The Japanese Art of decluttering

Last week in my quest to find creative storage solutions, I came across Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. It was on special on Kindle, so of course, I had to have it.

Well, hot damn. Let me tell ya, halfway into Chapter 2 all I wanted to do was tidy up.

Now, a word of warning to Westerners: Marie Kondo was a Shinto shrine maiden for a few years and her book is written in a Japanese context. She refers to the energy and ‘feelings’ of inanimate objects, which may be a bit off-putting if you cannot view the book within the context of the culture it was written in. Easterners have an understanding of chi/energy that Westerners don’t always grasp.

Personally, I agree with the premise of it. Everything is energy, irrespective of what it is. She respects the energy of things, animate or not and often refers to things being tired or sad. Some readers take that literally and cannot get their heads around the content. That’s fair enough; different horses for different courses.

But I digress. She lists an order to tackling clutter. Clothes first, then accessories, then books, papers and then miscellaneous items. She also suggests doing your entire house in one hit; maybe possible in Japan but more challenging in the West where we sometimes fiercely hoard things in larger spaces like the world is going to end.

Her approach is to find every single scrap of clothing you own, and put it in the middle of the floor. All of it. If you have it in storage, wherever, go get it and add it to the pile. No item gets left behind. Once that’s accomplished, you need to physically handle each item and ask yourself if it sparks joy. This is where some Westerners lose their minds.

Yes, things have energy. Some people can feel it, others not so much. Anything that doesn’t bring you joy has lower energy. Whether that negative energy is from the guilt you feel because it was a gift from a loved one, so you keep it even though you hate it. Whether it’s something you loved once and now it’s threadbare, doesn’t fit, reminds you of a time when you were happier. Whatever the reason is, if it doesn’t spark joy and you don’t absolutely love it, it has to go. No, it doesn’t get to go and live at your parents’ house, or in storage until some other time; it has to straight up GO.

This is where some book reviewers go a bit postal. Obviously picking up a tube of Preparation H doesn’t ‘spark joy’ but you need it so it can’t go. You need to use some lateral thinking here. Obviously things like medication don’t rock your happy button, but you can’t toss them. She’s talking about optional possessions here; things that won’t physically kill you if you toss them.

So that’s what I did today. All the clothing went onto the floor in the living room and let me just say: HOLY CRAP!!

I had NO idea I had so many things. The same suitcase I took to my storage unit a week ago came right back to my apartment, along with 2 plastic storage boxes of clothes. The contents of my drawers and closet were added to the pile. For someone who lives in a handful of outfits it was shocking to see how much stuff I’ve surrounded myself with.

Going through each item, holding it up, ‘feeling’ it, it became easier to let things go. Clothes I’ve held on to for decades are now gone. I loved them in their time but I’m not that person anymore. There’s more of me. I don’t fit in them and probably won’t ever again. Feeling guilty every season when I packed them away because I didn’t lose half my body weight to fit into them; well that’s done. They were beautiful in their time and it’s time for them to make someone else happy for a while.

The sheer sense of relief after donating them and knowing I won’t have to deal with them again was bloody amazing! Not to mention, every item I’ve kept is something I love and wear and it all fits into my closet. I don’t need to switch out summer and winter clothing this year because there’s space for all of it.

Not to mention, her basic suggestions of hanging items from longest to shortest, making a line up from left to right makes me kick myself for not thinking of that sooner.

I had my longer stuff together but colour co-ordination was my first criteria. So it was long to short in the same colour. Putting it by length makes way more sense. I have 2 high rails in my closet but one has a lower rail under it so longer items can’t hang down completely straight. So I moved all the long items to the opposite side of the closet and they can hang uninterrupted. Why didn’t I do that sooner?!

I now have a rail of empty hangers and all that’s left are clothes I wear and love.

My clumpy sweaters that I’d had hanging up are all folded using her Kon-Mari method *there are You-Tube tutorials on that if you’re interested* and my drawers look a hundred times better. I never thought I’d fit all my sweaters and shirts into my limited drawer space and they fit perfectly. My underwear is sorted, socks are folded over instead of rolled to give their energy room to breathe after use and it looks like a new world in my closet.

I’m knackered but really pleased. To move so many stagnant things out of my space has left it feeling new. The dead energy has left.

Next project will be my books. Yep, the same books I lovingly repacked a few days ago. I love books so letting some go might be next to impossible but if I can quarter the volume of clothing in my life, I’m open to tackling my books.

It’s time for dinner and curried butternut soup feels like it needs to happen so night night y’all!