The KonMari method

[TopHatFox]

We're *not* minimalists. We're preppers/pseudo-homesteaders, so I aim for "Is this a part of the plan or vital to the functioning of team jennypenny?" Some things are cumbersome but necessary for accomplishing what we want to accomplish, like gardening supplies, sports equipment, supplies for my altoids tins, etc. Other things are part of our prep plan, so as long as they clearly check a box on that plan, I find a place for them. My plan is specific though--so many months of food, which kinds, a list of tools and dups, a list of supplies and how much of each I want--you get the idea. If I want three months of stored water and five years of water purifying ability, then I have to find a place for the bottles and the berkey supplies. I don't fret as long as the plan is clear. Where I struggle is with the 'just in case' stuff. I keep old blankets and bedding in case we ended up with a house full of family in a Sandy-type emergency. Same with old clothes that are functional (like coats and shoes).

None of my preps 'spark joy' but they definitely give me peace of mind. I can't imagine what Kondo would say about it though. Does a gas mask spark joy? Extra magazines? A hazmat suit??

you’d really like fallout 4’s community building aspect. It’s like the Sims...but after a nuclear holocaust.

[Kriegsspiel]

I've thought of jennypenny as one of the female characters from Fallout ever since she used to have an old-timey housewife as her avatar.

[BRUTE]

you’d really like fallout 4’s community building aspect. It’s like the Sims...but after a nuclear holocaust.

too bad they never made a sequel after Fallout 2

[vexed87]

too bad they never made a sequel after Fallout 2

Burn!

[jennypenny]

I'll have to try Fallout (although right now I'm a fangirling for Astrid from BFV).

[Scott 2]

This article highlights the threads of Japanese religion / culture in Konmari:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ma ... aa26bde77c

I found it interesting. Seen as a re-packing of religion, it makes more sense how the method resonated so well in Japan AND exported to the west. She's building on a time tested ideology. The hooks to keep people engaged and coming back are proven over generations.

[vexed87]

I just spent 2 days in bed with a sickness bug and was sufficiently half-dead enough endure the first episode on netflix. Once I had it in me to put down the vomit bucket, I spent approx 60 minutes piling everything up and folding socks, boxer shorts, trousers, wool jumpers and bed linen, my initial burst of enthusiasm was totally depleted when I was done with my own clothing. As I moved on to DDs overflowing chest of drawers I gave up, maybe I'll just get around to that divorce-in-the-making when next years sickness bug is over with.

I liked the folding technique, it has changed the way I store my trousers and jumpers, everything is now nicely compartmentalised in the drawers, I made use of a few shallow cardboard boxes to separate miscellaneous items, that usually get lost under half folded underwear, or piled up on top of each other. The system is great for easy access and it means I'm not constantly refolding unused clean stuff as I pull other items out. I may have extracted 0.5 of a garbage bag worth of overly worn items for landfill. Like the rest of you, I didn't get much of anything from the sparking joy aspect, but I have pulled the plug on a couple of arguably too-young-for-me shirts I deliberated on donating in the past. They will be going to charity, not landfill. I won't be replacing them.

[7Wannabe5]

The popularity of the show is also likely to prove profitable for resale dealers One man's trash is another man's sparked joy...

[jacob]

Not just likely. Verified according to various reports. While thrift stores always take in a lot in January thanks to various new year's resolutions, noticeably more stuff has been donated this year. Magpies are circling.

https://www.google.com/search?q=thrift+ ... ms&tbm=nws

[7Wannabe5]

Yup. Declutter and reclutter will soon be like the lose weight and gain weight cycle. Smart operators will be working both sides of the stream.

[FBeyer]

... Like the rest of you, I didn't get much of anything from the sparking joy aspect...

Speak for yourself! Diving head-first into a binge of true appreciation for the stuff I have/keep and contemplation for the shit I used to own/donated was quite an eye opener for me. Probably because it synched up to incredibly well with the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Theory program I was following at the time.

KonMari, weird or not, showed how to begin seeing straight.

I've spent a lifetime inside my head, forcefully drowning my emotions in rationale. Stacking carrots or not, I discovered that there was another way to make decisions, and that way is not as herp-derp as the self-important intellectuals wants it to be.

[chenda]

She has been very influential in the minimalist community, all the you tubers pay homage to her. This is probably where her influence is stronger.

[jacob]

An alternative method to "does X spark joy" that might work better in "STEM-mode" might be: "Would I rather have X or $1?"

I've thought about the right question for a bit but I am having trouble to find a good question that completely disengages one's inner hawker, deal maker, etc. For example, "would I sell this $1?". If X is otherwise worth $20, probably not, and the innate sense of fair price would take over. "Would I sell this for what I paid for it?". That might even be worse since it's a reminder of sunk cost and might motivate one to keep it and use it up. "Would I buy this again?". That seems better unless limited money concerns come into play. "Would I buy this for $1?". Sure, it's ugly and I hate it, but it's a good deal.

All the methods that work have some way that overrides the counterproductive cognitive circuits whether be it by system, procedure, or religious feelings. Perhaps a price-question can be phrased so it overrides the attachment-factor w/o triggering any counterproductive circuits.

[7Wannabe5]

The problem most people have negotiating with their inner hawker is that they don't actually have an active outer hawker. Instead of asking yourself about "joy sparks" for every item you own, you could actually list every item you own for sale on some market.

[jacob]

But that [hawking] is the circuit I want to avoid. "Spark joy" is an easy emotional (if you have them) gut-level decision. Engaging the inner hawker leads exactly to the situation I have going on in my room right now with boxes piled 2/3 up the wall trying to squeeze a few bucks out various trinkets and widgets. It turns the nearly instantaneous "Ting!" experience into the experience of maintaining an online marketplace or running a yardsale. Of course, it's not as wasteful as the Kondo way of chucking the stuff next to the general garbage.

[Scott 2]

Maintaining the online market consumes your time and space. The value of those needs to be weighted against the waste of chucking it in the garbage.

I'm not sure about a formula, but this point in life, I need to clear at least $100/hr to contend with selling, so it almost always gets given away or dumped at Goodwill.

I think for someone that has truckloads if extra crap, monetizing it is an impossible feeling proposition. People on her show were spending days and weeks, just getting to the point of trashing it all. At some point they have to get back to normal life.

[CS]

@Jacob

I think two other metrics would be better than dollars: time, and mental energy.

For time - personally, I think 'if I died in two years (five years, whatever) is this how I want to have spent my life?' People die young. I'm at the age where people I went to grade school with are starting to die in non-freak ways. Like by old age ways.

Also, your time. As in is it worth your $25/hour (or more) earning potential to make $5 on eBay? You already talked about how that discouraged you from taking other menial jobs.

For mental energy, and this is the one that has really helped me, a person essentially has the capacity to get one or two complex things done a day. Do you want to squander than on squeezing out a few bucks from stuff, or on writing your next book, or researching it, etc.

Someone on a different forum recommended the book "The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results" That book has made a huge difference in my life. I'm halfway through writing my first long novel - and got there in a month! - from that book. I'm completely confident I will get five books written and four published this year just using what I learned from it. And it feels easy. But it also means saying no to a lot of other tasks.

[CS]

Also, donating the stuff is not entirely wasteful. It does generate jobs for people down the line.

My post above was mostly about why to not spend too much time trying to sell unneeded things. But it can also work for why to not maintain extra stuff 'just in case'. It is a mental energy pit to care for things.

I, too, had a lot of hobbies with stuff attached (full studio of lights, cameras, you name it.) Part of the reason I got out of photography was it required so much crap. Some photographers upgrade everything, every year. No. H to the No. I guess many hire assistants to do all that work, but again so much freakin' complexity. I would rather find a way to make a living/entertain myself that requires little more than can fit on a desk.

[7Wannabe5]

I guess my perspective is different because I am currently bouncing off the bottom of recently maximizing my minimalism. Minimalism is directly related to efficiency, and like efficiency it is in opposition to resilience.

Saying "junk" is like saying "weed." You are occupying a position of dominance and making kill/care judgment. Extreme hard-core minimalism leaves you with just your own body and brain to care for. A skill is a behavior that involves an integration of body, brain AND environment. So, there's ultimately something very dog chasing its own tail about skill acquisition combined with minimalism.

Is it cooler to be able to interact with a tangle of growth on a vacant lot by ripping out and composting everything that doesn't immediately strike joy until you are left with maybe a neatly arranged pile of pebbles next to an extreme pruned rose bush OR to be able to sit down on your haunches, relax, observe, and take the time to engage through curiosity with each "weed?"

IOW, it is better to simply banish the anxiety you feel when you catch sight of that knitting project you abandoned two years ago by dumping it in the Goodwill box, or to work through the anxiety by overcoming the inertia, picking up the needles, finding the dropped stitch, and doing the work once more in front of you?

IOW, is "Tidying Up" a better book or philosophy than "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving?" Wouldn't it be cool to have the knowledge and sense of place in your environment necessary to know how to make use of everything to be found in your average dumpster?

[EdithKeeler]

IOW, it is better to simply banish the anxiety you feel when you catch sight of that knitting project you abandoned two years ago by dumping it in the Goodwill box, or to work through the anxiety by overcoming the inertia, picking up the needles, finding the dropped stitch, and doing the work once more in front of you?

Yeah--THIS.

I had a resolution that I was going to tackle my mini-hoard the first of this year, AKA, "The office." This is the room where I work when I work at home, but also houses all my books, craft supplies, unfinished projects, etc. I started going (desultorily, I admit), and I realized that I didn't want to get rid of much of this stuff just quite yet. I can't say it's because it sparked "JOY" (I mean, joy is pretty big emotion) but I realized that I acquired all of this stuff because I wanted it, and for whatever reason, I still want most of it. I still want to finish most of these projects.

So I just changed my resolution. Instead of spending the time piling it all up and going thru it, I'm going to finish all the unfinished projects that I have (the ones I really want to finish). If I get into and start thinking "Meh," it can go. I resolved not to start any new projects or buy any new materials until I've finished or tossed the unfinished ones.

For me, the clutter doesn't really "cost" me anything. It doesn't invade the rest of the house, I can still use the room (I'm not moving piles of crap around to work in here), and I don't share my space with anyone except my dogs, and they don't care. If I have to move house anytime soon, I will re-evaluate taking this stuff with me or storing it--I won't do that.