The reference is from the book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Which you probably already know about because you are alive and on the internet.
(The cats in the background are free entertainment.)
The book is exceptionally awesome for inspiring you to declutter. It’s small and pretty and even the font feels tidy. The author says that when going through the decluttering process it is crucial to hold each item and ask, “Does this spark joy?” The idea is to release items that do not set you on fire metaphorically so that you aren’t trapped inside your hoard if a non-metaphorical fire should occur.
OK, so hey, this does not work on me. Every damn thing I own is a joy because hello, if it were not delightful I would not own it. That is my hard-earned dolla dolla bills ya’ll and I invested them in only the juiciest of yarns and books and yeah ok there are some old mascaras I could part with but that isn’t going to clear out the guest room.
It’s fine. Not every person is playing from the same handbook.
Another thing the book advises is to pull all your stuff in each category from every area of the home — ALL books, ALL clothes, ALL knickknacks, etc — and then you magically only sort through it once. This is probably fine for many people and makes sense. If I had to do this I would abandon my home and go live in a motel, the end. I can see how this could feel really satisfying if you only had a few of some items (for example, I could do this easily with shoes since all my shoes are already in one place.) But for most categories of stuff I would die under the weight of all my horrible anticipation of the gathering task alone.
So whatever, doin’ it my way. Just this morning as I was getting ready for work I looked at my makeup stuff and decided I did not need half of it. And then most of the rest could go, too. I only use a few things daily anyway and the other keeps are for fun (I ♥ you makeupforever). Rather than losing my clutter all at once in a big chunk, this process has been more like a steady diet. You lose 10 pounds but you don’t wake up one morning going, dayum, where’d all that booty go? Instead it is just a little trimmer all over the place. Everything is a wee bit less snug.
Folks, I appear to be on a stuff diet!
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Updated to say, oh whoops she has a whole ‘nother book on just the joy thing. You know I’m about to order it. Whee! More stuff!
