Tag Archives: minimalism

Books, Celebrities, D.I.Y., Documentaries, Lifestyle, Movies

De-cluttering is love: Marie Kondo: Joy Is The Only Goal

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Adobe Stock

Finding Joy in the act of Tidying Up

Marie Kondo wants to help others find joy in the act of tidying up. The opportunity to reassess and bring more awareness to our personal belongings in a more mindful way is her unique approach to cleaning. 

Best Known for her bestselling books, “ The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”, “Spark Joy”, more recently Kondo is gaining fans for her Netflix show, “Tidying up with Marie Kondo”.

On a mission to inspire others and to “spark joy”, she’s aided by her expertise in tidying along with her organizational method called KonMarie.

Thoughts of tidying often conjure up an end result of little more than a somewhat cleaner and more tidy outward appearance. Marie Kondo’s special talent is to help illuminate many indirect personal benefits that can arise as a result of confronting your sub-conscious attachments to belongings.

Read More: Olivia Rodrigo’s debut song gains unstoppable virality

Dreaded Chores or Opportunity for Joy?

Marie’s unconventional and heart-warming approach is refreshing  and helpful in comparison to how most people view cleaning (example: as a dreaded chore). 

Her methods are systematic and start by organizing items based on categories (versus by location).  There are five categories that are in a specific order: clothing, books, paper, komono (which encompasses kitchen, bathroom and garage), and lastly, sentimental/emotional items.  

As can be seen in her Netflix Show, when first coming into any clients home, Kondo first greets the home, allowing the residents to give thanks to the home for shelter and protection, and as a formal way of communicating the beginning of the tidying process.

Under her system, each category requires you to accumulate all the items together (e.g. gathering clothing from all rooms and creating a large pile) in order to pick up and touch each individual item.

The very act of collecting all belongings within each category forces one to confront the possessions and, in some cases, take a hard look at any excessive materialism.

Only items that spark joy, creating a warm and positive feeling (“holding a puppy feeling”) should be kept and items no longer wanted or needed, are to be thanked and and then let go.

By choosing to keep only items that spark joy and letting go of unnecessary items a cathartic refocus can occur, leading to understanding of what is most important and, ultimately, learning to cherish what you have, in order to achieve greater happiness in life.

Read More: ’The Minimalists: Less is Now’ and how to Simplify in the age of a Digital Ad Avalanche

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Documentaries, Entertainment, Movies, Observation

Netflix:’The Minimalists: Less is Now’ and how to Simplify in the age of a Digital Ad Avalanche

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Adobe Stock

Streaming documentaries that satisfy are rare

One noteworthy film released by Netflix so far in 2021 is “The Minimalists: Less is Now”. Made by the creative duo Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus, the documentary takes a look at overconsumption and how the two blogger / podcaster / filmmakers came to their new careers as minimalist advisors for the masses. 

Click to see “Everything That Remains”. Also available on Amazon.

There’s been a bit of a wave of minimalism of late which seems to be rising in tandem with trends like Marie Kondo’s de-cluttering advice and ‘joy in the act of tidying up’. This roughly corresponds in some ways with the aligned philosophical surge of interest in Stoicism, which has seen renewed interest in recent times, perhaps due to the same forces of chaos and overconsumption that led the minimalist duo to begin their de-cluttered lifestyles.

Read more: Joy is the Only Goal

A further, only partially explored connection from the film, is the influence of digital advertising, social media and the current unfolding crisis due to the massive big tech monopolies controlling our world. The hit Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma” itself does not do a lot more than scratch the surface of the problems and issues of social media and big tech dominance, and, clearly, would be beyond the scope the less ambitious “The Minimalists: Less is Now”.

Kudos for taking on big subjects and paring down to digestible fare

However, one of the threads of the film does deal with the perceived issues of increasingly more manipulative ad systems and more powerful, targeted, barrage of messages to buy that emanate throughout our lives from Facebook, Google and Amazon, who they point out in the film control over 70% of all digital advertising. 

The primary threads in the film are the twin biographical stories of the two authors, who were best friends since childhood, interspersed with interview footage from various experts in the ways that our culture can lead to overconsumption and unhappiness, even as we all try to chase the American dream. 

In the end, the film is an enjoyable and thought provoking introduction to the ethos “less is now” and how to benefit from having a de-cluttered life. The personal and conversational presentation using the filmmakers’ personal stories and presenting them with both on camera confessional footage as well as illustrative “flashbacks” is perhaps the largest factor that makes this a satisfying, if light-hearted, journey into self-betterment through less.  

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Find books on Music, Movies & Entertainment and many other topics at our sister site: Cherrybooks on Bookshop.org

Enjoy Lynxotic at Apple News on your iPhone, iPad or Mac 

Lynxotic may receive a small commission based on any purchases made by following links from this page

Books, Entertainment, Fashion, Lifestyle

Marie Kondo: Joy Is The Only Goal

Finding Joy in the act of Tidying Up

Photo / Adobe Stock

Marie Kondo wants to help others find joy in the act of tidying up. The opportunity to reassess and bring more awareness to our personal belongings in a more mindful way is her unique approach to cleaning. 

Best Known for her bestselling books, “ The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”, “Spark Joy”, more recently Kondo is gaining fans for her Netflix show, “Tidying up with Marie Kondo”.

On a mission to inspire others and to “spark joy”, she’s aided by her expertise in tidying along with her organizational method called KonMarie.

Thoughts of tidying often conjure up an end result of little more than a somewhat cleaner and more tidy outward appearance. Marie Kondo’s special talent is to help illuminate many indirect personal benefits that can arise as a result of confronting your sub-conscious attachments to belongings.

Read More: Summer Books to Mark a Most Unusual Adventure and Unexpected Circumstance

Dreaded Chores or Opportunity for Joy?

Marie’s unconventional and heart-warming approach is refreshing  and helpful in comparison to how most people view cleaning (example: as a dreaded chore). 

Her methods are systematic and start by organizing items based on categories (versus by location).  There are five categories that are in a specific order: clothing, books, paper, komono (which encompasses kitchen, bathroom and garage), and lastly, sentimental/emotional items.  

As can be seen in her Netflix Show, when first coming into any clients home, Kondo first greets the home, allowing the residents to give thanks to the home for shelter and protection, and as a formal way of communicating the beginning of the tidying process.

Under her system, each category requires you to accumulate all the items together (e.g. gathering clothing from all rooms and creating a large pile) in order to pick up and touch each individual item.

The very act of collecting all belongings within each category forces one to confront the possessions and, in some cases, take a hard look at any excessive materialism.

Only items that spark joy, creating a warm and positive feeling (“holding a puppy feeling”) should be kept and items no longer wanted or needed, are to be thanked and and then let go.

By choosing to keep only items that spark joy and letting go of unnecessary items a cathartic refocus can occur, leading to understanding of what is most important and, ultimately, learning to cherish what you have, in order to achieve greater happiness in life.

Read More: Disney is Releasing an Avalanche of Star Wars Content on May 4th to Disney+

Subscribe

Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest updates directly to your inBox.

Find books on Arts & Crafts and D.I.Y., Sustainable Energy, Economics and many other topics at our sister site: Cherrybooks on Bookshop.org

Enjoy Lynxotic at Apple News on your iPhone, iPad or Mac 

Lynxotic may receive a small commission based on any purchases made by following links from this page