‘Tidying Up with Marie Kondo’ couldn’t have arrived on Netflix at a better time. This is the time when we all have unsustainable New Year resolutions that we toss out of the window due to various excuses. But, Marie Kondo had made one of them so within reach now. Thank you Netflix.
It is weird that I got hyped up by a show about a decluttering guru helping hoarders or normal families cleaning up. But I must admit that when I saw the show popped up on my recommendation on the day it dropped on Netflix, my heart skipped a beat and I just clicked watch without over-thinking. Now, ‘without over-thinking’ is what Marie Kondo’s no fuss decluttering is about.
Marie Kondo’s pet phrase throughout the whole season is ‘Spark Joy’. Basically you keep things that gives you that spark of joy. This means, sentimental items that would not spark joy moving forward have to go to the toss bin. It is a very subjective way of decluttering but there is more to that. Marie Kondo emphasised on categorising things before going through them. The major categories were clothing, books, paper, konomo (miscellaneous items) and sentimental items. For me this is ingenious as the first three categories were common grounds for most people. I personally experienced that when I packed up for renovation last time and vowed that I will not have that many clothes, buy that many books, and go through my paperwork more regularly. However, it is when you actually saw how much stuff people have when you saw them putting them into one big pile that I thought, “Wow, I am not that bad”. In one of the episodes, just a single member of the family had a pile of clothing that went all the way from the bed to the ceiling. This kind of shock immediately put the people in question into perspective. Marie Kondo’s system basically tackle the hardest and the easiest parts right from the start. Hardest in terms of volume, easiest in terms of sentimentality. It was quite inspiring to see that once put into perspective, how people can let go of piles of clothing and books, when they realised that most of them did not ‘spark joy’.
Paper is a category of its own simply because a lot of us were just always behind paper work, like filing bills and stuff. Also paper included a lot of other things such as school reports and drawings from kids etc. The kind of attachment with paperwork was hard to understand but yet every one of us had experienced it. I remember I had a box of paperwork basically were assignments I scored great while I was at the university. I couldn’t put myself to toss it but I knew I need to let go. So eventually when I moved to my current place, I asked a good friend of mine to come over and go through boxes that were transferred from the garage of my old place and told her, if she thinks I don’t need them just toss them, don’t even ask me. It is only through that, that I managed to dispose of a lot of junks that I got myself attached to with no reasons.
Marie Kondo’s approach to decluttering is extremely systematic but at the same time tackles personal attachments and sentiments head on. The whole ‘spark joy’ concept helped every family in the series to understand the difference between ‘keeping stuff’ and ‘holding on to stuff’. Keeping items that spark joy enriches your life – both in the past and in the future, but holding on to stuff just became a chain around your ankle or weights on your shoulders. Some people got there quickly and some needed a sudden epiphany, however everyone in the series got there eventually. It was quite uplifting to see how people’s lives changed just based on some basic principles. Also what I liked about the series is that Marie Kondo didn’t stay there all the time to hold hands. She taught them the methods, and left them for a few days before checking back in on them. In case they needed further advice, she would provide further advice. This kind of approach helped her clients to understand that decluttering is in fact their own responsibilities instead of relying on an expert to give them a quick fix.
For me letting go of stuff is not that hard as I know my weakness and as I mentioned I had employed radical efforts to let go of things. So what I got most out of the series is the way you store things and keep things tidy. Marie Kondo’s approach to daily chores to keeping things tidy was an eye opener for me. From folding different laundries to how to keep shoes and other things in the house, Marie Kondo’s tips were not only pretty in the eyes but also extremely effective. I remember how I got up after watching two episodes, took out everything from my wardrobe and tried her way in folding tops and pants. The end result was I have the tidiest wardrobe I had ever seen in my life and her method opened up so much more space in a limited space immediately. For me that kind of satisfaction kept me coming back to learn more and I think that is a hooking factor for me.
One other aspect that I did appreciate Marie Kondo was her insistence to greet the house. Her rationale behind is to make sure that the house is respected as being part of the family. Some families followed and some didn’t but all understood the point that their house is part of the family, not just a shell they live in. Looking at it from this angle provided them the determination to respect the place they live in and tidy it up properly. I have never thought of it this way but it is a nice sentiment to something that you worked hard to keep.
‘Tidying Up with Marie Kondo’ is addictive. That’s not just because of her personality or her methods, but her unique views about things in our lives and how we handle them (she recommends people to thank the things they had before throwing them away). I am not a very sentimental or emotionally attached kind of person, but even I understood where she came from. That’s how profound Marie Kondo’s approach and personality are. I personally will recommend the show to anyone who, let’s just say, wants to ‘clean up their acts’ :)
