I watched two episodes of the show "Tidying up with Marie Kondo" just now and enjoyed this show. As the self-explanatory title reveals, Marie goes to cluttered homes and helps the family declutter and this leads to a greater joy in the family.
I have seen a couple of shows similar to this show and these shows seemed to focus on giving diagnostic labels to the people who caused and lived in the clutter.
'Tidying up with Marie Kondo' in contrast to these shows is non-judgemental and non-labelling. This is such a huge, pleasant plus about this show.
Working in the field of mental health, I am now questioning the uses of giving diagnostic labels to people and I am now perceiving the darker side of giving these diagnostic labels to people. But this dislike of diagnostic labels maybe because I am a 'clutterer and hoarder myself!
When Marie goes into the homes of people she gently goes through a few steps of the tidying process and the family members of the cluttered home follow her suggested steps. And this leads to decluttered and nicer spaces at the end. The people participate with joy and interest. Marie simply gets to decluttering. There is no discussion of why the clutter happened, why the people bought so much, etc. The focus is on decluttering and nothing else. This is such a refreshing change for me.
I find that discussing the 'why' of behaviours, only takes away valuable time but does not add much value to the process of decluttering. Understanding "why" people clutter; why do people "hoard"? Is cluttering and hoarding due to mental illness or "insecurity" ? may be great from an academic and philosophical point of view. But understanding why someone hoards or lives in clutter or giving him a diagnostic label does not really serve any practical purpose.
I am now feeling pretty cynical about the usefulness of psychiatric medication in helping these people. I have seen behaviour therapists and therapists too trying to help hoarders and clutterers and as far as I have seen, success has been quite limited for both BTs and therapists.
I know I am taking a very simplistic view but following Marie Kondo's steps seems to be as good or a better a way to go for hoarders and clutterers than accepting the labels and treatments given by mental health staff. A cluttered does not feel ashamed or judged when he follows the Marie Kondo method. He does not feel he has a mental illness and experience the stigma. He does not feel the helplessness, shame, hopelessness, which many people given mental health diagnosis feel. One does not feel judged. One simply gets down and tackles the problem and if they can stick to the steps they can solve the problem of clutter without any self-reproach or guilt or whatever. I am sure when following Marie's steps, one is going through a few mental exercises and planning how to avoid making the same mistakes leading to cluttering again. But all this is within one's own thoughts and not by discussing with someone else. Since this is in one's own mind, one does not have to expose one's thoughts and feelings to an outsider and worry about being judged.
The beauty of following Marie Kondo's steps to declutter is the immense practicality and non-judgementalness.
I have seen a couple of shows similar to this show and these shows seemed to focus on giving diagnostic labels to the people who caused and lived in the clutter.
'Tidying up with Marie Kondo' in contrast to these shows is non-judgemental and non-labelling. This is such a huge, pleasant plus about this show.
Working in the field of mental health, I am now questioning the uses of giving diagnostic labels to people and I am now perceiving the darker side of giving these diagnostic labels to people. But this dislike of diagnostic labels maybe because I am a 'clutterer and hoarder myself!
When Marie goes into the homes of people she gently goes through a few steps of the tidying process and the family members of the cluttered home follow her suggested steps. And this leads to decluttered and nicer spaces at the end. The people participate with joy and interest. Marie simply gets to decluttering. There is no discussion of why the clutter happened, why the people bought so much, etc. The focus is on decluttering and nothing else. This is such a refreshing change for me.
I find that discussing the 'why' of behaviours, only takes away valuable time but does not add much value to the process of decluttering. Understanding "why" people clutter; why do people "hoard"? Is cluttering and hoarding due to mental illness or "insecurity" ? may be great from an academic and philosophical point of view. But understanding why someone hoards or lives in clutter or giving him a diagnostic label does not really serve any practical purpose.
I am now feeling pretty cynical about the usefulness of psychiatric medication in helping these people. I have seen behaviour therapists and therapists too trying to help hoarders and clutterers and as far as I have seen, success has been quite limited for both BTs and therapists.
I know I am taking a very simplistic view but following Marie Kondo's steps seems to be as good or a better a way to go for hoarders and clutterers than accepting the labels and treatments given by mental health staff. A cluttered does not feel ashamed or judged when he follows the Marie Kondo method. He does not feel he has a mental illness and experience the stigma. He does not feel the helplessness, shame, hopelessness, which many people given mental health diagnosis feel. One does not feel judged. One simply gets down and tackles the problem and if they can stick to the steps they can solve the problem of clutter without any self-reproach or guilt or whatever. I am sure when following Marie's steps, one is going through a few mental exercises and planning how to avoid making the same mistakes leading to cluttering again. But all this is within one's own thoughts and not by discussing with someone else. Since this is in one's own mind, one does not have to expose one's thoughts and feelings to an outsider and worry about being judged.
The beauty of following Marie Kondo's steps to declutter is the immense practicality and non-judgementalness.
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