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(pic: roses in my backyard) 

If 1/3 of our items sparks joy, we have a very joyful home!
Let’s see how we get there.  

Joy is important, no question, most of us should be more joyful! And yes, our homes could spark more joy! Decluttering sure matters, we are drowning in stuff. Clutter is having an increasing impact on our lives. Decluttering doesn’t just affect the material level, but also the mental, emotional, physical, digital, spiritual, health level and more. A good clearing out sets free a lot of energy – it’s a boost in so many ways. Similar to multitasking, clutter overloads our senses, impairs our ability to think openly & creatively, makes us feel more nervous & stressed. Clutter is a constant «I should», «I have to» in our head. Too much stuff robs us of mental energy, leaves us feeling anxious, tired, overwhelmed, frustrated. And we furthermore waste time looking for things we can’t find right away. Clutter is causing a lot of people a lot of pain. It’s not just stuff on the floor and in the closet. It also represents postponed decisions, obsolete thoughts & ideas, unhealthy relationships, painful memories, bad habits, and more. Anything unfinished, unresolved is clutter in a way. It’s hard to move ahead if our minds, hearts & hands are full of junk. 

Our zeitgeist demands to declutter, to let go of needless thoughts & things. Plenty of products & services out there advocate: Get rid of that clutter in the house and that nonsense in the head and bring in the magic, please! The mundane subject «decluttering», combined with a decent portion of wellness, spirituality & esoterism and a strong desire for magic, brings out international bestsellers like «The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up» by Japanese organizing queen Marie Kondō. 

Do I use the «KonMari Method» for my home? No. Anyway my place is well decluttered – and sparks a lot of joy! 

I use a much older method – the «Morris Method» (we come to that in a little while).

This is the easiest decluttering method you will ever come across!

Everybody can use it and start anywhere, anytime, almost anyhow. And the «Morris Method» can be a lifelong companion – as it is and will be for me. (Illustration above by Lisa Congdon, http://lisacongdon.com/blog)

Let’s start with a «classic» by the brilliant comedian, author & social critic George Carlin:

«A Place for my Stuff» (5 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JLoge6QzcGY

«Their stuff is sh!t – but your sh!t is stuff!» That was back in 1981 – and it’s gotten so much worse since then. We are drowning in stuff, clutter has gotten out of hands, and it's having an increasing impact on our lives. So we read articles & books on decluttering, seek advice from other people and the media or even hire a coach. There are plenty of products & services out there; our prevailing zeitgeist demands to declutter. And letting go of painful thoughts & emotions as well. We prompt ourselves: Get rid of that clutter in the house and that nonsense in the head and bring in the magic, please!   

The mundane subject «decluttering» combined with a decent portion of wellness, spirituality & esoterism and a strong desire for magic, brings out an international bestseller like «The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up» (by Japanese author & organizing consultant Marie Kondō).

Or we could follow a more European approach like «The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning». Death Cleaning is an old tradition especially in Nordic countries. But we also know it in other parts or Europe, like Switzerland for example, where I come from. It’s about freeing ourselves and especially our families from a lifetime of clutter – any time before we die. The process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage, but essentially before others have to do it for us!

Or we can read any of the countless other books on decluttering matters.

But we don’t have to. There is a much easier way with just one brilliant sentence from the 19th century!