Thursday, March 17, 2016

Life changed. Maybe.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up:
The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing 

by
Spoiler alert!

After reading and enjoying this and not laughing too loud at the occasional outcropping of mysticism, I went out to see what other people had thought.  Immediately I turned up this:

You hold an item, look deep into your heart, and make a decision based on the level of joy it inspires. By that criterion, I’d only keep my wine, my vibrator and my family (and some days, by “family,” I really mean “the family dog.”)  --http://www.foxywinepocket.com/

I recommend this article http://www.scarymommy.com/club-mid/my-marriage-survived-the-konmari-method-of-tidying/ and this one http://www.scarymommy.com/club-mid/5-cons-of-the-konmari-method/ as both accolades for and warnings against the method.  My only argument with the latter article is that it doesn't recognize the inherent contradiction in the KonMari method: the method says that you should apply the 'spark joy' criterion to individual articles, not collections   But that's not possible for all kinds of collections--clothes, sure, but photos? The reviewer's collection of photos brings her great pleasure, both for the memories and for the surprise of rediscovering the forgotten. 

I went through the photo sorting exercise many years ago, placed only the ones I loved in albums, and discarded the rest. Every individual photo may not bring me joy, but the entire collection does.

But I will say this--after reading the book, I headed immediately to my clothes collection and started work. (I had to stop a half-hour later to go buy food, but that's not the point.)

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