We’re racking up the guilt
We fill up the empty spaces in our lives with things we don’t need
DECLUTTERING is all the rage right now. As millions around the world tune in to Netflix sensation Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, op shops everywhere are having to halt donations due to the inundation of secondhand goods. War on waste anyone? This week I put to the test the KonMari method for clearing out clothes. It was a massive success. I did exactly what Kondo — who burst into our consciousness with her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing in 2013 — instructs by pulling out all the clothes and piling them high on the bed.
Kondo makes it clear that experiencing the shock of seeing the clothing mountain is key to the process. She’s right. Almost immediately I felt driven to get rid of most of it.
There were clothes languishing from a decade ago. Suits from my days working in an office. Treasured items I’d kept in the hope they would one day fit. Now that they do I don’t want them anyway. Too daggy. Too out of style. Too much!
I was ruthless. It took me less than two hours to go through the pile and I reckon I reduced my cache by 40 per cent. It was marvellous.
A problem arose, however, in the ensuing 12 hours. And it’s far bigger than charities being overwhelmed by unwanted goods. My immediate desire when I looked at my lean cupboard was to go shopping. Not because I need anything, but because the empty coat-hangers spoke to me and urged me not to leave them bare.
Luckily my bank balance is far from healthy enough to do any sort of shopping, although that could change if I have any joy selling the clothes I’ve deemed too valuable to donate immediately.
That said, it’s got me thinking about this desire to shop — on a global scale.
A ridiculously large percentage of privileged society (defined for me as having a stable roof over your head and a steady income) are addicted to consuming. People who don’t have disposable income spend endlessly — “Hello, credit” — as do people with all the money in the world.
Economists rely on the fact we “buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like”. I’m not sure who said it originally but Tyler Durden put it nicely in Fight Club, so it must be true!
The five-day work week was introduced not so workers could rest, but so workers had time to spend their money.
Kevin Rudd’s stimulus package allocated us all $900 during the global financial crisis and is credited with protecting Australia from the true impact. Because we all went berzerk at our local Westfield.
We love spending. And, often, the more unhappy a person, the more likely they are to shop. Nothing says retail therapy like a sale at Kmart where all the usually cheap rape-theearth products are even cheaper.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Kmart, but the $7.50 kettle I bought last year and threw out yesterday is unlikely to have any sort of ethical supply chain. Hey, what’s a bit of child labour and environmental degradation in some remote country if I’m getting one hell of a bargain?
Which brings me back to my point. People are throwing ing o out their possessions by the tonne and I’d bet my last dollar this will inspire a stimulus-esque rush on spending. Especially if people do what I hope to do, and that’s sell instead of donate. Just watch.
Do you honestly believe that people are decluttering just to leave their cupboards and drawers empty? You’ve got to be kidding.
Your average middle-class person works 48 weeks of the year and most likely has at least a couple of children. I’m going out of a limb here but I suspect they pretend to be far happier than they are subsisting in their worker bee life, watching the nightly news and thinking they know what is going on in the world. Not much makes them happy. Truly happy.
But when they buy something new (insert anything: car, boat, giant TV, endless clothes, electronic gadgets) they feel all that time spent in a mind-numbing job that keeps them from their families has been well worth it.
Anyone who thinks it’s normal to spend their ENTIRE life working has rocks in their head. Anyone who thinks society is structured perfectly for social, mental and personal wellbeing is nuts.
Obviously we can’t stop working; that’s the great sadness of it all. But you can’t tell me this is the best possible outcome.
Parents who work two jobs. Kids coming home to an empty house. The prohibitive cost of house buying. The ridiculous prices of healthy food. This is a society we are meant to be grateful for? Because we’re supposedly free? Screw that.
Yeah sure, I’m not living in a third world country, but I am living in a country where the gap between rich and poor is growing and where our politicians are so corrupt it’s laughable. Everyone knows it. No one does anything about it.
Everyone accepts the status quo because that’s what they’ve been taught. This is the way it is and it’s never going to change. Oh, unless perhaps we go to a four-day work week. Or introduce a living wage. Or stop paying politicians so much. Or tax corporations more. Or cut military spending. But that’s not going to happen. We clear out our cupboards to so we can refill them again. And so the cycle continues. Rinse and repeat. No questions asked.
Now, I’m off to list my clothes on eBay.
“My immediate desire when I looked at my lean cupboard was to go shopping. Not because I need anything, but because the empty coat-hangers spoke to me and urged me not to leave them bare.”