“It’s far more important to adorn your home with the things you love than to keep it so bare it lacks anything that brings you joy.”
Not too long ago, I started my Spring Cleaning. But before that, after reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I made quite a few changes and tidied a lot of my home. The process has honestly taken a lot longer than I thought it would, but it has been rewarding none-the-less. Spark Joy by Marie Kondo came out in January and while it’s taken me some time to read, I think it was my favorite of the two so far. It was much more to the point and down to the real work of tidying.
“The act of discarding things on it’s own will never bring joy to your life.”
The book starts out with a smaller recap of the first, then moves on to more technical details. I don’t want to share any spoilers, because I think this one is definitely worth the read, but this was one of my favorite takeaways. I feel like a lot of naysayers of the original book (especially those who haven’t read it) seem to only emphasize that the book encourages you to throw things out. But I think it needs to be analyzed deeper and that you could even view this as a way to clean the negativity from your life. If something doesn’t spark joy, there’s a big chance that it weighs you down in other ways.
“Having spent most of my life looking at things of every description, including those in my client’s homes, I have discovered three common elements involved in attraction: the actual beauty of the object itself (innate attraction), the amount of love that has been poured into the it (acquired attraction), and the amount of history or significance it has accrued (experiential value).”
Where she goes on to address items that are considered “useless” and how they can still spark joy. People joke that your toilet is useless and doesn’t spark joy, but I’m sure you’d be very sad if it were gone. I love how she broke down the different types of attraction to objects. Some items I want to keep for one reason, while others I keep for a different one.
“During the tidying process, there comes a moment when you realize that you have just the right amount of stuff. I call this the click point. It’s the moment when, after discarding everything but the things you love, you know that you have all you need to feel content.”
I have to admit that I don’t feel like I’m there yet. I want to be, but it’s been a longer process than I realized it would be. If I could sit down and do everything in one fell swoop like she does with her clients, I’m sure it would be different, but I don’t have that kind of time right now so I’ve accepted that it will be a slow process for me. I’m celebrating the small wins and the progress I’m making, although slow, is still progress.
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