"Spark joy" was actually sort of just made up by the English translator. I do think it's cute but the original was something like "makes your heart flutter", which is a bit stranger.

A side effect of this is it got bad reviews from British people because they're offended by the idea of feeling joy.

Oh boy. Take your upvote and go.

Maybe it would help to store all the pizza boxes vertically in a drawer?

Groan

My maternal grandmother and mom were/are hoarders. I don't fully agree with your "decluttering is a luxury" statement. There's certainly an element of that, because times were lean for them sometimes. I think the hoarding is really a proxy for control, not for direct utility - and sometimes the instinct can go wrong and there's no value at all, or negative value, to the continued accumulation. Everyone, rich or poor, needs space to walk around and space to prepare food or wash dishes. Obviously there's a spectrum of behavior when it comes to these things from "cluttered, but mostly functional" to "need a strategy, dust mask and boots to cross the room". I've seen way too much of the latter to be fully on board with your point.

Here's a great blog about two sisters cleaning up their late father's mess I've found fascinating and helpful in dealing with my familys' situation: https://tetanusburger.blogspot.com/

Having grown up not quite dirt poor when young, I have to fight that "this might be useful later, what if you waste ten bucks by throwing it out???" hoarding tendency myself. It'e one of those "actually, it's okay to spend money sometimes" things that it's hard to move on from.

Part of the idea of decluttering is that it makes you more aware about your possessions and that changes your consumption habit / buying behaviour because you become more attuned / aware of your mindset behind ownerships of things and how you value it. So you tend to think twice (i.e. properly evaluate) before buying something if you know you are going to throw it away it later. In certain cases, you tend to buy something second-hand rather than new (if it is for short-term use only) not just to save money, but to also reduce waste.

It is a shame that Marie Kondo’s website is selling clutter - I haven’t looked myself, but I believe it. It felt inevitable.

From memory, her first famous book did address accumulating possessions quite well. You were supposed to have a location in mind to store everything before you bought it - or even accepting a gift. She also discouraged buying storage boxes - suggesting repurposing instead.

After moving every 1-2 years, many times -- and eventually getting all my belongings down to literally a few boxes, 2 suitcases, and a futon -- it bothered me to own things.

The next apartment I moved into was a dump. I promised myself it was only for a year, and I wasn't even going to buy a dresser for my clothes. I simply used said 2 suitcases, slid under said futon's frame.

A few years later, I was still in the same place, still "living out of a suitcase", still averse to owning things that would make leaving more difficult.

My current place, I go through cycles of acquiring comforts and conveniences, and then culling things I don't really need in the near term, repeat.

Moving is awesome for that reason. You are forced to really reckon with "do I care enough about this to put effort into moving it", and most times the answer will be no. Moving is a pain for other reasons though.

Agreed. I think most people would be a lot happier if they got rid of half their stuff.

Then, next year, get rid of half again. We all keep so much and acquire so much that brings stress not joy.

A friend of mine said something like that. He said something like move three times to solve your clutter problems.

On the other hand, some people keep moving to bigger places...

I know someone whose mother “solves” clutter by giving things to family and friends, which is really outsourcing clutter because now your friends have the clutter problem and emotional blackmail to keep it.

When I met her, she was busy trying to gift something. In that moment I thought of the scene in Labyrinth, after Sarah eats the peach and ends up in the midden heap with the old lady who is telling Sarah to focus on her belongings. She was a lot.

I’m the opposite. I live in the ‘burbs and have quite a bit of space, but would like even more! I really like my stuff. My favorite way to spend vacation time is to putter around my house because all around are things that make me so happy.

If I could wave a magic wand and get more space, I would double my garage space (or build a workshop out back). I’m just getting into woodworking and that can use a lot of space.

I have a drawer where my out of season clothes go. Fall and spring are a little chaotic, but once I admit it’s too cold for short sleeves or it’s consistently warm enough for them, that settles back down. But it was a good excuse to get rid of exercise clothes that fit poorly. And I got rid of enough that I could replace a few pieces with brands that were more comfortable.

> Is there really anything particularly Japanese about these women's methods or is it just Orientalist branding?

I don't think these two are mutually exclusive, something can be authentically Japanese and be branded that way in particular to foreign audiences.

Kondo's "spark joy" method doesn't seem that Japanese though, if anything it seems almost made for Western audiences which isn't suprising given that she's three decades younger than Yamashita but the latter seems to genuinely have Buddhist influences, as she says herself in the article. It's probably also the reason Kondo is more popular.

But there really is a big emphasis on detachment, ephemerality and circularity in Japanese aesthetics, you can go back to writers like Tanizaki (In Praise of Shadows) and I think that comes through in the motivations that Yamashita gives for her method.

edit: and by the way the observation about Newton isn't unfair at all. English is too narrow, but philosophically Newton's deterministic and mechanical laws of motion are the geographical and philosophical product of modern European thinking. They would not have made sense in the world of Aristotle, which is why it took so long!

Japanese clutter is awesome too https://aeon.co/essays/the-life-changing-magic-of-japanese-c....

Assuming you’re addressing the “(no not that one)”, they say that cause Kondo is the famous one in the USA and the nytimes is a US based newspaper

The modern trend and it's connection with the Buddhist teachings of letting go of worldly attachments is mentioned several times in the article. I'd say that's a step beyond the modern decluttering gurus, though they clearly and explicitly share ideological roots.

"Ms. Yamashita first encountered danshari during her university years in Tokyo, when she studied yoga and Buddhist teachings that emphasized letting go of attachments. After graduating [...] she began applying these principles to declutter her own home."

If you haven't read them yet, Marie Kondo's books are definitely worth it.

You have to approach them with an open mind, a willingness to act, and a genuine intention to try what she's talking about.

She really helped me remove a lot of clutter and look at order from a new perspective. I can't thank her enough.

I'm sure there are many other books on the topic, but hers was enough for me.

None, that book would be another piece of clutter.

I am only half joking here, buying more stuff when you want to declutter is a bit contradictory.

Do you really need a book about decluttering? If you really think you do, or if you really love books, then go buy that book, but the idea of "I want to get into X, let's buy something" is, I think, an important source of clutter.

According to the article, Ms. Yamashita is 70 and Ms. Kondo is 40.

Why do newspapers sometimes list the person's age? The front page has a bunch of Trump stories, but none of those list his age. What criteria are they using to decide if age should be included?

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