Danshari – The Ultimate Decluttering Discipline from Japan

Danshari (断捨離), or if you like the art of decluttering, is a Japanese concept that is gaining more and more popularity (although it is about less and less). The term is difficult to translate and it’s composed of three ideograms (断捨離), meaning “refuse”, “dispose” and “separate”. In a conventional sense, it is rendered as “cleaning” or “tidying up”.

Danshari – Japanese concept of decluttering or minimalism

Danshari – Japanese concept of decluttering or minimalism

Fume Sasaki – the minimalist guru

The king of danshari is Fumio Sasaki, 37, Japan’s most radical minimalist, who lives in a 30 square meter room that houses all his 150 positions. His book “Goodbye, Things: On Minimalist Living” is destined to become a bestseller, similar to the queen of decluttering Marie Kondo’s New York Times’ bestseller “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” which is published in 38 countries.

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A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder-How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place By Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman

Clutter is good for you...

Clutter is good for you…

A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder-How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place
By Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
Weidenfeld & Nelson 2006; ISBN 978-0-297-85204-

A clutter-free environment can cost you
The inefficiency of tidiness. In praise of mess. Why keeping tidy can be bad feng shui. Tidiness and order are so ordinary. The new maximalism means messy home.

This book may not change people’s lives unless they tend towards being messy. Clutter, untidiness and hoarding, are not bad habits, the authors argue, but often more sensible than meticulous planning, storage and purging of possessions.

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