Ask, "Does This Spark Joy?"

This is part of Stewie's Guide to Ruthlessly Declutter Your Clothes Today.

My wife and I tend to eat the same meals over and over. For example, when my wife taught junior high, she always ate the same lunch: a ham sandwich, an apple, and a few baby carrots. And the ham sandwich always had mustard, of course.

Now, my wonderful wife isn’t picky, but she does prefer French’s mustard. This became a problem when we were first married, and I mistakenly purchased an off-brand mustard. (It was much cheaper!)

She hated that mustard. It was too vinegary and had the wrong flavor. In retrospect, we should’ve trashed that bottle of mustard and purchased French’s. But we didn’t, and my wife ended up using the entire bottle.

In the years since, I’ve decided to let go of things I dislike, even if it costs me a few dollars. I’ve decided to let go of things unless they’re useful or spark joy.

The best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item in one’s hand and ask: “Does this spark joy?”

Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

The “Does this spark joy?” strategy works for numerous possessions: books, art projects, and, of course, clothes. Take each item and hold it in your hands. If it brings you joy, keep it. Otherwise, chuck it.

That’s it. That’s the whole strategy.

Now, this strategy works really well when you have 64 exercise shirts, and only a few of them spark joy. It’s a useful filter for deciding what to let go.

Personally, I used strategy to declutter my clothes and ended up keeping a few things with sentimental value: two scarves, five T-shirts, and several neckties.

But there are two scenarios where the strategy falls flat:

  1. When everything sparks joy. If all 64 exercise shirts spark joy, you’ll keep all of them.
  2. When nothing sparks joy. None of my socks, underwear, or undershirts spark joy, so this is not a useful way of deciding what to keep.

Don’t worry if this strategy doesn’t work for your clothes. We have many more strategies in the following chapters.

Next steps…