
Marie Kondo and the Ruthless War on Stuff - dnetesn
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/magazine/marie-kondo-and-the-ruthless-war-on-stuff.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0
======
yoo1I
> which means piling five categories of material possessions

Life is a series of boxes. Be it Scrum or Marie-Kondo-ing or dieting or GTD or
cleaning your house.

If you feel you're not in relaxed control of your life, produce a handful (and
not more) "boxes" (metaphorical or real) that have sufficiently sharply
defined edges, and sort your things into them. If the boxes become large,
subdivide, but keep the edges sharp.

Revisit your boxes on regular intervals.

That way you don't have to think about things that you don't need to think
about right now and have enough space to tend to the things which don't yet or
maybe don't at all fit in boxes.

You're welcome, I would like to have my book-deal now.

~~~
jcslzr
ok how would you handle information? I mean like work, entertainment, etc

~~~
chadk
I would recommend an Information Diet.

If you would permit me, here is my experience with the book

[https://chadkohalyk.com/2012/09/04/the-information-
diet/](https://chadkohalyk.com/2012/09/04/the-information-diet/)

and the results:

[https://chadkohalyk.com/2012/09/30/breaking-
fast/](https://chadkohalyk.com/2012/09/30/breaking-fast/)

(I am not to be self-promotiony or anything... the conservation of attention,
time and _things_ are just topics that I spend a lot of time thinking and
writing about. I am not trying to sell a book or anything. I don't even have
ads on my site. Just trying to be helpful)

~~~
pavs
BTW interesting blog. Added to my rss.

~~~
chadk
Thank you!

------
fake-name
I find these type of articles fascinating, generally because they advocate a
livestyle I literally cannot live.

I do a mixture of hardware and software engineering. I have _tons_ of stuff,
generally because I _need_ tons of specialized tools.

I frankly can't even comprehend, on a personal level, not having lots stuff,
because it's crucial to my job and my hobbies (which are very similar to my
work).

I have widgets or special tools I haven't used in years, that I keep because
they, in many cases, would be so expensive or challenging to replace that it
would be infeasible, and if I need it, there is no possible alternative.

It'd be fascinating to try to see what approach one of these pseudo-spiritual
organizational types takes when confronted by someone who has pursuits that
actually have real-world dependencies.

~~~
Sukotto
You might get more value from the "life simplification" method Bruce Sterling
described in this keynote speech from a few years ago. (Starting at approx 32
min) [http://video.reboot.dk/video/486788/bruce-sterling-
reboot-11](http://video.reboot.dk/video/486788/bruce-sterling-reboot-11)

== Starting comments ==

\- Pay most attention to your _common everyday objects_. That is, anything
that takes up your immediate space: on your body; in the room with you. Also
those things that take a lot of your time

\- Buy the best possible _common everyday objects_ you can. Most importantly:

\-- your bed: you spend a third of your life in it. Consider the per-hour cost

\-- your chair: stop whining about your wrists and back hurting and buy a
really good chair. Again consider the per-hour cost

\- Ditch anything you haven't used in the last 12 months. eg: wedding china,
tuxedo, everything in your storage locker

\- Only buy real things you really use

\---------

== How to get rid of stuff ==

First, note that getting rid of stuff is HARD (but doable). Do NOT start on
impulse. Think hard about it and make sure you're morally prepared. Then...
for each item in your life ask the following questions:

Q1) Is it _beautiful_?

Test: You have it on display. You share its beauty with the people in your
life.

If yes then keep it, otherwise...

Q2) Is it _emotionally important_?

Test: It has a narrative. You share its story with other people.

If yes then keep it, otherwise...

Q3a) Is it a _useful_ tool, piece of equipment, or appliance?

Test: It efficiently performs some useful function. It actually works. It is
the best possible tool. (Do not put up with broken or shoddy stuff)

Bruce's side comment: There's nothing more materialistic than doing the same
job 5 times because your tools are inferior.

Q3b) Are you _experimenting_ on it?

Test: You methodically work on it and you publish your results.

Bruce's side comment: Beware brand-new time-sucking beta-rollout crap.

If yes to either then keep it, otherwise...

-> 4) It is _unworthy_ of taking your space or time. Virtualize it (take its picture; record the barcode; record any anecdotes about it) then get RID of it. If you ever need it again, get another one from eBay.

\---------

(recycled from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1767990](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1767990)
)

~~~
mattkrause
The formalwear thing strikes me as an interesting edge case.

I do not wear a suit regularly. I work in a lab and dressing up would be
physically impractical (they would get destroyed) and culturally odd. Despite
that, there are a few occasions where I absolutely need a suit and nothing
else will do. Sometimes this even happens at short notice (e.g., for a
funeral).

How does this fit into your four-part test? Q3a?

------
imjk
I'm reluctant to admit it, but I did find this book really helpful. I'm
generally a person that doesn't get sentimental about possessions and had
already been doing regularly purge cleaning sessions pretty frequently, and I
was still able to part with several large garbage bags full of stuff after
reading her book.

~~~
danso
Could you describe what kind of epiphanies the book gave you?

~~~
nibnib
A lot of the book is advice and rules about efficiency. Simple things like
cleaning items by category, instead of by room (i.e. get rid of your excess
clothes instead of just planning to clean a bedroom). There is no mindblowing
epiphany, just stuff that works well.

I think the stigma to this kind of thing is misplaced, the book is about
taking a slightly more formal approach to something we don't normally think
about it. The tech crowd backlash is silly, I think if this was linked to
something like 5S organization then the reaction would be different.

------
mc32
I love the idea of keeping things tidy and disposing things that simply take
up space and will never be used nor offer any other utility --because I wish I
could be more disciplined (not that I'm a packrat by any stretch).

That said, many people in Japan _have to_ keep things to some kind of minimum
due to inherent space constraints, given the size of dwellings 1 or 2DKs. Many
people simply have no choice.

In places like the U.S. or AU, one can get away with having too many things
because most people inhabit places bigger than they need.

Funny thing is, I hear people who make a good living saying, if I have not
used something in x-time, I throw it out or donate it, as a sort of signaling.

~~~
chadk
We moved to Canada from Japan about 5 years ago. We only started downsizing 2
years ago, and now we have way less stuff than we ever did in Japan.

See my old apartment here: [https://chadkohalyk.com/2016/01/22/our-japanese-
mansion/](https://chadkohalyk.com/2016/01/22/our-japanese-mansion/)

I wish we here in North America planned our spaces much better.

Downsizing is not just about space. It is about lessening stress, having a
smaller environmental impact, increasing financial freedom, and many other
things.

I recommend it.

~~~
eitally
We just moved from a 4300sqft house on the east coast to a 1700sqft house on
the west coast, and I've been mentally berating myself for ever believing I
needed such a giant place. We had 3 different offices spaces, a big "bonus"
room, a mud room, and sun room, and three porches, not to mention a 300sqft
kitchen. ... Well, I do miss the large kitchen and 10' ceilings, but that's
about it.

------
ralusek
Shameless plug but we just developed an application with Marie Kondo, check it
out on iOS app store (KonMari is the app). It's an interesting mix of a social
network as well as a personal checklist for decluttering your life.

You are presented checklists which mirror what she has in the book, and then
can work your way through them. You can associate Before/After photos with
each checklist, and your followers are able to see your progress. Pretty cool
idea.

------
kelukelugames
I read her book and believe it is life changing. Clutter stresses me and I
never realized it. The only advice is your partner needs to read the book at
the same time otherwise there will be fights when one starts to throw out
stuff. After my girlfriend finished reading the book, we threw out 30+ bags
from a 1,200 sq ft condo. We weren't even pack rats. Now I can walk into my
walk in closet. Feels good.

Here is a link to the book. [http://amzn.to/1Ugg8wn](http://amzn.to/1Ugg8wn)

------
frostburg
I could do this - I don't need much more than a laptop, pen, paper and a
cellphone to work, albeit not ideally - but I have 10.000-plus books, I don't
think there is a fix for that (relying on public libraries isn't logistically
feasible). Yes, the idea of moving is very worrisome.

~~~
tim333
I used to buy a load of physical books but my useage has mostly been replaced
by ebooks and similar electronic sources. The paper books are still around but
not used so much.

~~~
mcphage
That works really well for fiction, but with art books you're generally going
to be stuck with low resolution, looking at a tiny screen.

~~~
frostburg
Yes, exactly. Sometimes access to high resolution scans of the material is
included with purchase (I recall the Taschen books on the history of typefaces
and the Modernist Cuisine set offering some form of this), but not nearly
often enough. A lot of books are also simply unavailable as ebooks (like
Bertin's Semiology of Graphics).

------
dkarapetyan
Why is it that people are constantly looking for prophets and the one true way
to live their lives?

------
mhd
The whole KonMari system always sounded rather animistic to me. Shinto
connection?

~~~
chadk
Early in our relationship, I was a little surprised when my wife held a pair
of old socks up to her face, within pressed palms, and whispered
「ありがとうございます」before throwing them in the trash.

This is YEARS before KonMari.

So, I think you might have something to your observations. ;-)

~~~
chadk
Sorry, I forgot to mention the concept: 物の哀れ
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_no_aware](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_no_aware)

Oh, and as an addendum... neither I, nor my wife, have even read any of
KonMari's books. We are more influenced by minimalism and the Japanese
concepts of "mottainai" etc.

~~~
chadk
For the interested, I finally wrote up a description of one of the core
concepts we use in figuring out our homebrew methodology of
downsizing/minimalism:

[https://chadkohalyk.com/2016/07/19/danshari-thinking-
about-s...](https://chadkohalyk.com/2016/07/19/danshari-thinking-about-stuff/)

------
Kurimo
C'mon really...? People need to be told it's nice to not have a house laden
with junk? That's worth Trademarking a name?

Guess lots of folks were never told to clean up their crap growing up. What's
next? A book deal for some weirdo who starts a movement about using bidets to
get a really clean butthole to "center your rectal chi"?

The nonsense people will subscribe to in order to pursue a quick fix for the
struggles of being an adult never ceases to stupefy me. No matter how
organized you get, the reality: life == hard, never goes away. Accepting the
challenge with dignity is much better than giving all your money to trendy
cult-figures like this one.

Oh and: clean up your crap!

~~~
j_lev
Absolutely. The biggest criticism of KonMari from Japanese is "no duh." Even
the techniques for things like folding and arranging clothing so you can see
everything at a glance are common knowledge among Japanese. Baffling.

~~~
nsxwolf
The amount of work required to fold and put away laundry is absolutely insane.
Especially in a household of 5. It's more efficient to just stuff everything
into any drawer that has space, and rifle through all your drawers and closets
when you want to get dressed.

~~~
slavik81
My life goal was to keep both clean and dirty clothes in baskets. Take from
the clean basket, wear, put in dirty basket. Run dirty basket through wash.
Dump cleaned clothes in clean basket. No more time spent folding, organizing
or even putting stuff away.

My girlfriend was not a fan of the system when I described it. Alas, I still
need to fold laundry.

~~~
mlashcorp
There has to be a better way ...

