the life-changing magic of tidying up

I watched one ep -- to me it kind of sounds like every other "life changing" thing that only changes your life for about two weeks before you start to slide. Also, fuck folding t-shirts into little nugget shapes.

Getting rid of excess stuff is good, but you need to address the in-door and not just the out-door, i.e. how to avoid buying stuff you don't need in the first place. Otherwise you're just performing routine maintenance on your excessively consumeristic life. I find that we often go through that process of "Oh, x thing is ugly and doesn't serve a purpose" but then we wind up buying y thing that we convince ourselves will make our lives better than x thing did, and it doesn't. Same happens with clothing -- getting rid of stuff I wound up not wearing doesn't prevent me from falling for the same add'l 40% off sale items "well it's not exactly the color I want" trap over and over again.

isn't the idea that between the shock-awareness of doing it all at once (and seeing what your life can be like with less clutter), and the various little moves of being aware of each little thing and whether it sparks joy etc., that you're training yourself in a more mindful way of relating to possessions?

not that that precludes any backsliding!

Otherwise you're just performing routine maintenance on your excessively consumeristic life.

what's wrong with routine maintenance?

I think the point was that it would be more lasting and sensible to reject an "excessively consumeristic life" than to merely maintain it in a way that makes it more tolerable.

I think that to do a solid job I would need a dedicated amount of space and a sustained amount of time - neither of which is likely to become available in the near future.

I can nibble around the edges for minor quality-of-life improvements. A few days ago I cleaned out a coat closet. Donated outgrown coats, pitched solo mittens, unsentimentally jettisoned maybe 15 of the 25 scarves we've accumulated (almost all gifts, btw). I have never bought a scarf; I have worn a scarf maybe three times in my life. But I have gotten a scarf for Christmas at least 10 times in 47 years.

I can pretty readily do the same to the "stupid board games with one essential part missing" shelf. (Mostly gifts.) And the art supply bins in which fully half the markers have dried out, or half-abandoned craft projects. (Mostly, you guessed it, gifts.)

Sometimes seems like it's less our own purchasing habits, and more the well-meaning grandparents/aunts/uncles at birthdays and Christmas. We try to direct them away from giving Stuff. But for some folks the idea of a huge pile of gifts under the tree is a marker of love, and I can't always head it off.

Then there are the boxes I'd really like to go through to see what's in them. I don't have space or time to lay things out on a table even long enough to sort into piles (bills to pay, personal memorabilia,concert and movie ticket stubs, work samples, kid artwork, trash, stuff that is OBE, stuff that will never matter again, stuff I will be heartbroken to lose, etc.).

We need the table because that's where we eat. I get halfway through one pile and it's dinnertime again. Where does the stuff go? Back into the box labeled something like "miscellaneous personal save, 1994-2019"

at least change the label to "half-sorted miscellaneous personal, 1994-2019"

I would actually enjoy 'tidying up" peoples spaces. But I would be the opposite of Marie Kondo and probably traumatize people about all the decisions they made in their life.

Yerac, lol. "You paid ACTUAL money to see Limp Bizkit? In two thousand FOUR?"

I would make them tell me about the show first and their favorite lyric.

Otherwise you're just performing routine maintenance on your excessively consumeristic life.

what's wrong with routine maintenance?

― sarahell, Tuesday, January 22, 2019 7:56 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think the point was that it would be more lasting and sensible to reject an "excessively consumeristic life" than to merely maintain it in a way that makes it more tolerable.

― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, January 22, 2019 8:07 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Right, it's this. So many times I feel like we have gotten rid of something we "don't use" only to replace it with something else we convince ourselves will serve the same purpose better, and then we don't use that either or it's equally lacking in longevity. Purging consumer goods can easily become an integral part of consumeristic habits instead of an antidote to them--an essential part of dealing with the inflow of stuff rather than a means to a more minimalist life.

ENDING IS BETTER THAN MENDING

https://static.adweek.com/adweek.com-prod/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ikea-lamp-hed-2017-600x315.jpg

https://www.scifi-movies.com/images/contenu/data/0004210/affiche-brave-new-world-1980-1.jpg

I appreciate that someone wrote this article. I couldn't articulate a lot of this before . I think someone mentioned on the netflix thread about her shinto mindset.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/marie-kondo-white-western-audineces_us_5c47859be4b025aa26bde77c?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000046&utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&ir=Entertainment&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=women_fb&fbclid=IwAR3N6HJMCDeFg9bYOTmG1howmeMOI5WV3KQnPpirnwCGJddHvlM07lpI9nQ

interesting, but it also seems absurd that that joking tweet about books required an apology

Oh, I didn't even see that. My tweet blocking powers are getting stronger and stronger.

also totally makes sense to me because the little once more religious Jewish voice in the back of my head said "that's idol worship" when I was watching it, lol

thx for that article Yerac

I think the point was that it would be more lasting and sensible to reject an "excessively consumeristic life" than to merely maintain it in a way that makes it more tolerable.

― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, January 22, 2019 5:07 PM (yesterday)

this is kinda like my "waiting for the revolution" type anarchist friends that don't see the point of voting or getting involved in any form of activism that doesn't result in overthrowing capitalism, the patriarchy, etc.

lol what? It's nothing like that.

it kind of is because you are going to accumulate things and clutter and stuff you don't need because that is life in America, sorry.

or stuff you want for a while and then don't want -- consumerism is like gravity at this point -- sorry, this is just how I feel and also true

Buying behavior can just as much be altered as hording behavior. Of course no TV show is going to focus on not buying stuff though /trench

imo it's a trickle-down effect, by making you reconsider what you want to keep it makes you reconsider what you've been buying, and what you'll buy in the future

whether you buy it yourself, or receive it as gifts from well-meaning family members, like YMP's, you are gonna end up with a bunch of stuff you end up not wanting ... maybe not as much, but ...yeah, I challenge you to create an anti-clutter force field in yr home to prevent it from getting in.

Oh well for sure it can't be 100% stopped, I understand that well having a 3yo and a 7yo. We have a policy of throwing away all goodie bag junk after they go to sleep for example.

there’s kind of a Say’s law to clutter imo; having a tiny apartment helps. people with houses seem to love filling them up with random crap. my sister has an entire room in her house that’s just ‘storage’ (enormous piles of junk)

I have an anti-clutter forcefield. It was work though.

Plus it helps that my spouse was a techno hippie and he cleans his shit up like an adult.

having a tiny apartment helps. people with houses seem to love filling them up with random crap. my sister has an entire room in her house that’s just ‘storage’ (enormous piles of junk)

yeah!!! i remember when real estate ppl started selling the concept of the "bonus room" -- where the bonus room really was just a room to put piles of junk so the rest of the house could look fashionably tidy. otoh, I know plenty of people who live in small apartments that rent storage units.

Yeah was just talking about that with H -- we are a musician and artist and we always talk about wanting a house to have space for doing music and art. We just visited another musician/artist couple who had moved to a house with extra rooms, but they had managed to fill the extra rooms with crap and still not have space for music and art.

i just recently made more room in my apartment for music stuff -- such that, in theory, i could set up my drums in my living room -- which maybe i will do, however the downstairs neighbors would have an issue with me practicing them

Buy them earplugs

But them in little gift baskets with a note on scented paper saying you’re going to be drumming now

hahahah

everyone hates the drummer neighbour

having a tiny apartment helps. people with houses seem to love filling them up with random crap. my sister has an entire room in her house that’s just ‘storage’ (enormous piles of junk)

a reason why I am not allowed to live in a house with a basement ever again

Our last place had a garage and my husband was mad the new place didn’t - but guess what we never parked the damn car in there we just filled it with junk. Not having a garage means we def have accumulated way less junk in the last 5 yrs than we did in 2-3 yrs in the old place.

I do like doing the dishes tho, its a nice satisfying job that leaves the mind free

One of the big choices I make is whether to do the dishes every day or every other day. I need to judge how long it will take me then choose a musical selection of that duration. If I overshoot or undershoot timewise, I'm annoyed.

doing the dishes is a highlight of my day to be sure

I'm starting to enjoy a good hoovering as well

The importance of house cleaning has been growing for me over time, but it is also a source of stress and frustration because the other members of my household do not give it the same priority.