Does This Spark Joy?

Cultural trends are a lot like products that undergo a rebrand every once in a while. While the original concept remains the same, it's often repackaged to make the trend appear new, and therefore more appealing.

One recently-repackaged cultural trend is the concept of organizing and clearing clutter from one's home. This is a timeless, valuable activity, but in the 1990s and 2000s, its all-the-rage application method was Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese practice of arranging structures and objects to allow for the flow of positive energy called "qi." Books like "Feng Shui for Dummies" and "Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui" flowed onto the shelves of U.S. bookstores, advising newbies to apply concepts such as incorporating green hues into the east-facing side of their home to improve health, and hanging a mirror that reflects a calming outdoor scene inside the home to reduce stress. I even bought into it for a short time, positioning my bed with the foot facing – but not directly in line with – the bedroom door to create balanced energy.

Now, the decluttering method of choice is KonMari, invented by Japanese professional organizer Marie Kondo. Her book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up," created buzz a few years back, but she became a household name this January after the debut of the Netflix show "Tidying Up With Marie Kondo." One of the basic concepts of her tidying-up method is to ask yourself, when faced with the dilemma of whether or not to get rid of an item, "Does this spark joy?" If it does invoke the feeling of joy, you keep it. If not, off it goes to the Goodwill pile.

I'm currently in the midst of my biggest tidying-up effort yet for a good, practical reason. This May, I'm planning to move out of my apartment, set up a "home base" at a family home outside of Portland, Ore., and spend the remainder of 2019 living short-term in different cities, including Los Angeles; Boston; Portland, Maine; Columbia, S.C.; and Austin, Texas. So far, the experience has been a sobering lesson in minimalism, as it involves greatly reducing my storage space and whittling my core belongings down to what can fit in a large suitcase.

And I'm having trouble with this whole concept of "sparking joy." First, there are items you should keep that are not going to spark joy (say, your portable tool box containing a hammer, measuring tape and screwdrivers). Second, some of your more sentimental items may not spark joy per se, but other emotions that deem them important enough to hold onto. While sifting through items from my childhood and teen years, for example, I came across a collection of homemade books that I wrote, illustrated and bound as a child, featuring odd characters and storylines, such as a sexy, singing hippopotamus and a raccoon-frog duo that hated cherry pies. The first emotion these mementos conjured was embarrassment, but they are special and irreplaceable, and that's why they went into the "keep" pile.

I believe the concept of decluttering should be applied to areas of your life beyond your overflowing closet or bookshelf, as it can lead to a happier state of mind, improved productivity at work and maybe even business success at your credit union. You can start with your office or desk at work, where, as most of us can agree, a clean and organized space lends itself to a less-frazzled mind. Then, save yourself time down the road by organizing and decluttering the email inboxes, file folders and apps on your electronic devices.

You can also declutter the way you manage various projects and processes at work, and be rewarded with more time for things like providing better member service and brainstorming new ideas to keep your credit union relevant in the future. Ask yourself, can any of your regular mundane tasks be outsourced, delegated or eliminated altogether? If you manage a team and regularly hold group and one-on-one meetings, can you make your meeting time more efficient or hold fewer meetings? Sometimes, the outcome of a one-hour meeting can be accomplished with a single email.

And, what about the physical size and layout of your credit union's branches? Could they be minimized to save on operating costs, or remodeled to attract or be more useful to members? The growing trend of smaller, more efficiently-designed branches with fewer staff members not only reduces the resources needed to run the credit union, it improves member experiences by creating a sense of warmth and personalization.

Finally, consider whether you're holding onto "psychological clutter," a concept explored in a recent Outside magazine article, "Use the KonMari Method to Tidy Your Mind." In the article, author Brad Stulberg describes how overscheduling can lead to poor health, despite busyness being seen as a badge of honor in our culture, and encourages readers to focus on activities that align with their personal core values. "The more you've got going on at any given time, the less energy and attention you'll have available for each activity," he wrote, adding, "Better than being chronically busy is to have a limited number of things that you care about and bring your all to them."

So, ask yourself: Are you committing to things because you think you should, not because you truly enjoy them? Are you overbooking yourself to the point of neglecting things that are crucial to your wellness, like sleep, exercise and eating well? Are you letting a toxic working relationship or friendship drag on out of obligation? Are you holding onto any unnecessary thoughts or beliefs that are causing stress in your life? If the answer to any of these is yes, it might be time to Marie-Kondo your mind (yes, her name is now being used as a verb).

As we slowly approach spring, a season of fresh starts, remember that less can definitely be more – literally and figuratively. Whether your method of choice is KonMari or Feng Shui, decluttering can help you win in many areas of your life.

Natasha Chilingerian is managing editor for CU Times. She can be reached at [email protected].

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Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.