An Average Indian vs Marie Kondo

We all know who she is — the cute, smiley Japanese lady, who garnered fame through her KonMari method of decluttering. By urging her followers to only keep items that spark joy and discard the rest, she sure did do a fantastic job of romanticising this chore. Her ideals of minimalism became so popular in the USA that lakhs of people began to fob off all the items that didn't spark joy, thus rendering their houses almost empty. 

Now what ensued after the KonMari method gained momentum, was a large-scale decluttering across households, and all joyless articles were thrown away regardless of condition or utility. As a result, thrift stores and charity shops were met with a flood of goods that they had to contend with, which some social scientists call 'the Marie Kondo Effect'. Unable to shoulder this burden, the shops unload these donations elsewhere. Before we know it, these perfectly good articles end up in the landfill way before their time.

Well, I don't deny the fact that Marie Kondo is a great businessperson. She transformed a dreadful chore into a cute and fun activity — I'll give it to her for that. However, this method of decluttering will not work for zero-wasters, and especially not Indian zero-wasters. I'll admit it — reading about hordes of people thoughtlessly KonMari-ing their houses to stay on-trend irks me no end.

It is not kind to the environment.

The fast route to minimalism is a wasteful one. As we purge a hefty part of our belongings, our mind is only focused on getting rid of them, hence making our stuff someone else's problem. If we pause and think, the things we fob off, which are mostly in good repair, have a very bleak future once they are out of our door. As I mentioned, they'll find their way to the landfill while in excellent condition. Not really aligned to the purpose of zero-waste.

If you do want to be a minimalist without being wasteful, the important thing is to realise that it'll be a really long way to go, and it'll take months.  I will be covering non-wasteful minimalism in an upcoming article.

It's not typical of our culture.

I'm not one for moral policing, don't get me wrong. I'm not someone who'd lecture others about "this is against Indian culture". My intention is to throw light on what KonMari really is. It's nothing new to the Japanese; minimalism is something that is deeply rooted in their culture for centuries — most Japanese people either don't even know who Marie Kondo is or don't really care. 

It's important to note that it is in the USA that KonMari became a sensation. 

Marie Kondo employed effective marketing techniques to advertise her tidying method to the gullible middle-class American. The concept of 'sparking joy' is what clicked with them. Fancy words sure do have a way with people — just use the right words and half the battle is won. She managed to market it as something exotic, and exotic is what catches the average American's eye.

There's something very charming about various odds and ends. If you do want it nice and tidy, you can always organise without throwing anything out

As for the part that it's not something that'll work for Indian zero-wasters, well, extreme minimalism and quick decluttering is just not a part of our fibre. The thing that is part of our fibre, though, is that we use things until they fall apart. 

We. Hoard. 

We know deep in our hearts that even though we don't need an item immediately, we might need it sometime down the line. We have that inner voice that tells us what we may need later and what we'll never need. We can tell what can be repaired (even if that's in the distant future), and what can be given a second life. This is a remarkable skill set we have, unique to us (and other countries like ours). This skill set is what we must leverage to take our zero-waste movement to new heights.

Ask your parents, grandparents, whoever, about their opinion on KonMari. I bet you ₹500 (or whatever) that they'll shake their head disapprovingly and question the sanity of 'this generation...tsk tsk tsk...'. Talking to objects, sparking joy... paagal ho gaye kya yeh log? (Have these people gone nuts?)

If you ask me, this method is utterly impractical. Fobbing off something useful, just because it doesn't spark joy for whatever reason, is stupid. You may need it later on, and when you do, you step out to buy it again. You wasted your money there.

Embrace your hoard. If you must get rid of something, be mindful of where it'll end up. You can always hoard and be tidy at the same time by keeping your hoard organised (the KonMari way or otherwise). Thank your inner voice for telling you if an item will be needed again, especially if it was right. 

Remember — you can be organised and not throw anything out.