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KonMari
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How familiar are you with KonMari?
Read the book, but nothing else  
 34%  [ 15 ]
Watched the show, but nothing else  
 40%  [ 18 ]
Read the book and watched the show  
 25%  [ 11 ]
Total Votes : 44



Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 9:12 am
Read articles. Threw out everything that didn't give me joy. It included diapers, papers, taxes
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amother
Green


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 9:14 am
PinkFridge wrote:
There is a middle ground.
We may have larger families.
We may well have milchig and fleishig keilim and pareve stuff too. Not to mention Pesach.
So we may not buy an $800 esrog but we buy an esrog. Even the cardboard box takes space. Some people will have a dedicated box. (We inherited one.) Challah knives, candlesticks, menorah...even without going overboard we may well have stuff that yes, does spark joy and enhance our lives/makes it easier.

But many of us have excess somewhere and streamlining/decluttering brings its own joy.


We don't buy the $800 esrog, and we have the money to do so. Some don't understand why. You can never convince them. They believe Hashem will return the money spent to beautify Shabbos and Yontiff.

I have always been a minimalist, and I am constantly amazed that those that ask to borrow money have the most flash. There's a basic disconnect between mindless spending and not having money.
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 9:30 am
I couldn't find a 800 euro etrog if I searched. I see charedim buying sets for 30
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1Life2Live




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 9:42 am
My biggest takeaways were how to deal with sentimental items and things I was keeping because "one day I may need it" - once I read the book I was able to easily let them go and much preferred living without them. Once I got rid of all this extra clutter it was like a weight was lifted off of me. Because of this new mentality I am now able to throw out the things that weighed me down without thinking twice.
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vintagebknyc




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 11:14 am
This is the kind of crazy stuff I call "woo". Mind you, I need to declutter, nut not like this.
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levlongnprosper




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 1:23 pm
zaq wrote:
Fact: there is no obligation to have most of what is usually considered the basics. If minimalism is a priority, a regular dinner plate or meat platter can serve as a Seder plate. My granma’s Seder plate was a flat dish, no little wells for the contents. One can be Yorker making kiddush on wine in a nice drinking glass. A dinner plate or cutting board can double as a challah board. One can light ordinary tea lights without leichter. One can cover challah with a handkerchief or napkin of cloth or paper or even a nice freshly laundered fashion scarf. One can slice challah with a regular bread knife, no ornate silver-handled (and usually inferior from a functional standpoint) “challah” knife. Is it more mehudar to have dedicated objets d’art for these purposes? Sure, but they are not obligations.

They’re not even really tools of the trade. Tefillin are. Tzitzit are. A siddur is. To an extent washing cups are, but even these are really a convenience. A small one-handled pitcher could serve nearly as well, you’d just have to be more careful how you hold it.

Fact: we like having stuff, much of which we do not actually need, and we allow ourselves to feel inferior or deprived if we don’t have what “everyone else” has. Marketers are all about creating a perception of need in the mind of the consumer, and consumers allow themselves to be persuaded that they need it. In the Western world, you are what you have, which is a philosophy completely antithetical to Torah values.


This describes what we do already. I'm almost embarrassed to admit it. I happen to have a family kiddish cup, he has a family menorah, and we were gifted candlesticks. He inherited a challah knife but that's also the only serrated knife in the house. We get the plastic hand washing cups and replace if/as needed. It still feels like a lot of stuff to have and stuff oriented-- either having it or macguyvering it.
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amother
Indigo


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 1:31 pm
zaq wrote:
I don’t believe that Yiddishkeit is inherently stuff oriented. Just the opposite, really. It’s inherently a very portable religion, which means having less stuff to tie you down. Our very Mesorah was once mostly oral, which is about as non-stuff-oriented as you can get. It is we ourselves who have loaded ourselves down with material goods and continue to crave more and more, claiming to be doing it all leshem hiddur mitzvah.

Here I’ll give you a forinstance. My parents had ONE challah cover for maybe fifty years. When it started wearing out I made them another to replace it. My kids, even the newlyweds, all have several. There’s no reason to own six challah covers. Hiddur mitzvah is satisfied by having a NICE challah Deckel, not six challah Deckels. My dad had ONE becher that he got as a wedding gift. Hiddur mitzvah is satisfied. My son got three for his bar mitzvah, one as an engagement gift from his kallah and one as a wedding gift. Nobody needs five bechers, and the mitzvah is not more mehudar because there are four more bechers sitting in the curio cabinet. But it’s accepted if not outright expected that a balebos will have a collection. That’s not hiddur mitzvah, that’s human acquisitiveness and love of luxury and excess.

The proliferation of Judaica, genuine and fake, is all about marketing and making money. By Genuine Judaica I mean items you actually need for completing a mitzvah: Shabbos Liechter, Chanukiyah, mezuzah case. Fake Judaica is the unnecessary frivolous stuff that people invent like special boxes to hold the shards of your tenaim plate and acrylic plaques or leather folders with random brachos on them. If you have a siddur, you don’t need a leather folder with kiddush, another with havdalah, a third with the brachos for Chanuka Licht, and a phony mahogany and silver plaque with the bracha for Shabbos licht. I call this “religious clutter”, a category Marie Kondo knows nothing about.


OTOH, some of this does "spark joy" in some of us. Eg, I "collect" antique sterling kiddush cups sold cheaply on ebay, probably by families who are no longer religious, or even Jewish. And it means that I can give everyone at my table a "real" kiddush cup, if I want to. And they make me happy. (I apparently come by this genetically. I once found a piece of Judaica at the home of my utterly non-religious father. When I asked him why, he told me he saw it in a thrift store in a neighborhood with few Jews, and was worried about what would become of it if he didn't buy it.)
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amother
Violet


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 3:14 pm
PinkFridge wrote:


But many of us have excess somewhere and streamlining/decluttering brings its own joy.


Yes it does. It REALLY does. Been decluttering all week and its fabulous. Highly recommend.
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 4:18 pm
amother wrote:
OTOH, some of this does "spark joy" in some of us. Eg, I "collect" antique sterling kiddush cups sold cheaply on ebay, probably by families who are no longer religious, or even Jewish. And it means that I can give everyone at my table a "real" kiddush cup, if I want to. And they make me happy. (I apparently come by this genetically. I once found a piece of Judaica at the home of my utterly non-religious father. When I asked him why, he told me he saw it in a thrift store in a neighborhood with few Jews, and was worried about what would become of it if he didn't buy it.)


So, I was wondering what Kon Marie says about collections. Are they 'allowed'?
I "konmaried" my fragrance collection the other day and got rid of a couple that I'm not so, so crazy about. Still, it's not that I actually 'need' all the ones that I kept, even if they do 'spark joy'....
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 5:16 pm
Presumably if every single item in a collection sparks joy it’s ok. KM doesn’t say possessions are evil.
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amother
Forestgreen


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 5:50 pm
amother wrote:
OTOH, some of this does "spark joy" in some of us. Eg, I "collect" antique sterling kiddush cups sold cheaply on ebay, probably by families who are no longer religious, or even Jewish. And it means that I can give everyone at my table a "real" kiddush cup, if I want to. And they make me happy. (I apparently come by this genetically. I once found a piece of Judaica at the home of my utterly non-religious father. When I asked him why, he told me he saw it in a thrift store in a neighborhood with few Jews, and was worried about what would become of it if he didn't buy it.)


What do you think of this one?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Jewis.....cVVLh

I'm trying to figure out if its indented purpose is kiddush cup.
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strawberry cola




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 6:34 pm
The tone of this sounds a little crazy. If your goal is avodas Hashem, and decluttering helps you achieve that and brings calmness and order and happiness to your family, it's a worthwhile tool and goal. But this heebie jeebie woo comes across as a goal, almost a religion, in itself. Gotta be careful !
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 7:05 pm
amother wrote:
What do you think of this one?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Jewis.....cVVLh

I'm trying to figure out if its indented purpose is kiddush cup.


Doubtful. The verse is not relevant to kiddush. And kiddush cups don’t have handles, as they are supposed to be grasped at the bottom. More likely used for the wine during benching at a bris, fish symbolizing fertility as well as blessings. Just my guess, I am not an expert in antique Judaica.

Could also be stam a baby cup. Even contemporary silver companies make little cups with handles for pampered babies, not that anyone really uses them for their babies to drink from, and in eras past wealthy people actually used such things ( as opposed to just having them for display.)

I don’t think this cup can be that ancient. The 925 symbol wasn’t used much before the mid-1970s, certainly not outside the US. It was adopted by the European Community in the 70s. Before that, 925 silver was stamped with “Sterling” and other marks.


Last edited by zaq on Wed, Feb 06 2019, 7:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
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aliavi




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 7:14 pm
Read the book and DID something.

It was amazing. I started 2 years ago and it took 2 months to get the whole house finished. The folding alone has saved me so much maintenance cleaning.

I still feel less stressed because of it. I implemented this along with a buying schedule. The buying schedule is a game changer with stress and budgeting and with children kvetching.

I also think it helps with emotional baggage (that I didn’t even know I had!).
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aliavi




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 7:23 pm
PinkFridge wrote:
Pachim ketanim. We should try to be thoughtful about our possessions and their acquisition.

You can get some great ideas from her but if something doesn't work for you, you don't have to do it. She has some interesting hashkafos, like her reasons for not balling or knotting socks that don't mesh with our hashkafa. So do what works for you.


Yeah, the socks was not something I implemented and I leave items in my purse each day instead of unpacking it. I also scanned photos that weren’t my absolute favorite because it didn’t take up any extra space.
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levlongnprosper




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 7:35 pm
etky wrote:
So, I was wondering what Kon Marie says about collections. Are they 'allowed'?
I "konmaried" my fragrance collection the other day and got rid of a couple that I'm not so, so crazy about. Still, it's not that I actually 'need' all the ones that I kept, even if they do 'spark joy'....


Absolutely allowed of it sparks joy, in which case it should have its own place where it can be stored and/or displayed with care. Her theory isn't minimalism, it's about what adds value to your life and acknowledging that it's different for eceryone.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 8:01 pm
I implemented the filing method for clothing in drawers and it’s fabulous. Never used this method for packing suitcases but may try at some point. However, I usually go away for Shabbat or YT and can’t see folding up a suit or a dress that way—not unless I have access to a heap big powerful steamer (and time to use it) when I get there. But the drawer thing? Brilliant.

MK didn’t change my life (just my dresser drawers) because I taught myself decades ago to purge early and often. Her books were fun to read and provided added inspiration, although not any more than any other decluttering/ organizing book I’ve read—and I don’t read these things so much as inhale them. You never know when you’ll pick up a great idea you never thought of.

For sheer entertainment, I prefer Don Aslett’s books. He’s the Dave Barry of dejunking, so even if you don’t throw out so much as a single dried-out freebie ballpoint pen, you’ll have a great laugh.
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amother
Forestgreen


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 8:25 pm
zaq wrote:
Doubtful. The verse is not relevant to kiddush. And kiddush cups don’t have handles, as they are supposed to be grasped at the bottom. More likely used for the wine during benching at a bris, fish symbolizing fertility as well as blessings. Just my guess, I am not an expert in antique Judaica.

Could also be stam a baby cup. Even contemporary silver companies make little cups with handles for pampered babies, not that anyone really uses them for their babies to drink from, and in eras past wealthy people actually used such things ( as opposed to just having them for display.)

I don’t think this cup can be that ancient. The 925 symbol wasn’t used much before the mid-1970s, certainly not outside the US. It was adopted by the European Community in the 70s. Before that, 925 silver was stamped with “Sterling” and other marks.


Wine at a Bris - that helps... I couldn't figure it out. I also thought may be the fish were a play on the word "וְיִדְגּוּ".
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 9:52 pm
amother wrote:
Wine at a Bris - that helps... I couldn't figure it out. I also thought may be the fish were a play on the word "וְיִדְגּוּ".


Well, yes, of course they are.
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nchr




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 07 2019, 1:17 pm
There should be an option "I have no idea what this is" if you're trying to pool how many people are actually familiar with this.
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