Cat2, exactly! You get it.

Our home has a contemporary style — it’s a post and beam built in the late 80s and our preferred decor style is contemporary meets Asian. But I’ve worked in some old beloved pieces inherited from my parents (and from mom’a uncle, the closest thing I ever knew to a grandfather). Plus gifts from friends and way too many plants. The effect is a bit eclectic but I like it. When I clear too much stuff out it gets a little sterile for me, and too much stuff out gives me anxiety. But for now I am taking joy from my surroundings, which is even more important than ever during this time when we are all staying home so much. Pics below are all integrating and repurposing things I found while cleaning out.

BTCOOM :), Yes definitely I have some of these items and they are my best friends at times.
Regarding the sparking joy, sometimes I just want clothing that feels like a nice warm hug .

Ironically enough I think many people on this thread would actually enjoy a podcast called Spark Joy - it's hosted by two certified Marie Kondo consultants but it's not an official MK enterprise. Anyway they are obviously fans of MK and her methods but they also acknowledge, among other things, that many western homes are a lot larger than Japanese apartments and the decluttering process may take longer and look different than MK suggests. They have interesting guests discussing a variety of lifestyle topics, some of whom are focused on wardrobe like "eco-stylist" Kaitlin Stewart, who believes in "being a conscious consumer and unapologetic thrifter', or recycling expert Adam Minter, who explains where our donated clothing items end up, which I found pretty fascinating. It's a good podcast to listen to while working on house stuff like tidying, organizing, repurposing, etc. Not at all limited to people who have done or are doing a Marie-style purge.

Nodding along ... there is "wow isn't this top/boots/jacket/home beautiful I love it so much" joy, and there is "wow aren't I lucky my toilet flushes and I am on a functional public sanitation system" ... both are important, even if they don't quite evoke the same emotions!

I've never bought into the sparking joy concept or felt it applied to me anyways. No idea what a UMW or whatever the acronym is, but I'm just trying to get through the day looking as least-bad as I can . If I don't hate what I'm wearing, I'm having a good day, let's put it that way. Sparking joy and using that to edit? I'd be left with nothing . Which is about the state of mind I'm in these days anyways

Items that spark pure joy are the items from my fantasy life, where I’m in a cream cashmere coat and cream boots with an absurdly expensive bag So, they are not the things I buy. As for what I have, “I like it” is sufficient. And I MKed my house before I even knew about her or her method
I don’t evaluate my stuff on “what brings joy” metrics necessarily. I just feel overwhelmed by clutter and have a bit of OCD so I edit often. What I keep must be either useful or evoke good feelings.
I’m on a self imposed challenge to get rid of 1 item per day for 30 days. It’s not coming only from my closet, mostly these are things I keep for no apparent reason like costume jewelry or a set of plates I never use. I don’t do it so I can buy more, I want someone else to put in good use instead of gathering dust in my home.

I'll be the earnest spanner and say that *finding* the spark of joy in all possessions can be a really good exercise.

Like, "wow, this bright fuchsia sweater is my favorite color and wearing it really cheers me up and energizes me" and "wow, these jeans really fit nicely and have held up well through dozens of washes" are different forms of joy but one isn't lesser than the other.

Partly what I'm saying is that joy doesn't have to be merely aesthetic, it can also come out of usefulness -- and in fact sometimes grows from repeated use.

(For similar reasons I'm trying not to talk about "decluttering" anymore but refer to "editing" instead -- it's more respectful to the items/objects in question!)

Sarah, I agree with you and will go a little further to say that joy that comes out of our interaction with an item is much richer than the phenomenon Cat2 described. I haven’t read MK’s book (shocker) but I have to think the idea of buying joy is a misrepresentation of her thought. Just before reading your comment here, I expounded a bit on Sal’s thread about items that bring joy, about the different ways that can happen. “Retail joy” is a cheap version, because it lacks dimension. We don’t have to constantly wear the clothing equivalent of velveteen rabbits that have become “real” but it is entirely possible for the pendulum to swing much too far in the opposite direction from that.

Janet, what a lovely, warm home!

Fwiw, I think people are misinterpreting “joy” to mean “happy” or “giddiness” or “invoke rapture” (nice one, cmh) or some other fleeting emotion. I guess that’s what it is to some people, but to me its meaning is a deeper, abiding, peaceful contentment, satisfaction, pleasure at life in an anchored kind of way. I like Cat2’s table linen example.

Lisa, sounds like things are rough right now. Sorry to hear that.

I’m surprised how many people had to google UMC—but then I had to google BTCOOM. Thank goodness for google; how did we ever live without it, lol?

I still haven’t figured out BTCOOM. I guess I’m inept at googling social terminology. But I get the idea that some people with too much believe that throwing things away for the sake of having less is a sort of monastic virtue signifier.

I might be more like Smaug or Gollum with my precious treasures.

UmmLila, I thought I was the only one! “Beats the crap out of me” is what I found. (As JenniNZ posted earlier, UMC refers to “upper middle class”).
I’m laughing at your very on-point phrasing of throwing things away to have less as some sort of monastic virtue signal, and can really identify with your last paragraph. If I like it, I like it for keeps. I’m the same way with friends.

Fashintern - please check your PM’s .

Janet, you have such a great eye!

UmmLila, I love the monastic virtue signifier, that’s exactly it! Like boasting about how many bags they things they donated? It’s yet another display of wealth if undertaken in the wrong spirit.

To those who insist on joy as the standard, I just want to flag that from this thread it’s clear that for many that may not be the shared threshold for wardrobe entry or retention, and that an intersection of utility, budget, time, priority and fit challenges results in other standards that should be supported.

“I love the monastic virtue signifier, that’s exactly it! Like boasting about how many bags they things they donated? It’s yet another display of wealth if undertaken in the wrong spirit.”

I struggled with ‘sparks joy’ when MKs book first came out, and I think we talked about it here at the time. I was raised a Calvinist Midwesterner and material objects weren’t supposed to spark joy - they were supposed to be practical and functional. (There’s also a lot of misogyny in there about how women only care about aesthetics and how things look is unimportant and shallow and ‘big city’ immoral that I’m still trying to unpack.)

I suspect that the original phrasing in Japanese probably has some nuance that isn’t captured in the translation, not to mention the cultural context of Shinto in Japan and the idea that objects have a spirit or soul (wildly overgeneralizing, sorry). Also, she never says that items should spark joy constantly; just that you should use the question for when culling to help make decisions about what to keep and what to let go.

I don’t actually find cat2 harsh in this thread but am interested that some of you have. I think she is talking about people she knows. Many concepts can I guess be taken too far and cause some other issue like the search for perfection and the possible associated waste.
I did like Jules’ idea in this thread of sometimes a gut feeling by pulling something out as to whether you do want to keep it or that you don’t like it any more. I have used that, in my case it is after much too long hanging onto said item and not loving it but being reluctant to let go due to either sunk cost or making sure I would not regret letting it go, as per another thread. So as usual, it depends on what one’s usual personal issues or challenges are in wardrobe management!

Fully supporting Cat2

Cat2 would you mind awfully putting a tiny bit in your profile? I’m guessing you are in the US and possibly California, it does help with a vague picturing of the person and “placing” them in one’s head. I have appreciated your threads and am glad you stayed.

JenniNZ, speaking of regional differences, the kind of “buy-yourself-happy” attitude Cat2 describes is one I’ve heard criticized in several American groups. Not sure if that means we’re worse at that than others, or that we are figuring it out and moving past it more quickly.

Here’s an article about the translation from the Japanese, of ‘spark joy’.

Great article thanks J’Aileen! Maybe that’s why ( on Sal’s thread) I didn’t have that many items that actually “sparked joy”, not that many of my clothes made me feel like my heart beat faster!

Thanks JAileen! I was hoping someone would give a fuller translation. Sounds like the meaning in the original is much less, is more superficial, than the “joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” that I’d been thinking of. No wonder her methods can lead to people thinking that buying a thing can make them happy.