Anyway, since I always look for some refresher/inspiration when it's time to do some decluttering, I decided to finally read the second book - "Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up".
Yes, the reviews were right but what's great about this second book are: (1) it has illustrations on how to properly fold your clothes and organize your items vs the first book which only had text descriptions and (2) the author shares more real-life stories and experiences about her family and clients about tidying up and some of which may sound like our own stories. 😆
If you're a visual type of person, Spark Joy could be an easier read than the first book coz it has illustrations. I got the Kindle Paperwhite copy so the illustrations are in black and white but here are samples of the colored illustrations from the physical book -
What are my key takeaways from Spark Joy? Sharing with you my favorite lessons below but most of them are actually in the first book. Still a good read though coz sometimes, it takes more than once or twice before lessons sink into my head! 😜😂
Yes, the reviews were right but what's great about this second book are: (1) it has illustrations on how to properly fold your clothes and organize your items vs the first book which only had text descriptions and (2) the author shares more real-life stories and experiences about her family and clients about tidying up and some of which may sound like our own stories. 😆
If you're a visual type of person, Spark Joy could be an easier read than the first book coz it has illustrations. I got the Kindle Paperwhite copy so the illustrations are in black and white but here are samples of the colored illustrations from the physical book -
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| How to fold tops and shirts the KonMari method |
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| How to fold plastic bags the KonMari method |
- The important thing in tidying is not deciding what to discard but rather what you want to keep in your life.
- Tidy by category - in this sequence - (1) clothes, (2) books, (3) papers, (4) komono (miscellany), and (5) sentimental items. When tidying a specific category e.g. clothes, gather all items of clothing in one spot; do not tidy up per location. Why? When you gather all related items in one spot, it allows you to see (1) if there are duplicate items and (2) objectively assess how much you have per category. Then you can start discarding. You can only plan where to store them once you know how much needs to be stored. (Based on my personal experience, you have to store the items per category close together. For example in my case, I had 3 different shelves where I stored assorted supplies and when I gathered all the items in one spot, I discovered I had a lot of duplicate items.😮 )
- For storage, remember the rule of thumb is 90 percent. Fill your drawers to the point where they look full but not stuffed.
- Everything that can be stood on edge on its own without falling over should be stored upright in a drawer, rather than flat e.g. folded clothes, stationery supplies, etc. This doesn't just save on space but it allows you to (1) view all the content at one glance and (2) pull out an item easily.
- The 2 skills needed to successfully organize your home are:
(1) the ability to keep what sparks joy and discard the rest; and
(2) the ability to decide where to keep an item and to always put it back in its place.
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Though Kondo encourages people to tidy up, her advocacy is not minimalism but it's more for people to learn how to keep only the things that bring them joy and to keep them in an organized way so they are accessible (and not forgotten). And even if the concept of tidying up focuses on material things, Kondo's final reminder goes beyond materialism.
Towards the end of the book, she shares this story when one time, her family went out for a picnic lunch to watch the cherry blossoms. Her mom prepared them a beautifully packed lunch with such loving care that touched her heart. Her mom also brought a bottle of pink-hued amazake (a beverage from sweet fermented rice) and she served the beverage in small pink glasses with cherry blossom patterns.
When the glasses were filled with the pink amazake, Kondo said "it looked like cherry blossoms were blooming in our glasses. How beautiful! The blossoms I viewed that day with my family were the best I had ever seen."
Kondo further shares -
The glasses were an expression of my mother’s love and affection, chosen out of her desire to make that day special for us ... I had seen those glasses in our house many times and had always thought they were pretty, but they had been transformed into “those special cups that my mother filled with amazake when we went to view the blossoms.”
I realized that the value of things with which I have spent precious hours alone cannot compare with the value of things that bear precious memories of time spent with other people. My favorite clothes and shoes are special, and I wear them constantly, but they can’t compete with things that have been steeped in memories of the people I love.
I realized that what I had really longed for was just to be with my family. Compared to the amount of time I spent with my possessions, myself, and my work, I had spent far less time interacting with my loved ones. Of course, I will still continue to value my time alone. But the purpose of it is to nurture me so that I can enjoy an even more fulfilling time with my loved ones, so that I can contribute even more to the happiness of the others around me.
- When buying something, consider the design, the feel, the convenience, and every other factor most important to you - until you find one that you really love.
- It’s far more important to adorn your home with the things you love than to keep it so bare it lacks anything that brings you joy. - Kondo
- Do you collect some themed stuff? Here's a creative solution from Kondo. One of her clients, for example, love mushrooms - she has mushroom postcards, erasers, figurines, keychains, even an ear pick with a mushroom on the handle! Why does she like mushrooms? "It's their modesty, they flourish in the shade of great trees," the client explained. Just talking about her mushroom stuff collection brought her a lot of joy but unfortunately, all the items were stored out of sight. They were still in individual plastic wrappers and boxes, and collectively, they were stored in a tin can. The owner would open the tin can once a month to look at them. Kondo thought even if the owner spent 2 hours looking at them each time, she would only get 24 hours of joy from them in 1 whole year! So what Kondo suggested was for the client to create her own personal mushroom space inside her closet. She decorated the fronts of her clear plastic storage boxes with mushroom postcards, covered the spare bedding with a large mushroom-patterned cloth, hung her mushroom keychains around the necks of her hangers, and displayed her mushroom miniatures in a basket on one of the shelves. Now the owner gets to see her favorite mushroom-themed items everyday.
- When you realize that you have just the right amount of stuff - a feeling that you know you have all you need to feel content - is what Kondo calls the click point.
- Are you a bookworm? Here's a good insight from Kondo so you it won't be a struggle to part with your old books: We read books because we seek the experience of reading. Once read, a book has already been “experienced.” Even if you don’t remember the content completely, you have already internalized it. (In my case, writing about my key takeaways after reading a book is my closure so I could easily refer to the lessons without having to re-read the entire book. 😉)
- Is your garbage not picked up everyday? If yes, to prevent your kitchen from smelling bad, you can put your kitchen scraps such as fruit and vegetable peelings, chicken bones in a plastic bag or plastic container (just drain them well) and store them in the freezer. Though you may think the idea is yucky, Kondo points out that the scraps are put in the freezer before they begin to rot, thus, they are still part of the food we just ate and thus, not garbage yet.
- Do you keep physical diaries/journals? Flip through them and reminisce about things that happened and keep only those that still spark joy. Or you can adopt the criterion of one Kondo's clients - to discard those that she would have felt embarrassed to have anyone read after she died.
- Do you still have albums of printed photos? Kondo recommends to remove all photos from the albums, lay them out on the floor so you can arrange them per year and review each one. Keep those which bring joy (or as one of her clients put it - where you look good 😁 ) and let go of photos that (1) don't bring joy, (2) look similar, or (3) scenes you don’t really remember. Then put them in one nice album. Kondo explains, "Photos will only keep your memories alive when they have been arranged so that you can enjoy them whenever you like".
- How about organizing and decluttering digital photos and digital data? Kondo says the same principle applies: Choose what you wish to keep, not what you are going to discard. You will never finish if you approach it by trying to decide which ones to erase when there are so many possibilities.
****
Though Kondo encourages people to tidy up, her advocacy is not minimalism but it's more for people to learn how to keep only the things that bring them joy and to keep them in an organized way so they are accessible (and not forgotten). And even if the concept of tidying up focuses on material things, Kondo's final reminder goes beyond materialism.
Towards the end of the book, she shares this story when one time, her family went out for a picnic lunch to watch the cherry blossoms. Her mom prepared them a beautifully packed lunch with such loving care that touched her heart. Her mom also brought a bottle of pink-hued amazake (a beverage from sweet fermented rice) and she served the beverage in small pink glasses with cherry blossom patterns.
When the glasses were filled with the pink amazake, Kondo said "it looked like cherry blossoms were blooming in our glasses. How beautiful! The blossoms I viewed that day with my family were the best I had ever seen."
Kondo further shares -
The glasses were an expression of my mother’s love and affection, chosen out of her desire to make that day special for us ... I had seen those glasses in our house many times and had always thought they were pretty, but they had been transformed into “those special cups that my mother filled with amazake when we went to view the blossoms.”
I realized that the value of things with which I have spent precious hours alone cannot compare with the value of things that bear precious memories of time spent with other people. My favorite clothes and shoes are special, and I wear them constantly, but they can’t compete with things that have been steeped in memories of the people I love.
I realized that what I had really longed for was just to be with my family. Compared to the amount of time I spent with my possessions, myself, and my work, I had spent far less time interacting with my loved ones. Of course, I will still continue to value my time alone. But the purpose of it is to nurture me so that I can enjoy an even more fulfilling time with my loved ones, so that I can contribute even more to the happiness of the others around me.
