- Mementos are reminders of a time when these items gave us joy.
- 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 you would otherwise forget?
- 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.
- People never retrieve boxes they send “home.” Once sent, they will never again be opened.
- The purpose of a letter is fulfilled the moment it is received.
- It is not our memories but the person we have become because of those past experiences that we should treasure.
- Photographs exist only to show a specific event or time. For this reason, they must be looked at one by one. When you do this, you will be surprised at how clearly you can tell the difference between those that touch your heart and those that don’t. as always, only keep the ones that inspire joy.
- Really important things are not that great in number.
- I highly recommend that you get rid of excess stock all at once. Give it away to friends who need it, recycle it, or take it to a donation shop. You may think this is a waste of money, but reducing your stock and relieving yourself of the burden of excess is the quickest and most effective way to put your things in order.
- Sort by category, in the correct order, and keep only those things that inspire joy.
- As you put your house in order and decreased your possessions, you’ll see what your true values are, what is really important to you in your life. But don’t focus on reducing, or on efficient storage methods, for that matter. Focus instead on choosing the things that inspire joy and on enjoying life according to your own standards.
- In my method your feelings are the standard for decision making. Many people may be puzzled by such vague criteria as “things that give you a thrill of pleasure” or “click point.” The majority of methods give clearly defined numerical goals, such as “Discard anything you haven’t used in two years,” “Seven jackets and ten blouses is the perfect amount,” “Get ride of one thing every time you buy something new.” But I believe this is one reason these methods result in rebound.
- The fact that you possess a surplus of things that you can’t bring yourself to discard doesn’t mean you are taking good care of them. In fact, it is quite the opposite. By paring down to the volume that you can properly handle, you revitalized your relationship with your belongings. Just because you dispose of something does not mean you give up past experiences or your identity. Through the process of selecting only those things that inspire joy, you can identify precisely what you love and what you need.
- The reason every item must have a designated place is because the existence of an item without a home multiplies the chances that your space will become cluttered again.
- Once you learn to choose your belongings properly, you will be left only with the amount that fits perfectly in the space you currently own. This is the true magic of tidying. It may seem incredible, but my method of keeping only what sparks joy in the heart is really that precise.
- The secret to maintaining an uncluttered room is to pursue ultimate simplicity in storage so that you can tell at a glance how much you have.
- I have only two rules: store all items of the same type in the same place and don’t scatter storage.
- Clutter is a failure to return things to where they belong. Therefore, storage should reduce the effort needed to put things away, not the effort needed to get them out.
- Stacking is very hard on the things at the bottom.
- Appreciate your belongings.
- Tidying is a way of taking stock that shows us what we really like.
- Letting go is even more important than adding.
- One of the magical effects of tidying is confidence in your decision-making capacity. Tidying means taking each item in your hand, asking yourself whether it inspires joy, and deciding on this basis whether or not to keep it.
- When we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let go of something, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear of the future.
- If you come across something that does not spark joy but that you just can’t bring yourself to throw away, stop a moment and ask yourself, “Am I having trouble getting rid of this because of an attachment to the past or because of a fear of the future?” Ask this for every one of these items. As you do so, you’ll begin to see a pattern in your ownership of things, a pattern that falls into one of three categories: attachment to the past, desire for stability in the future, or a combination of both.
- The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.
- The process of facing and selecting our possessions can be quite painful. It forces us to confront our imperfections and inadequacies and the foolish choices we made in the past.
- The things we own are real. They exist here and now as a result of choices made in the past by no one other than ourselves.
- There are three approaches we can take toward our possessions: face them now, face them sometime, or avoid them until the day we die.
- If we acknowledge our attachment to the past and our fears for the future by honestly looking at our possessions, we will be able to see what is really important to us.
- Life becomes far easier once you know that things will still work out even if you are lacking something.
- If you can say this without a doubt, “I really like this!” no matter what anyone else says, and if you like yourself for having it, then ignore what other people think.
- The only task that you will need to continue for the rest of your life are those of choosing what to keep and what to discard and or caring for the things you decide to keep.
- As for you, pour your time and passion into what brings you the most joy, your mission in life.
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My Pursuit of Thought 