I crave time. I dream about having free hours that stretch endlessly ahead of me. I want to sit with my children and just stare at their beautiful faces without being bombarded with thoughts about planning dinner, doing laundry, cleaning, working, checking things off my never-ending to-do list. Why does it always seem that we have everything BUT time? The number of hours in a day has never changed and will never change. We all have the same amount but it is up to the individual to determine how they want to fill those hours. Why are we so starved for time?
This may be contributing to the popularity of the trend towards minimalism. We have too many distractions fighting for our attention. Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, politics, books, television, online shopping, radio, podcasts, websites, games, toys, YouTube. The list goes on and on and on and on. We desperately want to have a simple space to just sit with our thoughts, no distractions except the beating of our hearts.
With the increase in stimuli comes the rise in popularity of meditation and simplification. Every major designer has an Instagram account where you can get daily doses of the latest fashions, click and buy, and at the same time bloggers are posting daily about their capsule wardrobes (limited, seasonal wardrobes of usually 30 items or less). Home renovation programs rise, shelter magazines explode and the tiny house/minimalist movement is growing in popularity every day. We are an exercise in contradictions and we are always looking for the next “trend” that will help us achieve peace, happiness, and serenity. I love exploring trends to see if they do, in fact, deliver on their promises. Most don’t. However, the ones that do will stay with you for a lifetime and truly have the ability of changing how you view the world and your place in it. It is always worth a shot.
Marie Kondo’s THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP skyrocketed up bestseller lists the minute it came on the scene and it hasn’t diminished in popularity. In other words, the Kon-Mari Method seems to have staying power. People are hungry for scaling down on their possessions (and more accurately, obsessions). What exactly does Marie advise? What is the Kon-Mari Method, as it has been coined? Does it work and can it be applied to anyone’s life or just people who want to become minimalists?
I am a sentimental person. I scrapbook. I have memory boxes. I keep ticket stubs and receipts and business cards that spark memories. Being a minimalist did not seem like something I could ever embrace. But here’s the thing about minimalism, it’s not about living with nothing, it’s about appreciating everything and in the process of recognizing and appreciating what you do have you begin to let go of the things that are no longer serving you. When you start to strip down and prioritize what matters to you, what “sparks joy”, a popular Kon-Mari phrase, you start to really see what brings you happiness and what you want to have in your life.
So how has my life changed since reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up? I have become more aware of myself. I now pay attention to what I like, what brings me happiness, what defines me, my life, my style and my place in the world. I have become a sentimental minimalist. I no longer keep everything but everything I keep, matters to me in a significant way. Just like Marie, “the space I live in is graced only with those things that speak to my heart. My lifestyle brings me joy.”