Last week, Enable Ireland charity shops around the country made a public appeal for people to keep them in mind when doing a Marie Kondo on their house.
The point of the appeal was to ensure that the clearing out of anything that didn’t ‘spark joy’ didn’t just spark a bonfire in back gardens nationwide. The truly clear-conscience way would be to pass along what you don’t want to someone who might want it, or, better, might not just want it, but need it.
In recent weeks, other charity shops, such as those run by St Vincent de Paul and Barnardo’s, have reported a spike in donations that they attribute to the Marie Kondo effect. Annually, January is the post-Christmas month when people tend to purge their wardrobes and belongings, but this year it’s different.
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This year, the KonMari method, as shown on Netflix, sees Irish people not only getting rid of that which is old and weary, but also the good stuff that is just sitting there, taking up space and making them feel guilty.
Hollie Creedon, who owns the Cobbler’s Wardrobe designer consignment shop on Dublin’s Sandymount Green, says that January and February are a busy time for her anyway, but this year she is seeing a greater volume of clothes than usual.
“Consignment means we don’t buy our items outright,” Hollie explains. “We take them in and keep them for a certain period of time. If we sell the items, we do a 50/50 split, and if we don’t, they go back to the consigner. So we’re looking for classic, timeless pieces, and very gently used.
“What I’ve seen,” Hollie adds, “is that a number of our consigners, new and existing, have come in and said they’ve watched the TV series and they have a new approach to clearing out.
“I’m noticing a greater quantity of items coming in and I think that’s because people are willing to part with their possessions a little bit more after watching it. Customers say they’ve done their little piles,” she says. “What they’d like to give to friends or family, what they’ll give to charity, what they’d like to sell.”
This idea of sharing and spreading the joy, Hollie believes, seems key to how we have embraced KonMari.
It’s not about waste, it’s about attaching a warm feeling to filleting your possessions.
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Of course, Marie Kondo – not to mention the concept of clearing out – is nothing new. Her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, was first published in 2011 and was an international best-seller.
Her approach, which she calls KonMari, is to encourage people to gather all their belongings – category by category, rather than working room by room – in one place and keep only those that “spark joy”.
There were techniques, too, such as rolling clothes and stacking them vertically, side-by-side, rather than folding and placing them one on top of the other. For anyone who never read it, this was all they thought KonMari was about: T-shirts arranged like rolled-up towels.
On New Year’s Day this year, Netflix released a series called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, which gave the approach a new lease of life. And it is the joy-sparking that seems to have made the greatest impression this time around.
On the TV series, Kondo goes into people’s homes, a bit like a decluttering version of Supernanny, and helps them to reassess their habitat. The residents often end up in tears as they take their home apart, good tears, cathartic tears. The kind that make people want some of that emotion and has got them setting doggedly to work on tidying and purging.
If ever there was the impression that KonMari was about shedding the emotional attachment to one’s belongings, the Netflix TV show has dispelled that. The joy is the key. Look at your stuff, decide what makes you feel alive, for that is what joy is, and discard the rest. It’s dragging you down, dulling who you are, and crucial in this day and age, an obstacle to your best life as your best self.
The world has taken a while to catch up with Marie, and binge-TV, not the printed page, is made for her.
Through Kondo’s Netflix series, it has become obvious that her approach is all about the emotions. It’s just about losing the bad ones and retaining the good.
And we all want a bit of that, it seems, hence the heaps of books and, in particular clothes, that have been leaving Irish homes since January.
“She’s just so nice,” says Hollie Creedon, of the fact that Marie Kondo seems to have found a way to make people feel OK, not only with the potential extent of their hoarding, but also with letting go of our Irish guilt around waste.
In the Cobbler’s Wardrobe, Hollie says she is seeing more high-end items still with their tags on. She laughs at the suggestion that some of these might have been hanging around, making their owners feel guilty since the Celtic Tiger days, but concedes that some may have survived one or two clothing culls before Kondo put paid to them.
“There’s traditionally a lot of guilt around things we haven’t worn, or that we’ll never wear,” says Hollie Creedon.
“But what Marie Kondo is saying is park that, don’t feel guilty about it, we’ve all done it. It’s about letting go of that and saying if I don’t feel the love and appreciation for this, then give someone else the opportunity to feel it.”
This second wave of KonMari, triggered by the TV series, ties in with the recent upsurge of interest in mindfulness and meditation.
KonMari encourages the tidy-upper to relocate their attention as they assess their belongings, moving it away from guilt at the waste and feelings of “Oh God, what possessed me to buy that?”.
Those, as we’ve doubtless all learned from our meditation practice, are unhelpful thoughts. Marie helps us to see them, acknowledge them and then say “puff” as they evaporate, while, in real terms, the unwanted stuff goes into a black sack or a box and finds another home.
And other homes await. Your joyless item could spark joy somewhere else, and could either earn you a few quid in a consignment shop, or salve your conscience further in a charity shop.
Even spreading the joy has its limits, though.
In January, only weeks after Marie Kondo brought her magic to Netflix, charity shops in the US were asking people to stop arriving with their unwanted stuff.
Here, however, the shared joy is still sparking. For now.
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Sarah Caden: ‘Kondo gives can-do to share the joy without feeling guilty’
Sarah Caden: ‘Kondo gives can-do to share the joy without feeling guilty’
Last week, Enable Ireland charity shops around the country made a public appeal for people to keep them in mind when doing a Marie Kondo on their house.
The point of the appeal was to ensure that the clearing out of anything that didn’t ‘spark joy’ didn’t just spark a bonfire in back gardens nationwide. The truly clear-conscience way would be to pass along what you don’t want to someone who might want it, or, better, might not just want it, but need it.
In recent weeks, other charity shops, such as those run by St Vincent de Paul and Barnardo’s, have reported a spike in donations that they attribute to the Marie Kondo effect. Annually, January is the post-Christmas month when people tend to purge their wardrobes and belongings, but this year it’s different.
Please sign in or register with Independent.ie for free access to this article.
Sign In
New to Independent.ie? Sign up
This year, the KonMari method, as shown on Netflix, sees Irish people not only getting rid of that which is old and weary, but also the good stuff that is just sitting there, taking up space and making them feel guilty.
Hollie Creedon, who owns the Cobbler’s Wardrobe designer consignment shop on Dublin’s Sandymount Green, says that January and February are a busy time for her anyway, but this year she is seeing a greater volume of clothes than usual.
“Consignment means we don’t buy our items outright,” Hollie explains. “We take them in and keep them for a certain period of time. If we sell the items, we do a 50/50 split, and if we don’t, they go back to the consigner. So we’re looking for classic, timeless pieces, and very gently used.
“What I’ve seen,” Hollie adds, “is that a number of our consigners, new and existing, have come in and said they’ve watched the TV series and they have a new approach to clearing out.
“I’m noticing a greater quantity of items coming in and I think that’s because people are willing to part with their possessions a little bit more after watching it. Customers say they’ve done their little piles,” she says. “What they’d like to give to friends or family, what they’ll give to charity, what they’d like to sell.”
This idea of sharing and spreading the joy, Hollie believes, seems key to how we have embraced KonMari.
It’s not about waste, it’s about attaching a warm feeling to filleting your possessions.
Of course, Marie Kondo – not to mention the concept of clearing out – is nothing new. Her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, was first published in 2011 and was an international best-seller.
Her approach, which she calls KonMari, is to encourage people to gather all their belongings – category by category, rather than working room by room – in one place and keep only those that “spark joy”.
There were techniques, too, such as rolling clothes and stacking them vertically, side-by-side, rather than folding and placing them one on top of the other. For anyone who never read it, this was all they thought KonMari was about: T-shirts arranged like rolled-up towels.
On New Year’s Day this year, Netflix released a series called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, which gave the approach a new lease of life. And it is the joy-sparking that seems to have made the greatest impression this time around.
On the TV series, Kondo goes into people’s homes, a bit like a decluttering version of Supernanny, and helps them to reassess their habitat. The residents often end up in tears as they take their home apart, good tears, cathartic tears. The kind that make people want some of that emotion and has got them setting doggedly to work on tidying and purging.
If ever there was the impression that KonMari was about shedding the emotional attachment to one’s belongings, the Netflix TV show has dispelled that. The joy is the key. Look at your stuff, decide what makes you feel alive, for that is what joy is, and discard the rest. It’s dragging you down, dulling who you are, and crucial in this day and age, an obstacle to your best life as your best self.
The world has taken a while to catch up with Marie, and binge-TV, not the printed page, is made for her.
Through Kondo’s Netflix series, it has become obvious that her approach is all about the emotions. It’s just about losing the bad ones and retaining the good.
And we all want a bit of that, it seems, hence the heaps of books and, in particular clothes, that have been leaving Irish homes since January.
“She’s just so nice,” says Hollie Creedon, of the fact that Marie Kondo seems to have found a way to make people feel OK, not only with the potential extent of their hoarding, but also with letting go of our Irish guilt around waste.
In the Cobbler’s Wardrobe, Hollie says she is seeing more high-end items still with their tags on. She laughs at the suggestion that some of these might have been hanging around, making their owners feel guilty since the Celtic Tiger days, but concedes that some may have survived one or two clothing culls before Kondo put paid to them.
“There’s traditionally a lot of guilt around things we haven’t worn, or that we’ll never wear,” says Hollie Creedon.
“But what Marie Kondo is saying is park that, don’t feel guilty about it, we’ve all done it. It’s about letting go of that and saying if I don’t feel the love and appreciation for this, then give someone else the opportunity to feel it.”
This second wave of KonMari, triggered by the TV series, ties in with the recent upsurge of interest in mindfulness and meditation.
KonMari encourages the tidy-upper to relocate their attention as they assess their belongings, moving it away from guilt at the waste and feelings of “Oh God, what possessed me to buy that?”.
Those, as we’ve doubtless all learned from our meditation practice, are unhelpful thoughts. Marie helps us to see them, acknowledge them and then say “puff” as they evaporate, while, in real terms, the unwanted stuff goes into a black sack or a box and finds another home.
And other homes await. Your joyless item could spark joy somewhere else, and could either earn you a few quid in a consignment shop, or salve your conscience further in a charity shop.
Even spreading the joy has its limits, though.
In January, only weeks after Marie Kondo brought her magic to Netflix, charity shops in the US were asking people to stop arriving with their unwanted stuff.
Here, however, the shared joy is still sparking. For now.
Source: Read Full Article