We’re getting ready to move, so we’ve been doing some serious decluttering lately. I’m not doing the complete Konmari method because I did that the last time we moved, and it’s not really necessary to do it again. But I had fallen into bad habits regarding what I call “object churn,” or the way that an approximately equal number of items need to leave your home when you purchase new ones. I don’t adhere to a strict “one in, one out” policy, but I hadn’t done a good job of keeping up with outgo, especially during the pandemic, so I did have more to weed through than usual. (We also have an inordinate amount of storage in our current apartment which allows a lot of “out of sight, out of mind” clutter to build up.)
I’m basically trying to say that, um, life happened, and a lot more stuff got crammed into our closets and cabinets than would typically be the case. So now we have to deal with it -- preferably quickly, before the moving van shows up.
I like (and recommend) the Konmari method, but I think many people misunderstand it. For instance, Marie Kondo never said to get rid of all of your books. If having 1000 books sparks joy, you can keep them. You will probably have to give up other things that aren’t important to you to make room for all of the books, but you won’t miss those things. That’s the beauty of intentionally choosing the objects in your home environment.
The Konmari method doesn’t leave you in a sterile, objectless home -- unless that’s really your jam. Then, you know, give your home a spaceship makeover. Whatever, babe. You do you.
I can’t remember which Marie Kondo book it’s in, but she has a story about how she got rid of her hammer because it didn’t exactly spark joy, then later found herself unsuccessfully trying to drive a nail into the wall with a shoe. She gave it some thought and realized that useful things have a sort of joy all their own. An item doesn’t have to have the most pleasing aesthetic or stir a soul-deep welling up of delight to have a place in your home. But the stuff that is neither useful nor joyful needs to go.
Once you get going, that makes the whole procedure fairly easy. The good stuff becomes obvious, and the rest practically sorts itself into “donate” or “trash” piles. The real trick is to train yourself not to bring home the useless stuff in the first place and to make sure you have a system to deal with the things you inevitably no longer need as time passes. There will always be some level of “object churn” in your environment, so you have to have some way to manage it.
I’m not sentimental and a bit of a control freak, so this stuff probably comes more naturally to me than to a lot of folks. But even I struggle. It’s just too easy to accumulate more than you need, and it takes effort to maintain a good balance.
It’s a lot easier to do a little bit every month than to pack two years of decluttering into a few weeks. I’m vowing to be more vigilant in the future. Wish me luck!
You are most welcome 😊
It's so much hard work, but it will all be worth it <3
You so deserve happiness and a new chapter in this thing we call life.