Book 208 - A Year of Magical Learning (1 of 2)

Reflection Title: Turns Out I’ve been Tidying Wrong All Month!

Book – The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo (Part 1 / 2)

Book Description:

Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).

With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

Reflection:

I’m deep into my monthly challenge of tidying up that was sparked by reading The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. I’ve been doing 20 minutes of “death cleaning” each day and I’ve been having a blast. Even little Luca has become a little nightly helper as I’m going through drawers, closets, pantries, etc. Hell, I even got my wife to humor me by finally helping me to clean out a bunch of her junk in the attic that I feel like I’ve been begging her to do for the last 5 years at least.

I was telling a work colleague about this monthly challenge experience so far and she recommended I check out a book she had heard of by Marie Kondo, the organizing lady from the Netflix series. I thought, “what the hell! I’m about halfway through this challenge and it couldn’t hurt to learn more about the art of tidying up from one of the world’s most popular sources on this topic.

Before I read this, I knew nothing of Marie Kondo other than her name. I’ve never seen the Netflix show and I honestly have no idea what it is even about. I’m guessing it is a show where she showed hoarders how to organize their junk or something…who knows? Either way, I decided I wanted to go a little deeper into the art of tidying up while on this monthly challenge and see what else I might learn.

Well…turns out that I’m doing this challenge totally wrong, per Marie.

At first it made me chuckle, eventually it made me reflect on why and it turns out I think there is a reason.

My plan for Death Cleaning 20 minutes a day was designed with the idea of doing a little each day spread out over the course of a month. It was to break this process up into little chunks, have some fun with it, spend some time with my stuff slowly before letting go, and then donate or dispose of it. Per Maria, she recommends to never do serious tidying this way as it is unsustainable. Tidying should be done all at once per her methodology. Rip the Band-Aid off, get the work done, and then enjoy your new space and life that aligns to the vision you want to create in your mind.

Well, after learning that serious tidyers shouldn’t work this way, upon reflection it actually made me kind of happy to learn that I was doing it wrong. That’s because I’m not tidying with the goal for dramatic change or to get my life in order to begin living the new life of my dreams. I’m tidying to consistently live my values each and every day, to challenge myself to get out of my comfort zone, to spend time with my children in my own unique way because one of them isn’t here physically with me, and to have some damn fun.

Living your values is daily work! Living your values is all about consistency and having to say yes to what you say you love and no to everything else. That is what I’m doing this monthly challenge for and what matters to me. Maria focuses on dramatic, paradigm shifting transformations of people’s lives. For that, I can see how doing this all at once is the right methodology. You need to shock the system and mind to be able to set a new course.

Marie is adamant that the little-by-little consistent approach will never work if you want to see lasting change. She’s studied people’s behaviors for a lifetime, and she’s never seen that be sustainable if her clients want to get the change they seek. I honestly can’t disagree with her. Real transformation requires you to see another life that your mind couldn’t imagine before. You have to be almost unplugged from your current reality that confronts you each and every day to shock for your mind to believe that a different life is even possible.

I know this is true, because this is my life as well and the origins of how this Year of Magical Learning began.

Here’s the thing…While dramatic change may always need to start with an instantaneous bang; lasting change is daily consistent work that must be in alignment with what is truly value in your heart and the life you want to live. That is the journey I’m on today and why the little-by-little method is bucking Marie’s trend and still succeeding.

It all makes sense.

Question: Which do you need at this time of your life, a dramatic paradigm shift or daily, consistent action in alignment with your values?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo