Why decluttering one's life, one day at the time, could be the most important thing you will ever do - Introduction

These days, clutter is everywhere.
In most Western countries, the vast majority of people live a cluttered life, due to over-consuming, overspending, overbuying, and last but not least too many hours spent daily in front of computers, smartphones, TV, and tablets.

So it is not surprising that since its first appearance in English in 2014, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo is in everyone's mouth. For a reason.

She created or, to put it better, she perfected a decluttering process, called the "KonMari Method", that through six rules of tidying up should help people to re-organize their flats and therefore indirectly - or sometimes absolutely directly - their lives:

#1. Commit yourself to tidying up
#2. Imagine your ideal lifestyle
#3. Finish discarding first
#4. Tidy by category, not location
#5. Follow the right order
#6. Ask yourself if it sparks joy

[Very useful and elegant free printable 

Decluttering Checklist

for the KonMari Method

Image credit: Making Lemonade]

What's the right order?

The blog post that showcases the word "annoying" an annoyingly high amount of times, while talking about voyeurism, Schadenfreude and other very annoying stuff

Someone talking on the phone at the movies.

Someone trying to skip the queue and pass over people politely waiting for their turn.

Someone being rude as a customer at a restaurant or on a plane.

Someone letting their children run and scream where other people are sleeping.

Someone sitting next to you with poor personal hygiene on a hot day.

If I would ask you to name one situation that, in your humble opinion, has to be considered among the most annoying situations at all, I am pretty sure that you would be able to give me a good example very fast.

[The Worst of the Worst,

Expedia's 2015 classical infographic 

about the most annoying airplane co-passengers and their habits]

Most people tend to consider something in their life annoying.

The color of nostalgia is... Cultural differences in color psychology, featuring green fairies, pink cakes, and kawaii hair

Months ago I read somewhere that Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was accustomed to write while using green ink instead of the more traditional black one, because to him green represented hope.

Probably it is not any longer possible to know with 100% certainty whether this piece of information is accurate or not, and yet it would be wonderful if it would be true.

Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.

(Love is so short, forgetting is so long)

Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada

by Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto

better known as Pablo Neruda [1904-1973]

Colors, both natural and artificial ones, are everywhere around us.

We speak and communicate through colors all the time, not only visually while choosing specific nuances for our clothes, accessories, cars, commodities, and goods, but also metaphorically through idiomatic expressions.

[Retro ink bottles by Iroshizuku in different colors...

just as stylish and elegant as expensive perfume bottles would be

Image source: Writer's Bloc]

Green is, for example, the color of hope, relax, peace, nature, harmony, luck, and youth.

And at the same time...

A ton of not so romantic and yet pivotal questions about attraction & falling in love, or just yet another blog post about the classic plot "Boy meets girl"

Boy meets girl... a classic and even archetypal plot that can describe in just three words the main idea of thousands of movies, books, songs, theatrical plays, comics, and other kinds of storytelling. 

We could also say "Boy meets boy" or "Girl meets girl", if diversity, political correctness, and inclusion are as important to you as they are for me, and yet the sexual orientation of the individuals that are falling in love would not make such a great difference.

The mind I love must have wild places.

Katherine Mansfield  [1888-1923]

The most important thing is that two people, previously two strangers to each other, at some point get to know each other and fall in love.

[Boy Meets Girl by Brandon Kallmes,

© 2011-2013

Image source: dribbbe]

What exactly do we love, when we are in love? What do we find interesting and attractive in another person? Is this something that can change over time, or do we tend to fall in love over and over again in the same way?