. The latter elevates the “Kon Mari method” beyond a psychoanalytic reduction to psycho neurosis. Religion when done with sensitivity and consciousness remains only an analogue to neurosis, as does Kon Mari.
One can explore and even deconstruct the gender relations and power dynamics in the marital relation of a couple practicing Kon Mari. The wife is not the one lacking, if anyone is lacking the phallus it is her husband. She fills his lack with her tidy house. Perhaps this is the real reason that Mrs. Cleaver, Beaver’s mother always vacuumed the living room carpet in a day dress, pearls, and pumps.
It is what’s left out of these classic Freudian reductions, what Lacan calls the “petite a”, that provides the key to transcending our squalid illnesses.
Huh? I could not make sense out of at least three of these sentences.
5
Would love to see the KonMari method applied to a congressional house cleaning. Lots of useless junk there and not much that sparks joy.
44
Interesting choice of photo to accompany the article -- especially because Socrates never wrote anything.
Kondo is a philophobe who should be summarily banished to the edges of intellectual dialog. Her opinions are the philosophical equivalents of nothingburgers.
2
I bet Xanthippe would have made Socrates tidy up!
3
An old saw: If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what's an empty desk the sign of?
16
It's interesting that there is debate about whether or not a home should be organized or not. It's not just beneficial to yourself to de-clutter and organize. It's important to those around you: spouses, children, friends, co-workers. If ancient philosophers opined about organization, then that indicates the universal and classic importance of organization in daily life (no matter how much the authors over analyzed them here).
I grew up in a disorganized home run by a very loving parent who just couldn't keep it together. Either due to fear, inability, or frankly, laziness, the house I grew up in was always in physical chaos. Even though there was income, the electricity and phone would be turned off occasionally because they forgot to pay the bill. Probably because it was interfiled in a pile of old magazines. Toilet paper ran out regularly. If it had been purchased, it was impossible to find.
The physical chaos caused mental chaos. It was a major source of stress for everyone. I couldn't have friends over. I wondered why there snacks available at friends' houses, while we were always out of staples at home. As I got older I organized the bills, shopping, and the house to give myself the sanity and security I needed growing up. Stephanie Winston's 70's book "Getting Organized" was my bible (still in print) and Kondo follows in her footsteps.
If a person thinks their disorganization is a harmless personal right, they should think again.
54
Fascinating piece. Also applies to friendships/relationships.
2
Truly there is nothing new under the sun. And there are those today who believe the study of Classics is a waste of time and part and parcel of an old elitist and antiquated educational ideal. There is some much to discover and rediscover when reading the works of the Greeks and Romans. It is time well spent.
19
@M. Gabe Very good point!! Those ancient and fascinating civilizations have brought us so many things indeed - art, literature, politics, philosophy, science....and apparently even everyday life principles.
And as you say, they are not studied as much as they should, when they seem to be the very basis of our societies.
I am a fan of Marie Kondo having read her book shortly after it came out. I like to compare her methods to the 5S system developed for Toyota by Hiroyuki Hiruno. However, I have a few things I need to keep around the house that don't exactly spark joy (sander, ratchet set, leaf blower, rake etc..) and my raincoat doesn't inspire me either. I suppose my coffee machine sparks joy and I only have one. For those that don't feel particular joy in their socks and shoes, I suggest the 5S method for sustained organization. The last 'S' of 5S is 'Sustain'. Without that continuous improvement concept its just rinse and repeat.
10
@Paul Burke I have found the two systems align neatly as well. On my first Kondo stent in 2015 I did a great job at cleaning, but not sustaining. I realize now (having moved into lean production at work) that my methods lacked the focus on eliminating muda to make it sustainable.
My example. Having an annual folder for paperwork was great, but as I was keeping it out of the way in another room the mail would pile up waiting for the folder to be retrieved. Placing storage for the annual folder next to the mail slot and mail requires less effort for the same task, making it sustainable. The folder only now gets moved to the old location after the 1 year limit, when a fresh folder is started. And then after 7 years I can easily chuck most everything in the folder without a huge effort.
1
@Paul Burke
Well, actually Kondo in her books does deal with this issue by suggesting that you reflect on the joy you get from task practical implements support. So a spatula may not bring you joy, but as pancakes do, you ought to keep it, etc.
It all reminds me of William Morris’ famous dictum: “Keep nothing your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
2
Nothing new really, just common sense to tidy up once awhile.
I find that new trend of Minimalism/ Marie Kondoism interesting. It seems like the Millennial are going for it.
At the end I am all for it. Lots of people could get rid of a lot of useless stuff around them.
10
The people I've known who were most concerned with maintaining a tidy external environment were severely lacking in their ability to manage their internal world -- a much more crucial life skill.
22
Only a pragmatist has the courage to acknowledge that philosophy is aesthetics.
12
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself. Still sounds good to me.
16
This op-ed has stretched some of its sources to get them both to fit the same mold. The claim "tidying your house can also enhance your beauty and contribute to a healthier, trimmer body" doesn't in any obvious way show that Marie Kondo sees "ethical" significance in organization.
4
Frankly I am not 100% sure that the need to tidy up means longing for more power and control...
I mean it's nice being psychoanalyzed (and after all it could be true!), but honestly when I want to tidy up, it's not really about finding power but quite the opposite actually - it's rather about finding serenity and calmness, quite simply.
It's a very interesting article though, and which highlights yet another thing we owe to the Greeks.
Showing the posterity and impact of the Greek philosophers in our everyday life is an interesting perspective which unfortunately is often forgotten about, and which also proves that they are much closer to us than we think...
21
There is a big difference between tidying up and having OCD.
2
@Concerned Citizen True, but here it seems to me that the journalists meant tidying up in general, and to OCD..
1
As soon as all is tidied and in its place, I am compelled to get out those findable things and make another mess. I think I'm just more comfortable than most with a degree of chaos. And I like to make things.
16
Yes, one should be in control of his/her house. So if I want mine to look like disorganized mess, that my business alone, and no one else's -- no matter what Socrates and his modern adherents say.
While this may be considered a lighthearted subject, in several ways is deadly serious. Disorganization is often a deep seated quality, perhaps even genetic. When single, a girl friend could organize what might have been hopeless disorganization in hours, while another with equal duration just wouldn't care.
There is another really dark side, which is in the abuse of elderly by the imposition of guardians, This newspaper had a recent article about this, featuring a picture of a disorganized house that lead to the loss of independence, and virtual dehumanizing of the individual. Ironically, with the decline of memory that comes with aging, often putting items in seeming order, means that the previous remembered location is no longer functional. And the new orderly location can't be learned.
How one chooses to organize their life, especially within their own dwelling, is the individual's province, and no one else.
51
I heartily agree with Ischomachus after dealing with the chaos created by a 2-year-old who likes to pick things up and set them down in unpredictable places---trash can, toilet, some other part of the house. And the child's parents are no better, turning controlled chaos into much greater chaos with only barbarians' respect for other people's property and orderly arrangements.
3
Tyding up will not change your life and mindset but it's a first step toward prioritizing, organizing, and simplifying our modern lives. I have watched three of Marie Kondo's Netflix shows. Most of her suggestions are common sense. But, millions of people, who would have done nothing to clean up cluttered homes, will be inspired to tidy up. So it doesn't matter how old the concept is if overall it's beneficial.
11
Oh vey! (From an ancient text). I had thought that elastomer technology had advanced stretchy materials to an amazing degree, but this comparison elongates things orders of magnitude longer.
16
This article does not spark joy in me. I initially wanted to share the piece as it started with some interesting comparisons but then decided against it as it sounded like the authors wanted to make some deep cultural point and the piece got all wonky toward the end. Marie Kondo's method is a pretty simple but really effective way of getting rid of stuff you don't like and ordering the stuff you do in a way that you can find things. It also makes areas in your home more enjoyable to inhabit. I think people get really excited because they learn about themselves in the process, i.e. what actually "sparks joy" in them vs. what they think should spark joy in them. And they get to move about life with less to worry about and maintain and more to appreciate. As far as sexism, the need to control everything, etc. the authors are reading too deep.
62
@CB- since this article doesn't spark joy then do what Kondo says: Get rid of it. The Times's authors can't seem to get a grasp on that notion.
2
if a cluttered desk represents a cluttered mind - what does an empty desk represent...?
And incidentally, I own a flute (a gift) - and I neither play it nor intend to learn how. Kondo says its "superfluous" to my life. But it like the flute - its rather beautiful. So Kondo says "keep the objects that bring you joy." Kondo doesn't seem to actually provide any real answer here. Bye, Kondo.
26
@Wilson1ny Her method is simple - if it sparks joy, meaning if you love it, keep it. You don't have to play it. The authors got it wrong. Not sure if they read the book. Maybe just watched the show.
35
@Wilson1ny The thing about her methods is that she teaches you to figure out what you value. For many people, keeping stuff is an emotional need disconnected from the stuff itself. May not rise to the level of hoarding, but the pull is there.
If the flute is beautiful and you put it out where you can see it and enjoy it, keep it. If you keep it in a box just so you know you have it, is the flute really bringing your joy or is it the memory of the gift that is bringing you joy?
The issue isn't that her methods don't work, it's that you haven't learned how to use them. It isn't always and easy emotional process, to learn to separate the memory from the object, the need for possession against what makes your heart sing. It's deeply personal, that process, and not a formula.
15
@CB- love is fluid, one day it's there, the next it's not. What the future holds even tomorrow, no one knows, so why listen to the stupid, clueless advice Kondo is giving?
I appreciate the historical parallels the authors pointed out, but what exactly are their points?
That Marie Kondo is sexist? Maybe Ischomachus was but it's nowhere in Marie's work.
That Marie Kondo oversells the magic of tidying up by claiming one's life will fall into place once tidy? If true, it's part of her spiritual quirkiness that is just one tiny facet of her overall philosophy and is no reason to right off the books. Tidying establishes an internal locus of control, prompting one to take charge of other aspects of life. The magical things don't happen on their own, but the tidy person is more likely to take charge of her life.
41