Another reason I really like Marie Kondo is that in other cleaning shows the host will looked shocked at the mess and the camera will flash to different piles with dramatic music stings. When Marie sees a draw filled with clutter she smiles from ear to ear and goes “I love mess, I love tidying”. Its just so wholesome and you can see the clients are relieved that she didn’t have a bad reaction.
The bit that stayed with me was the guy who had a sippy cup from his grandmother. His wife complained about it, because yeah, it’s a little weird to be a grown, able-bodied person with a sippy-cup. But Marie Kondo didn’t even blink about it. She asked if it sparked joy, he said yes. She asked if he ever did drink out of it like he planned to, he said no. And without missing a beat, she was like, “Ok, so let’s not keep that in the kitchen, let’s find somewhere else to keep that for you to see it and spark joy, but where it isn’t in the way of other things.”
I love that. I love that there is no “if you don’t use it” or “if it’s old and broken” criteria for throwing things out, not really. It’s about if it makes you happy to have and if you want to carry it into your future.If you can’t afford or access any of Marie Kondo’s official works I heavily recommend this hour talk Marie Kondo did that covered her philosphies.
The most important thing Marie Kondo’s work has taught me is to trust myself and what I want. Before reading her book or watching her show I found it INCREDIBLY difficult to trust my own instincts or understand what I truly wanted from myself because I was so worried about what others thought or outside factors.
But going through and honing my “Spark Joy” ability through organising my stuff really taught me how to identify my own feelings of what I wanted and to take ownership of my own actions. At my core I am a very sentimental and emotional person who wants to puts everyone else’s needs ahead of mine and that extends to objects. She emphasizes knowing what you truly need in life, and being able to approach even the most essential items with love and care and gratitude.
I’m still an incredibly sentimental and emotional person, but knowing what truly sparks joy to me has made it a lot easier to let go of situations and items I might have held onto and really changed how I approached everything in my life. Marie Kondo’s work has taught me to center myself and my needs in a way that valued the emotionality of an otherwise rational and cold logic topic like organisation.
My life is a mess and I’ll probably never be tidy, but the fact that my life isn’t weighed down by feelings of obligation and self sacrifice that it was before has meant so much to me.
(via dollsahoy)
