The Clutter Cure's Illusory Joy

The Clutter Cure's Illusory Joy(nytimes.com)

16 points by RV86 11 years ago | 8 comments

What did I just read? Is this the entirety of her argument?

> It’s consoling to think that, beneath all these distractions, we’ll discover our shining, authentic selves, or even achieve a state of “mindfulness.” But I doubt it.

How many fluff articles can be summarized as "this trend is on an upswing, but I am skeptical"?

As far as material possessions leading to unhappiness, you can find that value system at the core of nearly every major spiritual doctrine, predating Christianity. There's also a massive body of psyche theory around behavioral economics, and the reasons experiential purchases are more satisfying.

This is an eternally well-tread topic that can't be dismissed by a lazy writer confusing her contrarian doubt with reasoned criticism.

onnoonno 11 years ago | |

What do you mean by 'experiential purchases'?

gumby 11 years ago | | |

Typically 'experiential purchases' is used to indicate purchasing an experience, like (as in the article) a trip to Bhutan rather than, say, a new car.

bitexploder 11 years ago |

I will have to disagree here. I vigorously eliminate clutter because I believe it has a definitive impact. Having a bunch of "things" in my field of vision and in my house makes it harder to find the few physical things I really need. I suppose you could argue it isn't clutter, but organization, that is important. But clutter is the enemy of organization.

The more decision fatigue I can eliminate the more I can focus on what I need. All of the other existential pains the author suffers from, I do not. I think "de-cluttering" is an activity many people undertake for a variety of reasons. For me it is all about eliminating decision fatigue and making it easy for me to accomplish the real work I want to accomplish.

davidgerard 11 years ago |

1. Look at your tech pile.

2. Discard everything you have not used in five years. This will halve the pile.

3. Discard everything you have not used in one year. This will halve it again.

No, you won't put it on eBay. No, the special case it's for won't happen. No, "generally useful" is another term for "not actually useful", and "potentially useful" is another term for "not even actually useful".

chazu 11 years ago | |

Looks at big stack of C64 hardware in the corner and shifts uncomfortably

I'm reading Kondo's book right now, and at first I thought it was going to be a wash for me, but her criterion for keeping or discarding things is actually more subtle than "have you used it in the last year?" In her words, you should ask yourself "does this bring me joy?" This may sound like a cop-out, but for people like myself - people who have a lot of hobbies, projects and interests...it makes the problem more approachable.

We'll see where I'm at in six months, though.

davidgerard 11 years ago | | |

When I applied that rule, I really needed to apply that rule. Threw out six broken laptops I finally had to admit to myself I'd never get around to fixing, a zillion obsolete-to-obsolete converter cables, two bags of clothes that had fitted me ten years and 10kg ago ... Blog rant about it: http://reddragdiva.dreamwidth.org/554439.html

I am tempted to apply the "Does this bring me joy?" rule to my stuff again.

RV86 11 years ago |

I've often found myself clearing clutter as the most productive way to procrastinate, telling myself that I'll do better work once I'm organized. Unfortunately, that's not usually the true outcome, so in some ways I'm fooling myself and not really addressing the cause of my demotivation. I appreciated that this article (rigorous or not) challenged me to take a harder look at my behaviors.