Is Tidiness a Virtue?

  Marie Kondo is at it again.
  Do you know who she is? She wrote the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. She has a new series on Netflix called Tidying Up.

  But why is the world is an organizational expert such big news?

  Because she’s making a promise to transform your life.
  And a lot of people have an opinion about that.

  It turns out that cleaning your closet is actually more complicated than I realized.

  Some writers point out that clutter is a symbol of procrastination. All those belts and shoes that you haven’t worn for two years represents a series of unmade decisions. Should you get rid of them? Sell them? Save them because you spent a lot of money on them? We’ve all been there.
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  Our disorganized closets may be a symptom. When I go on walks, it’s obvious that not everyone puts there cars in the garage. According to this article, 75% of us can’t fit our cars in because we have too much stuff. Could the relentless need to keep buying stuff be a symptom of how people deal with the frustrations in their life. An attempt to ease the pain…when ultimately you’re only adding to the chaos?

  Some authors point out that  our disarray is keeping us from being happy.  Others disagree.

  In “Marie Kondo and the Privilege of Clutter”, the author says, “Kondo is unfailingly earnest in her assertion that the first step to having a joyful life is through mindful consideration of your possessions.” She and points out that for immigrants and refugees, holding on to things is a response to their earlier losses of material possessions. A recovery process.
  Disposing of things caused her mom to be sad and anxious, it wasn’t a release from materialism for her.
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  Greenpeace says stuff should not equal happiness in the first place. They want you to look at the piles of your possessions and recognize the time, energy and environmental impact those items have. “Today’s trends are tomorrow’s trash” they declare.

  And speaking of trash…

  Nicole Bennet's article  said “Worst of all, the Kon Mari method preserved the myth of an ‘away’, the fiction that once objects are discarded, they effectively disappear.” Things don't disappear simply because they got carted away by the trash truck. See my blog…Shop till you Drop.

  Mari Kondo wants us to ask ourselves, “Does this object spark joy?”.
  We need to ask ourselves that question before we make a purchase.
  We also need we ask: how long is that likely to make me happy...a day, a year?

  Having a joyful life has to start with an introspective look at our goals and our philosophies for life. And then, maybe… cleaning our closet.