Say farewell to precious items that belonged to your dead parents or grandparents And when the time comes to discard it, says Kondo, you should thank it for helping your child to grow, and let it go without guilt.Ħ. And of course, the ideal thing to do with your children’s art is to put it on show: hang it on the wall, frame pieces you hope will last for a while, share it with visitors. Another tactic is to decide on how many items you will keep, and stick to that number. If your instinct is that you want to keep more of your children’s artworks than is viable, you can always take photos of it before you throw it away. “If you bundle them into a drawer thinking, ‘maybe some day I’ll return to them,’ then I doubt they spark joy in you, and they are taking energy away from other items that do spark joy for you,” she says. Baby clothes, she says, can be displayed as art, hung in a frame or displayed in a creative way. The trick, says Kondo, is not merely to keep them, but to display them in some way that they will bring you pleasure as you go about your daily life – and they will bring pleasure to others who visit your home, too. These are the easy items to decide about. That first babygrow the artwork he brought home from his first term at nursery the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards she made you when she was in primary school. Make a plan for taking care of the precious early items from your children’s lives And what’s more, says Kondo, boxes sent home are never actually opened.ĥ. Having tons of your stuff around your parents’ home makes it much more difficult for them to put their own house in order something many people have a desire to do as they get older. Why not? Because, quite simply, you’re cluttering up your parents’ lives – and that’s unfair. One thing you should never do, says Kondo, is send boxes of sentimental items to your parents’ home – and nor should you ignore items that languish there long after you’ve moved out. Never leave stuff in boxes at your parents’ home, or send it to them “Your tidying should be in this order: clothing, books, papers, komono (miscellany) and then – and only then – will you be ready for your sentimental items.”Ĥ. You must tidy, she says, by category, not by location or room. What’s more, sentimental items are in fact the last sort of clutter that you should clear out: Kondo recommends that you “train your tidying muscles by tidying in a specific order, and begin with the categories of items that are typically easier than sentimental items”. “Unless you are truly committed, you will most likely become discouraged or distracted before finishing your tidying journey,” she says. It’s crucial, says Kondo, that you don’t begin to declutter until you’re properly committed to it. Make sure you’re properly committed to having a tidy-out But most objects in your life will not spark this joy – and these are the ones you should part with, again with confidence because you know they don’t mean enough to hold on to.ģ. You don’t need to make excuses for keeping it any more: you’ve proved to yourself that it’s important to you. And once you are convinced of the spark of joy, you should be able to hold on to an item with confidence. When something sparks joy, you should feel a little thrill running through your body, as if your body is somehow slowly rising up to meet the item, embracing it even.”Īny such object has a place in your life, says Kondo. “And then, pay close attention to how your body responds. “Hold each item in your hands, as close to your heart as possible,” she says. This is the central message of Kondo’s creed: the litmus test to whether to keep it or not is to ask yourself, does this object (whatever it is) spark joy in my heart? To work this out, you have to touch the object, and see what response that elicits inside you. Ask yourself of each object: does it spark joy in my heart? The reason is simple: there are so many items of sentimental value, from our own lives and from our children’s lives and from our parents’/grandparents’ lives that it’s too overwhelming a task to think about what to jettison.Ģ. Kondo’s approach is the opposite: she says we should concentrate instead on what we’re going to keep. When we have a clearout, most of us tend to focus on what we’re going to throw away. Focus not on what to chuck, but on what to keep Here she reveals the secrets to dealing effectively with the heartstring-tugging detritus of family life: the stuff we can’t bear to part with, but which we know we can’t keep stashing away.ġ.
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