18 Jan What if you got rid of everything that didn’t spark joy?
Happiness…it can be created and destroyed.
Happiness…some things make it, while some things take it away.
In all our lives there are things that spark happiness and joy…and things that just make us miserable.
What if you set up your life to maximise happiness and the good???
via FastCompany by Stephanie Vozza
I hate clutter. Growing up, my favorite book (and the only one I kept from my childhood) was The Boxcar Children, a story of four orphans who live in an abandoned train car with few belongings. I didn’t realize it until I became an adult, but this book resonated with me because I’ve always had minimalist tendencies. Less is definitely more.
Then stuff happens: Marriage, kids, pets, and, while it’s hard to admit, keeping up with the Joneses. Suddenly, our closets, cabinets, and drawers were bursting with things we never knew we needed.
One of my favorite things to do when I’m bored is de-clutter—it makes me happy to see open spaces and order—so when The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Japanese cleaning guru Marie Kondo came out in 2014, I eagerly grabbed a copy.
THE PROCESS
Kondo’s process, called the “KonMari Method,” has six rules of tidying:
- Commit yourself to tidying up. Know that it will take time and be willing to stick to it.
- Imagine your ideal lifestyle, including the kind of house you want to live in and how you want to live in it. You can write down this description or collect photos.
- Finish discarding first. Instead of running out to the Container Store and buying storage bins, plan where to store your items once you’ve decided what to keep.
- Tidy by category, not location. Gathering all like items in the house, such as books or shoes, helps you make better decisions because you know what you have.
- Follow the right order. Kondo has a category-sorting plan that you must follow, because it helps you gradually hone your ability to identify what sparks joy.
- Ask yourself if it sparks joy. Hold every one of your possessions in your hands and ask, “Does this spark joy?” If it does, you keep it.
Tuning into your joy meter can take time and practice. Do socks really spark joy? They indeed do when you consider their job of protecting your feet. If an item doesn’t spark joy, you thank it for its service and dispose of it. I admit this is kind of out there, especially for items like paper clips, but I went with it.
GETTING STARTED
The first category is clothing, which was easy for me because I’m not into fashion. Still, I surprised myself by the number of things I was able to remove from my wardrobe. I brought two dozen items to the consignment store and donated five full bags to Salvation Army. I was able to reconfigure my closet and create space to hang a piece of artwork that has been in my basement for years just waiting for the right spot…
…keep reading the full & original article HERE