Where Did All This Clutter Come From?

I have suddenly realized that I am surrounded by clutter in every part of my life.

There are piles and stacks of paper in my home office. There are bags and bags of extra hangers in the spare bedroom. The linen closet is so crammed with stuff that I literally can't find anything in there. When I wash the sheets or the towels, I have to put them on the floor or or another convenient surface because the linen closet doesn't have a single place to put them.

Is there a 12-step program for clutter addicts? A horderholics group? I took the first step: I realized that this clutter situation had become unmanageable.  I purchased the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.

It's a deceptively simple book and concept. All the other articles, books, and web pages I have seen on the subject of home organization always stress that the first thing you must do is PURGE. Get rid of unnecessary things. Then, the conventional wisdom goes, ORGANIZE. Get some cute baskets and labels, line all your things up in neat little rows, and you will be CURED.

Nope. Nope, and Nope. I've tried that approach, over and over again, and I've failed every time. I always thought that there was something wrong with me. It turns out that the conventional wisdom (PURGE, ORGANIZE, you're DONE) is wrong. I can say that with certainty because I've tested it (repeatedly).

Mari Kondo's method (the KonMari method for short) is much more spiritual. The Konmari method teaches us that our possessions must "spark joy." I think this means that instead of getting rid of items we do not want, we keep only the items that we do want.