It seems the world has discovered the life-changing magic of, well, many a thing – actually.
First, there was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo who released her book in 2012. Then there was The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k (2015) by Sarah Knight targeting the overachieving yet completely dissatisfied folk among us (sound familiar?) by applying Kondo’s method to mental clutter. Then, less than a year later, Mark Manson followed up with The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (2016), cementing the notion that happiness is just an art or magic that can be learned.
Perhaps you’ve read all of them, perhaps none. But you’d have had to be living under a rock not to notice the sudden onset of Marie Kondo-ing going on as 2019 gains momentum. Thanks to the Netflix series which follows the Japanese organisation guru [Kondo] as she applies her KonMari method to several American homes, the life-changing magic of tidying up has become widespread knowledge.
Couple this knowledge with the peoples’ desire to start the new year off in good stead and you’re looking at the latest phenomenon to flood the internet. A challenge, if you will.
As more people seek to experience this ‘magic’, spare time has been dedicated to removing clutter to the extent that op shops are so inundated with “stuff” they can no longer accept any more unwanted possessions.
It’s all very well to a) rid ourselves of clutter, impulsive purchases and masses of things, and b) assume a minimalist lifestyle, rejecting modern consumerism – but what can we do to live a less wasteful life and thus end the cycle – or at least slow the pace – of acquiring excess?
Whether or not you keep your possessions streamlined and minimal or are still holding onto that scrapbook you started, but never finished, when you were 16-years-old from that Australian exchange you did, we can all appreciate the value in limiting the amount of waste we produce to begin with.
Scroll below for the game-changing books on how to live a less wasteful life:
