Marie Kondo and the Ruthless War on Stuff
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
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.
If you would permit me, here is my experience with the book
https://chadkohalyk.com/2012/09/04/the-information-diet/
and the results:
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)
I do the same for photos. Really nice photos, I keep, and so I've got a nicely curated set of pictures from the last several years. Maybe a couple hundred. Thousands more, taken, gone!
Everything passes, of course. I just make it a little more intentional.
There's a joy in freeing myself from ever having to think about that stuff again, too. There's absolutely no cognitive burden, no cloud password to remember, no junk cropping up from time to time, none of it, because the stuff's just gone.
I've gotten old family photos handed to me from time to time, like from generations ago. I didn't know these people, didn't know anyone who knew them. It was just stuff. They could've been anyone. Why keep that stuff? Why make someone else haul it around? No one's going to care, and when I realized that, I stopped caring about most of it, too.
Example: I want to do a lot of sport in my spare time, so I can only play a little music and read almost no books. I'm fine with that.
Then I check which emotions come up when doing or not doing something, or when consuming media and information. I think about what those emotions do for me, if they help me on the way I chose to go or not.
Example: Somedays getting up and reading the news or HN makes me a bit miserable, so I close the tab and look at the table doing nothing instead to get back in my good mood.
I try to counter and unlearn emotions which I don't consider useful, and reinforce others. That works best by forming routines.
Those routines need to updated, some more often, some not. There is no formula that fits everyone.
Break down projects into buckets of tasks and make sure that each task item has sharp edges, then regularly review and put enough effort into it that you can start trusting yourself or your team to do this diligently. So that you can focus on the inevitable portions of your work that doesn't fit neatly into boxes.
But I am not entirely sure if that's really what you're asking ? Are you referring to the organization of reference information ?
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.
If you like your tools, and they fit your lifestyle, and they fit in your home without spilling out of closets and shelves, then you've achieved what she advocates.
Having those books itself is not an issue. I just think it's worth considering whether you are actually rationally attached to those reference books, or whether they represent an emotional attachment to the possession of objects that signal your identity (career, hobbies, and interests).
When I look at the reference books on my bookshelf, the honest answer is that I really don't ever look at them, they're just there to tell visitors about me. When I need to look up information, usually I go various websites via Google search.
I actually admire the passion for minimalism they have, I just can't do it myself.
To me there's a deeper point here about not using material possessions as a crutch for finding happiness and purpose, because it's a common crutch and its effects are temporary at best. The same applies to other sources of unnecessary, self-inflicted complexity in your life.
Purging material possessions that you don't need seems like a useful conduit to reflect on a particularly common source of unnecessary, self-inflicted complexity.
So if you need those tools to pursue your hobbies or career, then great, you should probably have those tools. Then the point applies to you in two questions:
1. How about all of the stuff you might own that isn't about your hardware/software projects?
2. Do you really need all of those gadgets? Perhaps you do, but I'd bet that there's some amount of semi-justifiable redundancy in there because there's an inherent rush of pleasure that comes from acquiring cool gadgets.
My wife and I bought the book and read through it and loved it, but we certainly don't follow all of it. Really we just did it for our clothes and general commodities (kitchen stuff, random shit in the house) and it works great.
However, your example perfectly summarizes where you should steer away from "the program".
This method doesn't make sense for a good number of things. However, for those issues it does apply for, it is fantastic.
Are you reacting to the title of the article instead of its actual content? It specifically addresses your situation of "having lots of crucial stuff":
"She is often mistaken for someone who thinks you shouldn’t own anything, but that’s wrong. Rather, she thinks you can own as much or as little as you like, as long as every possession brings you true joy."
She has also reiterated this point when discussing her book/philosophy in interviews (Google Author Talks, etc).
So yes, if you're a serious hobby photographer, you may have 20+ fixed focal length lenses. A weekend woodworker my have 100+ different clamps and all sorts of power tools and various gadgets. All that gear is compatible with her decluttering advice.
Instead, she's talking about all that other stuff that doesn't bring you joy: clothes you don't wear, the trinkets accumulating in the kitchen's "junk" drawer, the inappropriate wedding gifts that's been taking up space in the top shelf of the closet, etc.
I find a cosiness in a study or office space that's lined with books and stuff - think Sherlock Holmes' study. That's not to say I want the same clutter everywhere in the house.
It's interesting people can live minimally as I would probably last a week in a nicely minimal space before it didn't look so any more!
== 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
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== 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.
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(recycled from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1767990 )
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?
The upside of this is i) all items were carefully chosen for quality. They are a joy to use. ii) Radical simplicity means less costs, less maintenance, less mental burden.
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.
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.
See my old apartment here: 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.
But good on you for living lean. It is admirable. I isn't that I think North Americans CANNOT do it... I think the post-war culture has made us forget that it IS possible and we can be perfectly happy living small. There needs to be a cultural change beyond the bachelor apartments of NYC. But I might be taking this conversation off track... so I will just stop here.
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.
Here is a link to the book. http://amzn.to/1Ugg8wn
This is YEARS before KonMari.
So, I think you might have something to your observations. ;-)
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.
https://chadkohalyk.com/2016/07/19/danshari-thinking-about-s...
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!
No. People are aware of this, but sometimes would like help with sorting out what they should and shouldn't keep.
> No matter how organized you get, the reality: life == hard, never goes away.
OK. So does this mean no one should look for help and guidance with the parts of it they feel they struggle most with?
> No. People are aware of this, but sometimes would like help with sorting out what they should and shouldn't keep.
Some people are aware of this. Packrats are not. Believe me, I was married to one.
For most of human existence the ability to find sweet and fatty things and eat them as much as possible and put on as much weight as possible kept you alive. Now it hurts you.
Similarly with stuff for most of human history stuff was expensive, you kept every good thing you could possibly get. Then in the past 60+ years stuff has dropped in price amazingly and keeping everything is no longer a good tactic.
Space has become more expensive that stuff in places where you can get good jobs.
A huge proportion of people reading this could go out and buy a caravan or a new car in cash. Few of us can afford a good place with much space in SV or NYC or Sydney or London.
My girlfriend was not a fan of the system when I described it. Alas, I still need to fold laundry.
We use one of these http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00578QVGC in my kids room. On the top bar is the out of season clothes, and on the bottom bar, which is at an accessible height to my girls (4 and 6), we put the in-season clothes.
This works really well since little kids are way better hangers than folders. So when I take laundry out of the dryer, I basically make a pile for the kids clothes and then yell at them to hang everything up. They love it and it saves me lots of folding time. Plus, no wrinkles!
We got rid of our space-stealing dresser and just have a little plastic set of drawers for socks and underwear, which probably could just be in stuffer bags hanging off the clothesrod now that I think about it...
It's a lot like a dish washer. By the time you scrape and pre-wash and load all your dishes, you could have just washed them and put them on a drying rack. The real value of a dish washer is it serves as that drying rack. Most kitchens don't have a lot of dedicated space to dry dishes.