Marie Kondo

Over the last couple weeks, I have thrown away two pickup trucks full of junk and garbage. I am working on a third. This post reflects on my recent experience with decluttering and organizing my space, inspired by Marie Kondo's principles.

I used to dread cleaning. These last couple weeks I have actually enjoyed it. This is partially due to meditation-related stuff and having money, but the biggest difference is that I have been paying attention to what I like, and noticing how clutter is the opposite of that.

My parents grew up poor. I was taught that cleaning was about sorting things and organizing them. It was not until I read Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing that I learned that cleaning is mostly about throwing things away. I keep three categories of things:

Things I use.
Things that spark joy.
Emergency supplies.

Things I use

The question "Will I use this?" is binary. The answer is either yes or no. It is not a probability. Heuristics:

"Did I use it in the last year"? If so, then keep it. If not, then throw it away. This heuristic is especially useful for clothes. Exception: "I wanted to use it but did not know where it was", means you can keep it, because you will be able to find it next time after you have decluttered.
"I might use this," indicates you should throw it away.
"I should use this," indicates you should definitely throw it away. You have not used it, which means you are unlikely to use it. Meanwhile, it causes unhappiness because you think you should use it.
"Would I sell this if I could?" If yes, then you do not really want it. Dispose of it.
Spares are complicated. Having lots of spare razor blades around causes me to replace razor blades more often, which is good. But having extra low-quality soap, when I use high-quality soap, is just clutter.

Things that spark joy

If noticing an object make me happy, I keep it. The trick is to disinguish joy from obligation. I used to keep gifts because I felt like I was supposed to. That is actually a sign I should throw them away.

If you are not sure whether something sparks joy, then throw it away. If something sparks a smidgen of joy but you have similar things that spark lots of joy, then get rid of the ones that spark less joy. For example, if you have 5 stuffed animals you love and 5 stuffed animals that you like thank the latter 5 for their service and then throw them away.

Emergency supplies

Medicine. Emergency food. I do not know anyone who has a problem with this category.

If you have money [bonus]

If you have money, then one trick is to replace junk with nice things. If you do not want to buy the nice version, then you should throw the old one away without replacing it. For example, I replaced my ugly plastic measuring cup with a set of pretty metal ones. But I didn't want to replace my dipping bowls with nice ones, so I just threw them away.