Marie Kondo-ing … Yay or Nay?

How Do You Feel About Filing Your Clothes?

“Do you want to go for yum cha?”

“No thanks, I’m Marie Kondo-ing.”

This is the answer of a friend who, not even a week ago, would have walked over hot coals, parted the Red Sea and done three BAS statements back to back for a pork bun. But not any more.

Now, he will forgo his lunch of choice, in spite of his mild hangover that can only be cured by copious amounts of sriracha and dumplings, to fold clothes in a very particular way.

Yes, you read that right. There’s a war raging in households worldwide. And it’s not the age-old who-is-going-to-put-the-clean-clothes away (the battle I lose on the daily). It’s the ‘how’ of the putting away.

But it’s not just tidying (or, in most people’s cases, hiding everything in a wardrobe). Under this decree, a shirt must be folded a certain way, socks folded just so. It’s like a complicated game of origami.

Folding clothes, we’re told, is not about making it compact, but about love. It’s about blessing all that you own, expressing a kind of gratitude.

Meet Marie Kondo

Marie Kondo, author of the best-selling The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up with her own Netflix series, is the woman whose name is now (almost officially) a verb.

Her dream, as reported by The New York Times, is to organise the whole world. As a creative with a filing system that can best be described as ‘a series of overflowing plastic tubs’ and a wardrobe that largely resides between my bed and the floor, her concepts proved to be quite daunting.

via Instagram @tinymissdollyonwheels

In pursuit of happiness

Kondo’s premise is simple: she encourages us to keep things only that spark joy. Anything that doesn’t spark joy, bless it and send it off onto its next life. (My bank statements certainly don’t spark joy but a nagging voice inside – and my accountant – says I should hold onto them regardless.)

This is (sort of) the same theory that self-help guru and Hay House author Louise Hay uses for those who are sick of their job. To bless it and be thankful for it and take care of it until you pass it on to someone who will love it to way you once did.

The crux of it is this: every single thing in your possession / thing in your life must bring you joy. If not, bless it and show it the door.

But whose door?

End of the line

Charity shops are being overrun with the KonMari offcasts as people worldover Marie Kondo their way into 2019. In a recent piece, The New Yorker revealed that second-hand shops are at near bursting point:

“On social media last weekend, visitors to libraries, Goodwill stores, and consignment shops across the country noted a surge in donations that seemed to exceed the usual New Year bump. The moustachioed clerk at Beacon’s Closet said that he hadn’t seen the store so crowded in five years.”

One of the attendants at Beacon’s Closet told them:

Closer to home, charities like the Salvation Army have been completely overwhelmed by donations, the bulk of which they are struggling to onsell and the bulk of which is being abandoned to landfill. According to an ABC report, charity stores are spending $13 million a year on waste management … And those figures were pre KonMari.

Charity spokespeople nationwide are encouraging those in the throes of Marie Kondo-ing to sort their donations mindfully in the hope they will go on to spark joy elsewhere.

“Our simple request for Kondo-inspired declutterers is that instead of saying ‘thank you, next’ they instead find the joy in re-homing the items or recycling them thoughtfully and through the correct channels,” Sustainability Victoria Acting CEO’s Stephanie Ziersch said in a recent statement.

via Instagram @amparo_lasnubes

Don’t want to give you up

Given the recent comeback of cowrie shell necklaces, cargo pants and hair clips, aren’t we better to hold on to some of the things that once sparked so much joy in the hope they may do so again?

So, why not take this whole MariKondi business as an excuse to hold onto whatever it is that brings you joy? A cowrie shell necklace, your bank statements, your friendships. Also: to do whatever it is that brings you joy. Be it folding your clothes with military precision in gratitude for all their hard work, or letting them lie – free and wild – on your bedroom floor.

As Kondo writes in her book: “We should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.”

Pork buns, here we come.

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