Interesting View on Decluttering

[Denise B]

De-cluttering Your House With Love

KonMari Method of Organizing: Take each item in your hand and ask: "Does this spark joy?" If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it.

After reading this article, I started to wonder - how would the size of my dvd collection change if I tried this?

What do you think?

[Yelly]

Thanks for this! I love this quote: "we should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of" - that is quite the opposite psychology from other organizing techniques. I like how she thinks

[Elzabee5]

I have been working through her book, and it is fabulous. I got rid of more than half my exercise DVD collection using her method. Mostly I got rid of "weird" yoga DVDs I never did, several Leslie Sansones (for some reason I felt compelled to want to like these DVDs, but going through the exercise realised that I absolutely DID NOT), most other cardio DVDs such as TaeBo and previously beloved FIRMs (they get boring and repetitive to me quickly-- but I kept Piloxing! Love that one), and other DVDs that had a "weird" vibe to me (think Pop Physique).

What did I keep? All Classical Stretch/Essentrics, yoga DVDs that I never get sick of (Bethenny Frankel, Ashley Turner, Lisa Richards, Stacy McCarthy's Power Yoga, Rainbeau Mars Yoga for Beauty, for example), some Virtual active DVDs to use with my Bellicon, Ballet fitness/Ballet Beautiful and a few Ellen Barretts.

They all fit nicely into two bamboo DVD cases I have under my TV and one other small, contained box. For many people, it's still quite a few DVDs but I thrive on variety. Now, it makes me happy to look at my collection. I have choice after choice that I love available to me and easy to see, without overwhelm.

It really feels nice to have gone through this process and be left with what I truly love.

I have found that it also makes me much more discerning about what I choose to purchase now- No more bandwagons for me (except for the one(s) I was already on-- ie CS/Essentrics).

[Lucky Star]

I recently bought her book for a friend who requested it, and she's promised to lend it to me shortly. My friend said it's interesting reading.

[BunnyHop]

I got the book based on recs here, and haven't yet read it. I like the basic idea, though, it makes sense to me.

Most of the systems I've heard of seem to be built on rules that don't take my enjoyment of my stuff into account. (Plus, I need leeway on making room for winter coats and such, even though it seldom gets really cold here. When it's COLD, I need some gear, regardless of somebody's rules about what I 'should keep.' Some icy cold day I'm going to need a good winter coat, without any lead time (or dry bridges) to go shopping for a new one, ya know? )

[Elzabee5]

Originally Posted by BunnyHop

(Plus, I need leeway on making room for winter coats and such, even though it seldom gets really cold here. When it's COLD, I need some gear, regardless of somebody's rules about what I 'should keep.' Some icy cold day I'm going to need a good winter coat, without any lead time (or dry bridges) to go shopping for a new one, ya know? )

I found ya gotta take some of her suggestions with a grain of salt Do my toothbrush or my hammer "spark joy"? Not really. But I'll be keeping them, thanks

[athompson10]

Second time in a week I've heard this book mentioned - maybe the universe is telling me something. The colorist at my hair salon was raving about it. She got it from a client, is using its principles and is so happy with how her apartment is shaping up.

[cpcathy]

I've learned to do this with clothes, I look at an item and ask myself if I love it. I can't quite do that with videos yet, I have gotten rid of stuff, but it's been the videos that were fairly easy for me to get rid of. If I can't decide, I keep it.

[lreidgreen]

Originally Posted by Elzabee5

I found ya gotta take some of her suggestions with a grain of salt Do my toothbrush or my hammer "spark joy"? Not really. But I'll be keeping them, thanks

I just came over to GD from the 2015 Decluttering Support and Motivation Thread. And what did I find? A thread about the book I mentioned on our check in. I did make a comment there about having to keep some things that don't spark joy.
Going through stuff, I have been asking myself if I really love the item. If the answer is no AND the item isn't useful or being used, out it goes.
I understand her theory of decluttering all at once instead of a little each day. However it is very hard to dedicate a whole day or days to this task.
I do find a lot of what she says rings true though.

[Eibhinn]

Originally Posted by Elzabee5

I found ya gotta take some of her suggestions with a grain of salt Do my toothbrush or my hammer "spark joy"? Not really. But I'll be keeping them, thanks

I've always found the following William Morris quote below to be useful:
"If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Perhaps sub in "sparks joy" for the beautiful part and it helps make the KonMari philosophy make a bit more sense when it comes to the more pragmatic and utilitarian items in our lives. My winter tires are neither beautiful nor joyful, but I think I'll keep them all the same. It is true, however, that we sometimes are FAR too generous in assigning things usefulness. I need to remind myself that it doesn't refer to potential, future usefulness. A person could drown under a pile of "just in case," "might need it someday," and "you never know" clutter.