The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Your Life

I have been on a mission to declutter my home for the year.

I am proud to say that in January, I donated 5 large bags of books and a few boxes of kitchen items. Every season, while I rotate my wardrobe, I put bags aside of clothes to donate.

I know I have been doing a good job, not because there's more space on my flat surfaces and room in my closet. I know that I am doing a good job because I have gotten down to the things that are more difficult to let go of. That vintage dress I found at the thrift that I don't know if it still fits but I am sure I might need one day. The blazers of every shade. The stream of skincare and hair care products I am blessed to try out but do pile up after a while. The luxury bags I have a knack for finding while thrifting.

Enter Konmari, a philosophy of decluttering that I have only begun to understand. It is a philosophy that centers around only keeping things that "spark joy" in you. Meaning that if you look at a thing, whether its a dress, a pot, a new perfume, and it does not spark a sense of joy within you, it must go.

But, here is the kicker: before it goes, you must thank it for what it contributed to your life and then let it go. This must happen for every, single, thing you want to declutter. And in my microwave sensibilities, it seems both silly and time-consuming to thank things that I know I need to be rid of.

However, as time-consuming and as silly as it may seem, it actually works. I have used the Konmari method on things I thought I'd never let go of. There is a release in the process. A sense of gratitude that makes you more apt part with even the most sentimental items.

Marie Kondo, the creator of Konmari, changed the world with her quietly and beautifully radical method of tidying that cycles on the following steps:

1. Commit yourself to tidying
2. Imagine your ideal life
3. Finish letting go first
4. Tidy by category, not location
5. Follow the right order
6. Ask yourself if it sparks joy

Last night, it came to me. Maybe if we can use this method to decluttering our homes, could we also not use this in a spiritual sense and declutter our lives?

Is it possible to look at our own hearts, seeing the mess that fills it, and make the commitment to declutter it?
To whip out our journals and write down our own ideal lives, then go through the process of letting go of the things we no longer feel attached to?
To look at the categories of our lives and to follow the right order of removal of everything that no longer serves us?
Then to ask ourselves once we are down to the things we cannot let go of, the hurts, the shame, the pride, the regret, and ask if any of those things spark joy?

Or, even more difficult, to look at our victories, our triumphs, our achievements, and remember that we are no longer there, that life continues on, and we cannot live there, in those past victories. That we thank God and life and ourselves and others for those moments and lessons, and then we let them go to pursue or ideal future.

I think this is something to examine. The same practices that we can employ to declutter our homes, our cars, and our offices, we can use to declutter our lives from elements that no longer serve or never served us.

How life changing would that be?