Dark Looks

In any informal description of a formal process, the word ‘should’ can be replaced by one of ‘won’t’ ‘doesn’t’ or ‘don’t’ with no change in truth-value. 

I’ve yet to find a decent word for someone who owns the right amount of stuff. I can call myself a hoarder, a pack rat, a minimalist (with stern connotations of austere emptiness), but I have no ready word for being in harmony or balance with what I own.  Thinking about moving, and slightly intimidated by the prospect of putting 46 mini-USB cables, twelve souvenir mugs, three pairs of pliers, six sets of bedding (and so on very much ad nauseam) in the right box when packing time came, I wanted to find that balance for which I had no word.  And so I came, as inevitably as the change of season, to Marie Kondo and _The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up_, a master’s thesis on supporting the refuse and recycling industry in these Unprecedented Times.  Booking out an entire weekend, I dutifully read and reread, followed along in order, and am now 80% done and starting to form my first conclusions.  A wise old friend remarked that “she’s done very well to turn a mental illness into a career,”