If you are someone with a house to be proud of and a subscription to Netflix, then it is probably safe to assume that you are currently worshipping at the altar of Marie Kondo! The decluttering guru has become a worldwide sensation thanks to her ‘does it spark joy’ approach, but I think there is a lot more that we can learn from Marie other than what to throw out and what to keep! Here are some life lessons to learn from Marie Kondo.
It’s actually okay to have a big bunch of stuff that you call your own, so long as it is a bunch of stuff that genuinely sparks joy inside you! Marie’s philosophy isn’t that everyone should be minimalist; it is simply that everyone should only keep the possessions that really make them happy and not just ‘meh’.
When you have a home and property that is officially yours, you are much more likely to feel comfortable with filling it up with lots of crap! The thought of having to find a new place every year or so keeps you on your toes, as does the thought of needing to get that deposit back from a landlord!
Okay, so this one might be a little tongue in cheek, but you can’t say there isn’t some truth to it! There is no doubting that children come along and temporarily ruin any hope you might have had of keeping a tight and tidy household. I guess that’s just a choice that you are going to have to make one day!
You can declutter your home, but it takes a lot more effort and work to declutter your mind too. Tidying your environment is just the first stage in a much bigger recovery process, so don’t expect throwing away a couple of items to cure your mental health issues.
Here’s the thing, if we all took exceptional care of our belongings, we wouldn’t have to keep replacing them all the time and adding the almost irreversible state of the world's production and environmental problems. Be more mindful of making your possessions last.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help when any problem you have has gotten bigger than you can handle! Decluttering your home is just one example of this. Marie Kondo has helped millions, so why wouldn’t you seek the same sort of help in all and any other areas of life?
At the end of the day, whether they spark joy or not, possessions really are just possessions, and they shouldn’t be the most important thing in your life. Your emotional and physical connections to other living people should be more important than any kind of attachment to an object.