Reading, writing and traveling were things on my to-do list for 2019 and they are all off to a rocky start. I’m on my way to Delhi from where I was supposed to embark on a trip to Bir to do paragliding, due to the bad weather I had to cancel the trip while at the airport. (Argh!) I was really really looking forward to this trip with my best friend and needless to say I am super disappointed. To add to my misery my flight to Delhi was delayed by over 2 hours which left me with a lot of time to kill at the airport. I always carry a book and a notebook while traveling. This time thanks to the kilos of vada pav and bhakarwadi (Indian snack) that I had bought for my family, I decided to head to the airport without a novel; a decision I came to regret.

Once I was through with the security check, I sat and cancelled my bookings feeling super terrible the entire time. I think I was hoping this trip would uplift my spirits and change me somehow. Weird how we hope that sometimes experiences will change our life. With these crazy thoughts in my head I headed to the book store to pick a read. 10 minutes later I had made up my mind to pick a Murakami and I randomly picked up ‘The Life Changing Manga of Tidying Up’ by Marie Kondo. A few of my friends had told me about her tidying show on Netflix and out of curiosity I browsed through the book to find that it was a graphic novel.

The graphics were so good that I got enticed into buying the book! To keep myself from browsing through my phone, I decided to set up the challenge to finish the novel while at the airport and blog about it on the flight. With my goal set, I sat down to read this novel. Honestly, when my friends told me about what her techniques of tidying up were – I was less than impressed. So, I sat down to read with the goal to mock the novel once it was over (yeah, I am very fast at passing judgements but over the last year I’ve learnt to leave some leeway to change my judgement).

Review – I loved the book! It was such a light read – I breezed through it. As someone who faces the same issues as Chakie, the protagonist of the novel, I could relate to what Marie was suggesting to do. As a hoarder, I have objects from 20 years back that I never even look at but cringe at throwing. I think being emotional makes me want to store silly things such as flight tickets which I might never look at again. Additionally, my parents built the habit of storing knick knacks like buttons, old chords, broken appliances, old remotes which never ever find use. After moving out of my parents place, I had initially tried to minimise things in my room but eventually ended up buying so many things that I have no storage space for. I really want to try Marie’s methodology and since my travel plans got cancelled – I plan to spend a day or two tidying up the stuff at my parents home. It’s been almost two years since I moved out and I still have a four door cupboard filled to the brim at my parent’s place. I will write another blog about that as well!

For fellow hoarders- do read her books or watch her show! Maybe we hoard because we are afraid of the future or scared to let go of the past. Something to think about. Look forward to my next blog in a few days where I will take you through how I implemented her methodology and if it worked for me.

Keep reading! Peace!