Sentimental=joy in my way of thinking.

bpath, I do the same as you do. Take bits and pieces of various philosophies that work. My sock and lingerie drawers are folded the way Kondo suggests. The rest of my drawers for sweaters and tops are not.

I do like to purge. I take everything out, but not all at once as suggested.

I am always surprised to find something I bought at the end of a season that I have not worn.

I have gone down a size and am slowing replacing things. I am happy to give these things to the lovely ladies that clean my home. The items have "sparked joy" for them so win/win.

Oh, sheesh. You described me to a t.

I don't consider myself a hoarder either; I just get exhausted thinking about this huge house full of "stuff" that needs to be discarded - mostly paperwork and old work texts, research articles etc. But I absolutely love coming across things randomly as well. It totally derails me when cleaning out, though, as I then get on that tangent of looking at old pics or whatever.

Both my parents died in my 20's so it's hard for me to let go of things related to them. I treasure books from their college years because they have signed their names in the front. Oh, well.

I read the article, but the generalizations about "white people" were irksome. Equally off-putting was the quote from a writer who referred to Marie Kondo's techniques as "woo-woo nonsense territory." Xenophobia is strong with this one, no?

That said, I'd like to learn more about KonMari. I believe that anything that helps us to visualize a problem in a new light can be positive and energizing (in that new thinking often creates energy with which to tackle an issue). Lately I've been aware of how many bits of flotsam and jetsam I've accumulated throughout my lifetime that I simply will not part with. Cards from my childhood, photographs, wedding invitations, used train tickets ... there's a LOT of stuff that's strung out all over the house. Not in a messy, jumbled way -- but tucked away inside books and desk drawers and in random storage boxes -- and I'd really like to find a way to keep these things all together. I've avoided even starting this, as it seems to require a massive unearthing effort, but maybe if I begin a new storage location and just start moving my treasures there when I find them, I'll establish a trend.

And that's probably not even what KonMari is about, but this discussion started me thinking.

If you love it, it's not clutter! But what you DO with it may not be what it deserves, so be sure you don't treat it like clutter, I guess that's the point. I'm trying to treat my things better.

Years ago when scrapbooking and albums were all the rage, another writer said she doesn't put all her photos in albums (some, but not all). She uses them as bookmarks, or they float around the house. She likes opening a file folder and a random snapshot flutters out, sparking a memory for a moment, and perhaps a nudge to call a friend in the picture. I can totally relate to that!

I think that hits the nail on the head with me. I feel like my treasures aren't receiving the respect they deserve, and that bothers me a good deal.

I read that article this morning and appreciated its cultural perspective. I had very little knowledge about Shintoism, so it was enlightening and caused me to reconsider some of my prejudices over this method.

I had read that opinion piece criticizing the approach concerning books, and though it resonated at the time, seeing the writer's follow up apology was interesting and useful.

I appreciated the article although I parted ways when the author galloped off on the people of color being denigrated line of thought. Clearly Marie Kondo regards objects in a very different philosophical manner than is common in the western developed world. To be honest, seeing her thanking houses by sitting quietly on the floor patting it is out of my own frame of reference. But sparking joy--as I'm de-cluttering it strikes me often that so many of the things I have tucked out of sight, unused and unnoticed, CANNOT be a source of enjoyment to me. If I don't see, use or think about it....it really has no place in my life any more.

It's helping me make some occasionally tough choices. I really don't want to keep all the kids' books. I did keep the books that, when I held them, immediately took me back to lying beside a sleepy child at the end of the day as we read together, a ritual that I treasured in my life as a parent. I didn't keep all the funeral cards from my mother's service that had been in a box in the garage for the entire time we've lived here. But I am keeping the last dress she sewed for me because when I see and hold it I'm connected to her again.

And so on. Thanks for sharing!

I read the book several years ago and found it very helpful. I have always been one who feels good going through and getting rid of things. As with all of these approaches, I think you take what works for you with each one. I did appreciate the spirit of her approach but could not embrace all. I truly don't recall anything about whiteness.

It all makes sense regarding clothing, and I did, in the process of downsizing, go through my possessions and distinguish between the items I really do love and those that were just there. I did give away a LOT, but now in the new home I have my dining room table full of the extra vases, plates, etc that I love but for which presently I have no place...... Photos are also an area where I have a very hard time discarding though I do agree that when I look back at the albums (and I have tons) that not every picture is a good clear remembrance that warrants saving.

De-cluttering and treating your objects with the care they deserve is not petty, so she's right on that being more than just about cleaning. Our environments do carry a spiritual realm and message, whether we acknowledge it or not, we are affected by subliminal things, even such things as light flicker, etc. So managing the "spirit" of a home is quite important. So for that I think her approach is probably more than some Westerners want to think about. As for the criticism, I don't think it is necessarily racial. The author underestimates or downplays how much criticism everyone is getting and dishing out nowdays. It's really the scourge of our time, everyone has something negative to say about everything.

My mom lived in Japan for a year and I have a lot of Japonaise stuff I inherited from her, along with a lifelong interest in the culture. The "right arrangement" of things in Japanese landscape is an important contribution to that field, so why not inside the home? To have more careful consideration of our belongings, well I can see that our consumer disposable culture and economy isn't going to like that . . .

I've watched the show, she hardly gets folks to throw out everything, only come up with systems that help them care for what they have. If you can't do that, you are troubled in some way. How to gain the ability to care for your home as fully as you should, well that's a struggle I am in the midst of. MK doesn't really add or detract to that struggle for me.

It was a great article. I wonder how many in Japan even consider some of those Shinto values nowdays? The idea that your home and yard can be shrines and sanctuaries for higher spiritual beings . . . seems cool to me. I'm not overly literal, I like poetic descriptions.

We learned a bit about Shinto when we visited some shrines in Japan. I thought it was interesting that, as our guide described it, it is not an "exclusive" religion. You can be Shinto and Christian or Muslim or whatever.

I will have to read the article. I did read the book when it first came out. I have not seen the show.

What I like about her approach though, is her ...legitimization (?) of emotions. For example, heretofore, if I were to go through my closet, I might think "I have a lot of white shirts but not many pink ones so I really should keep this one" or "That was really expensive so I should keep it" or "It is brand new so I should keep it."

No matter what logical reasons you have, though, if it doesn't "spark joy", you will not use it or wear it and in fact, you will probably feel unhappy or guilty when you look at it. So you really should get rid of it.

Moreover, this approach recognizes how small things in our lives impact our happiness. You know the concept "microaggressions"? It is like micro-satisfactions and micro-dissatisfactions that Kondo is really getting at. Things you thought were perhaps too small to care about, are in fact things that will greatly impact your daily happiness.

Overlay this with what we know about maximizing happiness, ie "hedonistic adaptation." This is our tendency to get used to big changes, good or bad, and adapt to them as the new "normal". Even if you think buying, say, a $10mn dream house will make you happy, eventually you will stop noticing it. What you may notice is the little things that make up your day to day. Like pretty new hand towels in bathroom. Or a new plant. Or getting rid of grungy hot pads.

If you think about it, it is very good news that, truly, the small things in life give us joy. Material and otherwise.

Ok, I read the article. I think the author makes excellent points. It is "woo woo nonsense" to people who don't understand the Shinto basis for her work. And it perhaps seems harmless to mock someone in such an "unserious" field.

But it *is* a religion. My DH and I joke privately about every religion having its own "funny hats." But I would never write an article saying that,for example, the pope wears a ridiculous hat. That is rude.

It does sound a little jarring to claim it is all about "white people" disrespecting the customs of "non whites". I think this gets to the issue of how we define racism. Many people, myself included, think we are not racist because we are "against racism" by which we mean equal rights and equal opportunity. But racism is much more subtle than that. MLK had a great quote about this. IIRC the gist was that the KKK was openly racist but in the North you had many "supporters" of civil rights who would still go to the mat to keep their schools segregated.

So yes, thinking other cultures are "strange" and being dismissive of them instead of trying to learn from them is a form of racism. It's not Manzanar, but it is something we should be aware of and seek to learn from.

Mtn, yes, it's a mindful approach to our possessions. However, "eventually you will stop noticing your dream home" is fightin' words. I think if the layout isn't good, nice towels won't make it better lol. (Now that you mention it though, I am feeling a need for fingertip towels, where do I find those?) On the other hand, I loooove our house, but I don't think we've made it the home it can be. I have wonderful books, but they are double-stacked on the Amish-made bookcases. Both spark joy, but the combination does not. Hmm, that's a conundrum.

I'm watching an episode of her show right now, she's pretty delightful.

I will say, some of the households on the series, I'm not sure KonMarie is what they need. Only the recently-widowed woman is really a KonMarie candidate, in my opinion, The others, a week of tidying doesn't mean they will change their lifestyle or who they are, For me, that's where FlyLady helps. She says, your home didn't become cluttered in a day, time and a change of mindset work together to declutter it. And keep it that way.