The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (12 page)

Many items within the home are treated in the same way. They are placed, stored, and accumulate “just because,” without our giving them much thought. I call this category
komono
, a Japanese term that the dictionary defines variously as “small articles; miscellaneous items; accessories; gadgets or small tools, parts, or attachments; an insignificant person; small fry.” It’s no wonder people don’t know what to do with things that fall into such a vague and all-encompassing category. Still, it’s time to bid farewell to this “just because” approach. These items play an important part in supporting your lifestyle and therefore they, too, deserve to be handled one by one and sorted properly.

Unlike clothes or books, this category includes a diverse range of items, and the thought of trying to sort and organize them may seem daunting. If you deal with them in the proper order, however, this task is actually quite simple. The basic order for sorting
komono
is as follows:

(If you have many items related to a particular interest or hobby, such as ski equipment or tea ceremony articles, treat these as a single subcategory.)

I recommend this particular order because it is easier if you start with more personal items and clearly defined content first. If you live alone, you don’t really need to worry about the order as long as you do one subcategory at a time.
Too many people live surrounded by things they don’t need “just because.”
I urge you to take stock of your
komono
and save only, and I mean only, those that bring you joy.

Disposables

A surprising number of things are instantly identifiable as disposable without even asking, “Does this spark joy?” I have already pointed out how important it is to relinquish the things that you find it hard to part with. It is equally important when putting your house in order to actually notice the things you have kept for “no particular reason.” The majority of people are surprisingly unaware of the odds and ends taking up space in their homes.

A plate received as a wedding favor that still sits in its box on top of the china cabinet. A key holder you received as a souvenir from a friend that now lies in your drawer.
A set of peculiar-smelling incense presented to you by your colleagues on your birthday. What do these items all have in common? They were gifts. Someone important to you used precious time to pick them out and buy them for you. They are an expression of love and consideration. You can’t just throw them away, right?

But let’s consider this more carefully. Most of these gifts remain unopened or have been used only once. Admit it. They simply don’t suit your taste. The true purpose of a present is
to be received
.
Presents are not “things” but a means for conveying someone’s feelings
. When viewed from this perspective, you don’t need to feel guilty for parting with a gift. Just thank it for the joy it gave you when you first received it. Of course, it would be ideal if you could use it with joy. But surely the person who gave it to you doesn’t want you to use it out of a sense of obligation, or to put it away without using it, only to feel guilty every time you see it. When you discard or donate it, you do so for the sake of the giver, too.

Do you have a collection of cosmetic samples that have been hanging around for a year or more unused? Many people keep these to use on trips, but then never seem to take them when they travel. I contacted various manufacturers to inquire about the shelf life of these products. The answers were varied. Some only last a few weeks,
while others are good for a year. When the quantity is very small, such as for samples, the quality deteriorates faster. To use possibly outdated cosmetics, especially when you are supposed to be enjoying your travels, seems rather foolhardy.

Boxes are surprisingly bulky. Discard or recycle the box your cell phone comes in as soon as you unpack it. You don’t need the manual or the CD that comes with it either. You’ll figure out the applications you need through using it. All of my clients have discarded these things yet none of them has ever been inconvenienced by their absence. If you do have a problem, you can always get help from the Internet or the clerk at the shop where you bought it. It is far quicker to ask a pro for the answer than to struggle to find one in the manual by yourself.

Some people save the boxes for electrical appliances because they think they can get more money for the appliances if they ever sell them. This, however, is a waste. If you consider the rent or mortgage you pay, turning your space into a storage shed for empty boxes costs you more than what you could earn selling an appliance in a box. You don’t need to keep them for moving either. You can worry about finding suitable boxes when the time comes. It’s a shame to let a boring box take up room in your house just because you might need it someday.

If you see a cord and wonder what on earth it’s for, chances are you’ll never use it again.
Mysterious cords will always remain just that—a mystery
. Are you worried you might need it if something breaks? Don’t be. I have seen countless homes with duplicates of the same type of cord, but a tangle of cords just makes it harder to find the right one. In the end, it is quicker to buy a new one. Keep only those cords that you can clearly identify and get rid of the rest. Your collection most likely contains quite a few that belong to defunct machines you have long since discarded.

I often come across broken TVs and radios in my clients’ homes. Obviously, there is no need to keep these. If you, too, have broken appliances, see this as an opportunity to contact your local recycler and get rid of them.

Quilts, pillows, blankets, sheets—spare sets of bedding take up a lot of room. This is another common item that gets discarded during my lessons, and again, my clients rarely miss it. Although it’s worth having spare bedding if you have regular guests, it’s unnecessary to keep extra sets if you only have overnight visitors at most once or twice a year. Bedding stored indefinitely in the closet often smells
so mildewed you wouldn’t want to let your guests use it anyway. Take a whiff and see for yourself.

You will never use spare buttons. In most cases, when a button falls off, it’s a sign that the particular shirt or blouse has been well worn and loved and has now reached the end of its life. For coats and jackets that you want to keep for a long time, I recommend sewing spare buttons to the lining when you first buy them. For other clothes, if you lose a button and really want to replace it, you can always get what you need at a large handicrafts shop. From my work in the field, I have come to the conclusion that when a button falls off, people often don’t bother to sew another one on even when they have kept the spares. Instead, they either keep wearing the outfit without a button or leave it lying around somewhere in their wardrobe. If you’re not going to use spare buttons anyway, it shouldn’t matter that you get rid of them.

Slimming belts, glass bottles for making kefir, a special blender for making tofu, a weight-loss machine that mimics the movement of horseback riding—it seems a waste to get rid of expensive items like these that you bought by mail order but never fully used. Believe me,
I can relate. But you can let them go. The exhilaration you felt when you bought them is what counts. Express your appreciation for their contribution to your life by telling them, “Thank you for the boost you gave me when I bought you,” or “Thank you for helping me get a little more fit.” Then discard them with the conviction that you are healthier for having bought them.

A cell phone screen cleaner that came with a soda bottle, a ball pen engraved with your school’s name, a paper fan you got at an event, a set of plastic cups won at a fair, glasses bearing a beer company’s logo, Post-its stamped with a pharmaceutical company’s name, a folder with just five sheets of blotting paper, a promotional calendar (still in its tube), a pocket calendar (unused even six months into the year). None of these are going to bring you any pleasure. Discard or recycle them without any qualms.

Make “into my wallet” your motto

Do you have loose change lying around—a penny or two in the bottom of your purse, a dime in the back of a drawer, a quarter on the table? I always find coins when I’m helping
clients put their house in order. The king of the
komono
category, coins can be found in the entrance hall, the kitchen, the living room, the washroom, on top of furniture, and inside drawers.
Despite the fact that coins are perfectly good cash, they are treated with far less respect than paper money
. It seems strange that they should be left lying around the house where they are of no use at all.

Whenever my clients come across loose change during tidying, I make sure it goes straight into their wallets—never into a piggybank. Unlike the other categories, you don’t need to gather coins from every part of the house. Instead, just pop them into your wallet whenever you stumble on them. If you put them in a piggybank, you are simply transferring the place where they will be ignored. People who have lived in the same house for a long time are particularly prone to forgetting about their little cache of coins. Frankly, no one I’ve met who saved pennies without a clear purpose has ever actually used them. If you are saving coins with the vague idea that it would be nice to see how many you can accumulate, now is the time to take them to the bank. The longer you wait, the heavier your cache will be, and the more bother to take it to the bank.

I have also noticed that for some unfathomable reason many of my clients start saving coins in bags when their piggybank is full. Years later during my course, they stumble across a bag bursting with coins in the back of a cupboard. By that time, it is pungent with the smell of rust
and mold, the coins are discolored, and they make a dull clinking sound instead of jingling. At this point, my clients would rather just ignore the bag’s existence. Writing this description is hard enough, but to actually see these coins, stripped of their dignity as money, is heartrending. I beg you to rescue those forgotten coins wasting away in your home by adopting the motto “into my wallet!”

Your parents’ home is not a haven for mementos

Now that you have organized your clothes, books, papers, and
komono
, you can finally tackle the last category—items that have sentimental value. I leave this for last because these are the hardest things to discard. Just as the word implies, mementos are reminders of a time when these items gave us joy. The thought of disposing of them sparks the fear that we’ll lose those precious memories along with them. But you don’t need to worry. Truly precious memories will never vanish even if you discard the objects associated with them. When you think about your future, is it worth keeping mementos of things that you would otherwise forget? We live in the present.
No matter how wonderful things used to be, we cannot live in the past. The joy and excitement we feel here and now are more important
. So, once again, the way to decide
what to keep is to pick up each item and ask yourself, “Does this spark joy?”

Let me tell you about a client of mine whom I’ll call “A.” She was a thirty-year-old mother of two in a five-member household. When I visited her house for our second session, it was obvious that the number of things in her home had decreased. “You really worked hard,” I said. “It looks like you must have gotten rid of about thirty bags’ worth of stuff.”

Looking very pleased, she said, “Yes, I did! I sent all my keepsakes to my mother’s place.” I could hardly believe my ears. She had used the “send it to my parents” method of tidying. When I first started this business, I actually thought that being able to send things “home” was the privilege of people who came from large houses in the country. The majority of my clients were single women or young mothers living in Tokyo. If they asked permission to send things to their parents’ house, I said, “Sure. As long as you do it right away.” I never thought anything of this until my clientele expanded to homes in rural towns. When I learned the true state of parents’ houses, I was forced to retract my rash words.

Now I realize that people who have a convenient place to send things, such as a parents’ house, are actually quite unfortunate. Even if the house is large with rooms to spare, it is not some infinitely expanding fourth dimension.
People never retrieve the boxes they send “home.” Once sent, they will never again be opened
.

But let me get back to my story. Sometime later, A’s mother started taking my course. I knew that if she were to graduate, we would have to do something about the luggage A had sent home. When I visited the house, I found that A’s room had been left untouched. Her things filled the bookcase and the closet, and now there were two big boxes parked on the floor. Her mother’s dream was to have a space of her own in which she could relax, but even though A had moved out long ago, with her things still enshrined in her room, the only space her mother felt was hers was the kitchen. This seemed very unnatural. I contacted A and announced, “You and your mother won’t graduate from this course until you have both dealt with the stuff you left at your parents’ house.”