New Year, new start. And a new clear home after you’ve donated all the clothes and other stuff you didn’t want to charity. As legions of people become inspired to declutter after watching Marie Kondo’s new hit Netflix show, it is the charity shops that are suffering. In Australia, with only around 15% of donations received being resold locally, charities are drowning under the weight of unwanted stuff. And it costs money for charities to deal with stuff that they can’t sell on!
That charities cannot take
How do you declutter for good? Stuff often expands to fill the available space – and a year later another decluttering exercise is needed!
Why we are all decluttering – the Marie Kondo Effect
The new US-based TV show starring Japanese tidying guru Marie Kondo (author of the best seller The Art of Tidying Up) feels like a gentle version of Supernanny but for sorting and organising your house. The first episode features a family with 2 kids and the second episode follows an empty nester couple who accumulated stuff over 20+ years of living in their house.
Both sets of people are taught the KonMarie way to declutter. This starts with closing their eyes to thanks to their house for letting them live in it. Then they go through every single one of their possessions, beginning with clothes. Only things that “spark joy” (e.g. the warm and fuzzy feeling when you see a cute puppy picture) are kept. If the possessions don’t spark joy, they are thanked for their service before being made redundant. You don’t need me to tell you that there were many many bin bags sitting on the kerb by the end of each TV episode.
I like the KonMarie method a lot as it forces you to think about each of your possessions. And it really contrasts with the shopping and consumerist mentality that results in our homes being filled with stuff we don’t need.
But, and here’s the but – what watching these people sort their clothes sparked in me (pun intended) was less of a feeling of what sparks joy, but more … what next? How are the people on the show going to make
Also, after say 2 hours of sorting clothes, I’m not sure how much I would be consciously thinking about whether something REALLY sparks joy … or if I just want to be done with the sorting.
Declutter and feel good
The idea of less stuff really appeals to me, but I think going from a lot of stuff to very little stuff can cause problems if:
- it turns into a “just chuck it” type exercise because tidying gets boring
- there’s no thought about what happens to unwanted stuff if it is chucked out (it all has to go somewhere!); and
- there’s not enough effort into breaking up with buying stuff (or acquiring by some other means) afterwards. It feels a bit like going on a diet. You’ve reached your goal after a few months of hard graft, then slack off again only to feel the need to try another diet later on down the line.
Clothes seem to be one area where so many of us have excess (myself included). There are just. so. many. clothes in the world. Producing clothes in the quantities dictated by the fashion
And dealing with unwanted clothes is just as big a problem. Donating to charity is
Sustainable decluttering?
Maintaining your home after a
At a recent sustainable fashion event, someone raised that they had read that people completing consumer surveys would often say that they support buying higher quality clothes and less fast fashion. But buying behaviour as seen by demand and retail sales didn’t reflect that attitude and people bought stuff anyway! Perhaps it is a case of having all good intentions but online browsing or enticing shopfronts are just too much to resist.
Just another pretty shopfront (photo credit: unsplash)
One of the participants in the Marie Kondo TV show talked about her need for retail therapy, albeit she seemed to feel a bit guilty about it. Mass produced “stuff” like clothes are cheap to buy and readily available so why not clothes when you need your therapy?
I would love to see people thinking about how to declutter their houses for good. Rather than just focussing so much on the state of here and now. For me it comes down to thinking about more than just what sparks joy when you throw something out or buy something. Here are some ideas:
5 things to think about besides sparking joy
Do you have any more to add to the list? Have you decluttered recently or are you thinking about it?
- Consider what happens to your clothes when you chuck them. Can someone actually wear them? Can it be used for scraps? What recycling method can I choose (if I have a choice)?
- Watch the documentaries about textile production and dealing with waste to get a glimpse of the processing you as a consumer never see. As a starting
point I’d go for True Cost, River Blue, and the BBC Secret Life of landfills. If you’ve never looked into fast fashion before, the Stacey Dooley BBC show was popular – the full episodes are not online anymore but there are youtube clips, e.g. here - What other hobbies and activities can you do besides shopping? My
millenial sister tells me that mall culture in North America is a thing and I know myself that online shopping is all too easy to do. Fighting against this feels like going against the grain. But … - Experiences are great for money spending without accumulating. Or maybe even just a walk outside (at least that’s free!)
- Unsubscribe from store email lists to avoid temptation from new stuff, discounts and fear of missing out. When it comes to fabric, also worth asking yourself, does fabric shopping make you happy?
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15 comments
Right on the nose, as always, Kate.
Why thank you Lori! Glad you are on the same page!
Nice post Kate. I am attending the London Craft Club ‘Craft Swish’ next Sunday (3rd Feb) in London to de-clutter a couple of big bags of un-used fabrics and craft items. I *may* leave with something new to me, but only if it ‘sparks joy’ of course!
Oh that sounds a bit cool! Perhaps I will have a look and see if there’s stuff I can part with and come with you!
The next step for me after the gradual dawning of how much waste there is in the world was to unsubscribe from al fabric shops online. .I made other changes in my sewing habits too, but this was the game changer…. just as when I started making my own clothes I stopped shopping/ window shopping as a sort of pastime . This has really cut down to a minimum any new acquisitions. Still need to remind myself regularly.
I loved your tip of unsubscribing from everything. I also turn off social media quite a bit now – letting the physical world around me be the inspiration rather than looking at the screen all the time helps curb the fear of missing out!
Thank you for sharing this – I really appreciate your perspective. I just started watching the show and while I love the organizing tips, the amount of STUFF in each home was really stressing me out. Not only because it felt overwhelming (how in the world were they ever going to go through a pile of clothes stacked to the ceiling?!), but also because the STUFF had to go somewhere (and the ‘somewhere’ was never discussed). Like you, I wish more consideration were given to the psychological aspect/our buying culture and maybe even some tips on what to do with unwanted clothing (ideas or reusing and recycling and/or ways to increase your clothing’s chance of being used second-hand when donating, etc.).
Thanks for the comment. Always feels a relief for me to know that I’m not the only one thinking along these lines. Agree that so much stuff can be stressful – lucky (or not?) the living space in London housing is limited to say the least, and for me it puts an automatic cap on how much I can store!
Spot on! As a hoarder, part of the reason why its so hard for me to let things go is because i don’t want it to just be chucked or incinerated, and that’s something that’s not discussed in the Kondo books/shows (although i’m only up to episode 1) =D Will need to go back to your original post and figure out what to do with my unwanted things!
Coming from a hoarding family I totally understand both sides. My mum has kept everything from our childhoods because it can be used again. While it is cute to see my nephew in the jumper I used to wear aged 8months both excessive buying and also being frugal with your buying habits but never decluttering can be psychologically stressful and a sign of psychological stress.
My boyfriend and I also discussed where those bin liners were headed as they were piled into the car… I like to think they were going to someone who might use them but realistically I think they’re probably landfill now.
I also think her spark joy line is too gimicky, surely not all your clothes can spark joy? We should also consider the functionality of the item. I have some base layers and an array of exceptionally useful things in life that I would never describe as sparking joy and some that have more of a negative feeling but are indispensable in certain situations.
There was an interesting article in The Japan Times about what Japanese people thought of the show.
Oh yes, the sweater from when you were 8 months old, my mum gave me a sweater my grandma made for me when I was a baby and my son wore it as well. I know the keeping everything feeling. Fortunately since I moved a lot in the last 15 years and I live in a small place in London I haven’t collected a huge amount of stuff. To be honest it is the quilting and sewing hobby that takes up the most space ….
As for sparking joy, agree that base layers and tights are probably never go to spark joy for me but are necessary! If nothing else I think it seems so radical that it becomes a talking point, which then increases popularity. And I must look up the article in the Japan Times. Thanks for pointing it out.
I find it hard to let go of any kind of scraps, especially since I’ve started quilting. If you have a lot of dressmaking stuff, try calling round the local schools to see if their arts department might want them?
Great points to ponder. People don’t think about where things go…out of their houses and then? Anyway, it’s hubby’s birthday in 2 weeks and initially I was going to get him a Lego set (he loves that stuff). For some reason it didn’t feel right and when I was just about to hit “complete transaction”, it dawned on me that I should gift experiences instead. So I got us cooking classes for rustic Italian cuisine on his birthday weekend (childcare also arranged). So happy!
I think Marie kondo doesn’t go far enough with thanking the stuff for its service. I’ve found that thanking/thinking of the person who made it has helped me to treasure what I do have and also be more thoughtful when I shop.
Hi Jacqui, in sustainable fashion circles, learning to mend and make do and having a connection with your clothing is often seen as good solution for fast fashion (non sewing people often don’t understand the “stash” concept….). Personally I find that I have more connection with stuff made by others (or materials donated to me by others) than things I buy myself – context is very important!