Before I tell you about the latest ideas to shake the world of decluttering, let’s pause to contemplate, in horror, the fact that there even is a “world of decluttering”. The greatest trick consumer capitalism ever played was to convince us that buying stuff would make us happy – and then, when it didn’t, that we should buy books on getting rid of it, or storage units to keep it in, so we’d have space for new stuff to replace it. This is a strange situation, so it’s unsurprising that decluttering advice also gets pretty strange. That certainly describes Marie Kondo’s recent book, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying. Put it this way: Kondo thinks you should treat your socks like tiny people, and that when they’re in your sock drawer, they’re “essentially on holiday”.
Let me explain. Kondo is a Tokyo-based “cleaning consultant” whose book caused a splash – quickly wiped up, I’m sure – when it reached the UK in spring; now it’s been published in the US. She’s clearly obsessed – she tells of racing home excitedly, as a girl, to clean her room – and the result is a mixture of excellent and dubious advice. I can’t get behind her idea of taking each item you own, asking, “Does this spark joy?” then discarding it if it doesn’t. (The first thing I saw when I looked up just now was a joyless box of paperclips. I need them, though!) But among her wise suggestions is tidying by category rather than location: not the bedroom, then the living room, but clothes, then books, etcetera.
Easily the most striking part, though, is her insistence that your belongings have feelings, and deserve to be treated like living things. You get the sense that Kondo is never home alone: her world is full of clothes that are happiest when well-folded, and cutlery that enjoys helping her eat. She’s famous for her method of folding clothes so they stand on end (see more at bit.ly/1zruyeB), partly because she thinks stacking’s unfair on those at the bottom. You should designate a place for each possession, because “have you ever thought what it would be like to have no fixed address?” Caring for objects in this fashion “is the best way to motivate them to support you”. Sure, discard things – but say a proper goodbye first.
Yes, this is absurd. Yet if it’s magical thinking, isn’t it only the same magical thinking that permeates the economy? Countless ads encourage us to see objects and brands as things that might fulfil us in the way relationships with humans can. We scoff at traditional peoples for thinking trees had souls – then yell at the GPS, or tell Siri to schedule a meeting. Hoarding, it’s been argued, can be an attempt to find security in stuff when people can’t find it in other humans. Maybe we should all snap out of treating objects like people. But until then, wouldn’t it be better to do it respectfully, Kondo-style, rather than lusting after things, then kicking them out the moment they fail to thrill? (A person who behaved like that towards other people would be a slimeball.) That’s what I think, anyway. And having consulted them, I’m pleased to report that my socks agree.
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oliver.burkeman@theguardian.com
