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Since its fall 2014 U.S. debut, Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has inspired countless declutter-fests and closet cleanses (as Vogue’s own Chloe Malle can attest). Hoarders everywhere have had a day of reckoning. But behind every such home-improvement movement lurks an initial spark of inspiration. In Kondo’s case, that spark was a book by the name of The Art of Discarding: How to Get Rid of Clutter and Find Joy by Nagisa Tatsumi. Tatsumi’s book is what initially inspired Kondo to start cleaning her own closets. And while we are all very family with Kondo’s subsequent ethos, as of this week, you can purchase Tatsumi’s book for the first time in the U.S. Below, an exclusive excerpt of Tatsumi’s words of wisdom. So, spring cleaning: get ready, get set, discard!
DISCARD WHEN YOU EXCEED A CERTAIN AMOUNT
Set limits. The limit may be the capacity of a particular container—a bookcase, say, or a closet. Once your possessions exceed that capacity, get rid of anything that isn’t required. Or simply decide how much of something you are likely to use—for example, wrapping paper—and don’t allow your stock to exceed that.
What sort of things?
• Clothes, towels/sheets (cabinet; closet); shoes (shoe rack); food (food shelves); books (bookcase); • Pens, pencils (pen holder) • Wrapping paper, string, boxes • Used paper • Pajamas • Bath towels, sheets • Mugs • Chopsticks, spoons, etc. • Cloths • Pots, kitchen utensils
Strategy variations
1: DISCARD WHEN THEY EXCEED A CERTAIN SPACE • Clothes, towels/sheets (cabinet; closet); shoes (shoe rack); food (food shelves); books (bookcase) Don’t keep clothes on bedroom walls, in the corridor or the hall, etc. Decide on just one place to put them. Once that fills up, start checking through what you’ve got. If there’s anything there that you never use, think about getting rid of it. The same approach can be taken with towels and sheets, with shoes that don’t fit on the rack, food that doesn’t fit on the shelves, books that won’t go in the bookcase. Once you’ve decided on the amount of space each type of item should be allocated, think carefully before increasing it. • Pens, pencils (pen holder) It may seem a minor thing, but it’s worth keeping an eye on pen holders. They tend to fill up very quickly, and you want to be able to take pens out and put them back with ease. So once this becomes difficult, get rid of some pens. It’s likely that there are some that don’t work very well, or others you were given but never use. Don’t make the mistake of starting up a new pen box in your drawer.
2: DISCARD WHEN THEY EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU CAN USE • Wrapping paper, string, boxes It’s good to have stock of nice wrapping paper, boxes, ribbons, and string, which can all come in handy. But if the supply exceeds the amount you use, then stock just keeps accumulating. It should be easy to decide how much to keep, based on how much you use. Then you can choose a bag, say, to keep wrapping paper in, and a box for ribbon. Once there is enough to fill the bag or box, throw away or recycle the excess. Deal with supermarket and department store bags in the same way. • Used paper In the past, people were careful to make use of the reverse side of flyers to write notes. But nowadays we have so much paper around us we can’t regard it as “sacred.” We have to consider throwing it away. Waste printouts can be useful for printing drafts or taking notes, but the amount you’re going to use is limited. Decide how much you will actually use and identify a bag or file to keep that amount of paper in. If you exceed capacity, then recycle the surplus.
3: DISCARD WHEN THEY EXCEED THE NECESSARY NUMBER • Pajamas • Bath towels, sheets • Mugs • Chopsticks, spoons, etc. • Cloths • Pots, kitchen utensils
For these and many other items, it’s easy to establish the number required based on how many are necessary per person. And don’t allow for too many spares. It’s important to have enough, of course, but the number you really require may be surprisingly small (see Part One, Attitude 6—“If you’ve got it, use it”). If you exceed that number, get rid of the older ones. Keep the same number over time, gradually replacing old with new. So, for example: three pairs of pajamas (summer and winter), two sets of sheets, two bath towels, plus one or two for guests. As for mugs, spoons, pairs of chopsticks—one per person plus two extra for guests; cloths—four in total. Decide how many pots and serving plates you require according to size—for example, two large and two small.
Why this strategy works
We keep getting new things, but the old ones can still be used and we often hold on to them. This strategy provides an opportunity to get rid of the older things and smoothes the replacement process. This strategy works for many of those things that survey participants found “difficult to dispose of.” Whether something gets thrown away or kept in the house can depend on how many disposal opportunities you create.
Courtesy of Hachette Books