Earlier this year, I read Marie Kondo‘s bestselling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” after reading a review in the New York Times. Her fantastic “KonMari” decluttering / home organization methodology was, for me and many others I know who’ve read it, life-changing. Asking yourself whether an item “sparks joy” and then thanking it for its service if you choose to discard it has had a transformative effect on how I think about the stuff in my space, and has been particularly useful as I whittle down my 1-bedroom-apartment’s worth of stuff into a more reasonable amount for my current studio.
Throughout the book, she directs the reader to embark on their tidying effort “all at once” and “in one go.” I found this extremely intimidating! I have a lot of crap from a decade of mostly living on my own, and there are many ~feels~ associated with said crap. Processing those feels is a lot of work – as Kondo puts it, “The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” So “all at once” felt, at times, super overwhelming to read.
Except that when she says “all at once,” she means six months. She only says this once in the whole book:
To achieve a sudden change like this, you need to use the most efficient method of tidying. Otherwise, before you know it, the day will be gone and you will have made no headway. The more time it takes, the more tired you feel, and the more likely you are to give up when you’re only halfway through. When things pile up again, you will be caught in a downward spiral. From my experience with private individual lessons, “quickly” means about half a year. That may seem like a long time, but it is only six months out of your entire life. Once the process is complete and you’ve experienced what it’s like to be perfectly tidy, you will have been freed forever from the mistaken assumption that you’re no good at tidying. (kindle link)
When I got to this passage I breathed a sigh of relief, and I wanted to share it in the hopes that it will encourage others to read her book and go a little easier on themselves in doing so. Here’s to sparking joy!
hypatia dot ca 
I need to share this with my parents, who are embarking on a big downsizing move right now. Thanks.
She never explained how to deal with necessities. No socks “spark joy”. But I need socks.
Otherwise appreciated the book! (and thanks for highlighting the instant 6 months)
stevesmoot, she has discussed this in her google talk as well as her AMA on Reddit. It boils down to: we should appreciate what utilitarian items in our lives do for us and when we do have that appreciatation it is a form of sparking joy.