Decluttering guru Marie Kondo, who took the world by storm with her 2016 international best seller The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, now has her own Netflix show.
I have been a fan for a while, and although I have long since stopped trying to fold my knickers in exactly the origami shape stipulated, and never quite managed to thank my socks each time I took them off, I have regular seasons of enthusiastic Kondo-ing, and each time, my house and my life does become a little more pleasingly spare.
Travelling lightly through life is something I aspire to increasingly as I age. All my most recent trips overseas were made even more delightful and carefree than they might have been anyway thanks to my adoption of the principle of taking carry-on baggage only. My longest time away was seven weeks, in both hot and cold climates, and it was easy to limit myself to one small bag. When I returned home, I was discombobulated by the number of clothes and footwear I had to choose from every morning. Life was simpler and sweeter when I only had a couple of outfits for summer or winter temperatures.
Over the recent summer break, I did my first bush-walk in a few years, with all my clothes, bedding, food and water on my back. One of the best things about the trek was the simplicity inherent in having one sleeping bag, three sets of clothes, and the most basic of meal provisions. Unencumbered by too much stuff, my heart and mind were free to take in some of the spectacular natural beauty that surrounded me on those four days.
I’m not a complete Kondo convert. Although I have recycled hundreds of books, I will never reduce the number of volumes on my shelves to 30, as she recommends, because I love the things. They are as precious to me as the art on my walls, they reveal part of who I am, they are my treasures. To speak in Kondo-ese, they spark joy, and I am perfectly content to keep a lot of them.
But the rest of the baggage that fills my life and my house could be drastically reduced without losing anything precious. And in the next couple of years, when my beloved and I move from a sprawling family home to an apartment, we will need all the inspiration we can get from Marie Kondo. Watch this increasingly decluttered space!