Marie Kondo meets Excel

It took me a while to read Marie Kondo’s book, ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’. A few years, actually!

I must admit that I was initially sceptical about her method, which involves only keeping things that bring us joy. Life is not lived solely in contentment, right?

I eventually gave in and found myself captivated by the author’s poetic vision and opinions on ‘Western’ accumulation and gender biases.

Then I asked myself: How to quantify JOY?

- I mean, this happened a few years ago and I had no idea what ‘sentiment analysis’ meant at the time.

So I decided to try out Marie Kondo’s method and create an Excel sheet to measure the joy each item brought me, but I only managed to follow her ritual for the first three items before giving up.

Despite this, I found the process of recording all my accessories, clothes, shoes, and bags stimulating. I listed them in the first column and added variables such as shape, colour, timelessness, purchase date, functionality, and more to categorise them.

- Now I think this exercise would be ideal for those starting in data analysis.

My pretentious goal was to identify which characteristics truly sparked joy in each item and to create an equation that could be used by people around the world.

I was seeking an objective answer to a subjective question, I realised that it was impossible to create a formula that could be used by everyone.

I learned a lot from the process and ended up decluttering my wardrobe by donating 87 items, keeping only 78, and reducing my total collection to 165 items.

- This made me realise that I owned 12 dresses, but only wore 2.

- My coats were nearly identical and getting old on hangers.

- I had a disproportionate amount of tops and bottoms that hardly complemented each other.

It was fascinating to compare the pieces I had before and after decluttering, and I found myself asking questions like:

- Why did I have more trousers than T-shirts left and if the other pieces were outdated or older than the trousers?

- It’s possible that I ended up with fewer pieces because I needed to replace the ones I donated, or maybe I didn’t need as much?

- I also noticed that we tend to wear tops more quickly than bottoms, which we repeat more often.

It was an eye-opening experience that helped me rethink my relationship with things.

- If you’re a minimalist person, don’t get too excited ok? I have a collector’s soul! I love things. This is about making connections between them. :)

PS: you’re not going to believe this, but a few months later, I had to pack my belongings into only two suitcases for a move to a different continent.