November 2019: The Life Changing Magic of Tidying, by Marie Kondo
When you put your house in order, you put you affairs and your past in order too- you can clearly see what you need in life and what you don’t.
Order is dependent on personal values (and how we want to live).
Tidy by category.
Tidy all at once.
Make change sudden and profound so you feel like you are in a different world. This affects your mind and gives you an aversion to returning to the clutter. You have a complete change of heart.
Two rules: discarding and deciding where to keep things. Discarding must come first. DO NOT put things away until you have finished discarding.
Know why you are doing this. What do you hope to gain by tidying? WHY do you want to live this way?
Focus is on what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.
Order of tidying: clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous and lastly, sentimental items or keepsakes.
Mirror mirror: if you are cross about someone else’s untidiness, it is probably due to neglect of your own.
Hold the object and see if it sparks joy. This can be almost meditative in that you are conversing with yourself via your possessions.
Every object had a role to play (just like people who have been with us for a reason or a season)- if someone/something has fulfilled it’s role, it’s time to let it go.
Fold things neatly (she explains how-ugh!!) and transmit energy to them.
On books: (and keeping ones you might read ‘one day’)- if you didn’t read it when you bought it, the books purpose is to teach you you didn’t need it.
On seminar notes: put the things into practice when you are there, and immediately when it ends. Attend a course with the resolve to throw away every handout. If you regret throwing it: do the seminar again. When we hang on to notes, it’s the exact reason why we fail to put what we learn into practice.
On gifts: the purpose of a gift is to be received. The present isn’t a thing, but a way of conveying the person’s feelings. So no guilt in throwing it away!
On keepsakes: thank them for the joy they gave you at the time. “When I threw them away, I felt like I was confronting my past of the first time in my life.”
On what you love to do: “the things we really like to do not change over time. Putting your house in order is a great way to discover what they are.” For example: what books do you surround yourself with?
Tiding is a way of taking stock of what we really like.
Why is it hard to give things up? Attachment to the past, or fear of the future?
What we really need: tidying helps to get rid of the need to travel to faraway places and buy more things.
Three approaches to our possessions: face them now, face them sometime or avoid them until we die.
When you finish tidying you will notice no inconvenience. You can expect to have at least three regrets (of things you wish you’d kept) but most people aren’t even worried about that, “It’s not life threatening.”
Esoterics of tidying: possessions want to be of service to you. They are just energy and will come back to you in another form. So say this, “Have a good journey. See you again soon.”
Don’t spend your life tidying like KonMari- instead, pour your time and passion into what brings you the most joy, your mission in life.
