LIVING|LIFE SKILLS
M
y husband and I were
drow n ing – in st uf f. We
lived our life out of
piles. Every item –
records, books, snow
globes, old receipts –
packed into our f lat. We just love things;
what we don’t do is get rid of them. Even
an old tin of baked beans can spark a
conversation in our house.
I don’t like the word hoarder –
collector sounds more refined. But it had
got too much. That stuff supposedly
making me happy was actually fuelling
my anxiety. It took me an hour just to
leave the house each morning. Where
were my keys? My purse? That jumper
that I really wanted to wear may as well
have been sucked into a vortex. I was
late for meetings, exercise classes, work.
I couldn’t find anything.
So, I bought that book that’s been
turned into the Netf lix series; lured in
with the promise of life-changing magic.
Of course, I didn’t believe that Japanese
tidying guru Marie Kondo would
actually change my life.
“Start by discarding, all at once,”
writes Marie. Don’t edit room by room,
but by category – of which there are five- starting with clothes. We did as she
said. We emptied our clothes into piles
in the middle of the room, holding up
each item one at a time to see if it
‘sparked joy’. It’s not enough to merely
look at the item, says Marie, and you
have to do all the discarding before you
sort and tidy what’s left. The tidying is
crucial; it means finding a place for each
and every thing you keep. Everything in
your home must also have a home.
That first weekend, more than 15 bin
bags filled our hallway, ready to be taken
to charity shop or tip; many were full of
clothes and shoes I didn’t realise I still
owned, and hadn’t worn in a decade.
Over the course of the following six
weekends, we sorted by category. Books,
papers, ‘komono’ (miscellaneous) –
basically everything: kitchenware,
furniture, towels – and, lastly, anything
that holds sentimental value. Everything
felt sentimental – even those old Nokia
phone chargers, and the dolls’ heads I’ve
been saving to turn into lampshades.
It was a more difficult and emotional
process than I thought it would ever be.
Being confronted by mountainous piles
of your own things makes you feel sick.
The purging of all these items, though,
was like a release and wake-up call all at
once. Why had we been living like this?
We argued, too. At one point, I hurled an
old pack of noodles at my husband’s headwhen he said he wanted to keep them.
How can something that went out of
date in 2012 possibly bring him joy?
Some of Marie’s advice I left by the
wayside – especially when it came to
books. “If you haven’t read it by now,”
writes Marie, “the book’s purpose was to
teach you that you didn’t need it.”
Chucking out books isn’t exactly aligned
with my childhood dream of having a
library. Where’s the aspiration? One day
I might read Ulysses. Plus, I finally got to
organise my book shelves by colour.
However, the thing that really hit
home for me was Marie’s insistence that
you must unpack your handbag every
single day, because each of the items
within your bag needs to be put away.
Six weeks ago, when I opened Marie’s
book, I was sceptical, naïve to its power.
Because, as much as I ignored some of its
advice, the truth is it has changed my
life. I now have a sense of freedom and
tranquillity. I’m more punctual than I’ve
ever been, with no maze of piles to
negotiate on my way out. Mostly, I
simply enjoy actually being able to see
my f loor. Now I am no longer drowning
in it, my stuff has started to shine again.
The pieces I have kept now have their
own home within my home. And that
brings me endless amounts of joy.THROWING STUFF OUT
INTERESTED BUT SCEPTICAL OF THE MARIE KONDO METHOD OF
MAGICAL TIDYING UP, ALICE SNAPE DECIDES TO GIVE IT A GO.DID IT SPARK JOY? READ ON...