Media I have spent my entire life avoiding

I've always, naturally been a minimalist. And while now, sure, I'm financially secure, that was not always the case, and I'd argue that being a minimalist helped get me there.  
IMO, Minimalism isn't itself classist.  If people seek it out and decide it makes them happier, why is that a problem? No one is forced to watch Marie Kondo or follow her advice. The people who do so are choosing it because they need help reducing the amount of clutter they have. If that's not you (or Shulkie), then great. Lifestyles and advice don't have apply to 100% of the population to be practical or beneficial.

(I'm also picturing a TV show where someone is waiting for Marie Kondo to help them clean up, and instead Karl Marx shows up and convinces them that they can never be rid of stuff until we overthrow capitalism.  Would watch.)

I should note that my original post on the matter was spurred by having too many people tell me I "needed" to watch the show and I kind of hit my breaking point. I don't avoid media just because it's popular; I avoid media because it holds no interest for me. For example, I stopped watching Game of Thrones after season 5 because I realized it wasn't the kind of thing I wanted more of, and people still bug me about that several years later and want to convince me to give it another try, and the more they do it, the less I want to (not that I want to anyway). Recommendations are great! I love recommendations! But I really dislike it when I'm told repeatedly and without asking for it that I "have" to or "need" to consume a certain piece of media. I had a really terrible friend who would shove her "recommendations" down my throat (she was also terrible for other reasons) and would make fun of me and call me a killjoy if I told her that I appreciated the rec but didn't think it was really something I'd enjoy. So when other people do that, it evokes the same sort of "fuck you, don't tell me what to do" reaction in me. I know that's not rational, but I've just been burned too many times.

I'm also not saying anyone here's done any of this, but I needed to vent in a place where I wouldn't get totally pummeled for being frustrated that nobody will just listen to me when I tell them I'd rather spend the time to clean and organize my own space rather than spend the same amount of time watching this show. If it helps people, great. I mean that. But there are also a lot of valid reasons that other people don't find it helpful. 

Do we got decent HD footage of Marx from before he died?

Alright, then how a cardboard standee of Marx? NO WAIT! A MARX MUPPET!

My friend could use a little Marie Kondo in her life. When I was helping her move* the other day she had packed up very carefully all of the little "art" pieces from her daughter's art classes. I'm like, why do you even still have these? Take a picture of them, throw it away, and move on with your life! 

*By helping her move, I mean watching the kids while everyone else did the heavy lifting.

Do you think a modern audience could tell the difference between Karl and Groucho? There's plenty of footage of Groucho, and I imagine somebody somewhere could CGI it into HD somehow.

It would be entertaining to hear quotes about the class struggle, or about seizing the means of production, every time Harpo honks his horn. Or was that Lenin?

This is a good point.  I should have specified that my problem with it is the presentation of minimalism as the means to happiness, especially when preached by the especially wealthy.  I'm thinking back to a couple of the "frugality gurus" mentioned in this Atlantic article.  I think it is classist to, say, be a startup multimillionaire and lecture people on how frugality is the way to the good life, but yeah, I shouldn't have said that minimalism itself must be, and the decisions you made about how to live your life certainly aren't.  

Edit:  forgot to link to that old Atlantic article.  Whoops.

And don't forget Mao who never made the transition from vaudeville to film. 

 I believe he became a theatrical agent.

The BBC did get him that one time:

And that makes a lot of sense to me. My grandmother grew up country poor ( I could never really tell how dire) & was also very much a Depression-era woman, and, while she was more of a packrat, she definitely had the mindset of being unable to throw away things that might be useful one day, like empty coffee cans & the like.  She didn’t want to throw things out but she also didn’t want to spend money on new things unless she had to.

Cleaning out her house after she died kinda impelled me to keep an eye on my own packrat tendencies.  Which were probably inherited from her. 

The konmari method isn't just instructions on how to clean; it's more focused on a person's relationship with their stuff. Each chapter corresponds to one step in the method and the manga tells the story of how a client improves her life by de-cluttering, step by step. Some key takeaways: 

"Success in tidying depends 90 percent on your mind-set...the chances of a rebound are higher if you only learn the 'how-tos' of tidying" (Ch. 1 Decide to Tidy Up in which Chiaki is confronted by a neighbor about her messiness)

"By thinking about your ideal lifestyle, you will begin identifying why you really want to tidy and the kind of life you want once you have finished." (Ch. 2 Visualize Your Ideal Lifestyle in which Marie makes Chiaki confront her past and current lifestyle)

"The true purpose of your home and your things is to bring you happiness. So, naturally, the criterion for choosing [what to discard] should be whether keeping something will make you happy. (Ch. 3 Finish Discarding First in which Marie explains the difference between material value, functional value, informational value, emotional value, and rarity)

"Most people can't tidy because they have too much stuff. They accumulate too much stuff because they don't know how much they actually own." (Ch. 4 Tidy By Category in which Marie makes Chiaki confront all the stuff she has accumulated)

"By touching your clothes with your hands, you pass on your energy" (Ch. 5 Just Fold and Stand Upright in which Marie demonstrates the ins and outs of folding and makes a case for mindfulness) 

"Get rid of all your unread, neglected books. When you're left with only those that spark joy, you'll find that the quality of information that comes your way changes dramatically." (Ch. 6 Choose Books by Feel, in which Marie discusses the importance of timing and letting go of 'someday')

"The Rule of Thumb for papers is discard them all. Keep only those that you're certain you will use in the future." (Ch. 7 Paper and Komono in which Marie convinces Chiaki that there are a lot of things she won't miss if she discards them)

"We should use our space not for the person we once were, but for our future selves." (Ch. 8 Leave Sentimental Items for Last in which Chiaki lets go of past heartbreak)

"If we take good care of our possessions, they will take good care of us." (Ch. 9 Store Things Where They Belong in which Marie demonstrates how to store things for use, not for hiding)

In the final chapter, "Real Life Begins After Putting Your House in Order" Chiaki finds love and lives a clean, uncluttered life ever after. It's not complicated, but it can be profound in practice. Every year, I do a 'konmari Christmas' de-clutter and it feels good - more like self-care than a chore. It's not shame-based, which seems to be what detractors think it is. 

 

Chiaki must be real, otherwise Joanie wouldn't love him.



I really should be ashamed of myself.