日本收納女王的整理經 整潔改變人生(上)

Joy points upward, according to Marie Kondo, whose name is now a verb and whose nickname is being trademarked and whose life has become a philosophy. In April at the Japan Society in New York, she mounted a stage in an ivory dress and silver heels, made namaste hands at the audience and took her place beneath the display of a PowerPoint presentation. Now that she has sold nearly 6 million copies of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and has been on The New York Times best-seller list for 86 weeks and counting, she was taking the next logical step: a formal training program for her KonMari method, certifying her acolytes to bring the joy and weightlessness and upward-pointing trajectory of a clutter-free life to others. The humble hashtag that attended this event was #organizetheworld.

據近藤麻理惠(Marie Kondo)講，愉悅是向上的力量。她的名字現在成了一個動詞，她的暱稱正被註冊成商標，她的生活方式變成了一種哲學。今年4月，在紐約的日本協會(Japan Society)，她穿着象牙白的裙子，腳着銀色高跟鞋，走上舞臺，向觀衆做合十禮，在PPT展示屏幕下站好。她已經賣出近600萬冊《怦然心動的人生整理魔法》(The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up)，此書躋身《紐約時報》暢銷書排行榜長達86周且仍然在榜，因此她開始邁出符合邏輯的下一步：爲她的近藤麻裏惠法(KonMari)提供正式的培訓項目，確保她的追隨者將整潔生活的快樂、飄逸和向上的人生軌跡帶給其他人。伴隨這一活動出現的低調的話題標籤是#讓世界變得有條理#(#organizetheworld)。

Upon entering the Japan Society, the 93 Konverts in attendance (and me) were given lanyards that contained our information: our names, where we live and an option of either the proud “Tidying Completed!” or the shameful “Tidying Not Yet Completed!” In order to be considered tidy, you must have completed the method outlined in Kondo’s book. It includes something called a “once-in-a-lifetime tidying marathon,” which means piling five categories of material possessions — clothing, books, papers, miscellaneous items and sentimental items, including photos, in that order — one at a time, surveying how much of each you have, seeing that it’s way too much and then holding each item to see if it sparks joy in your body. The ones that spark joy get to stay. The ones that don’t get a heartfelt and generous goodbye, via actual verbal communication, and are then sent on their way to their next life. This is the crux of the KonMari — that soon-to-be-trademarked nickname — and it is detailed in “The Life-Changing Magic” and her more recent book, “Spark Joy.” She is often mistaken for someone who thinks you shouldn’t own anything, but that’s wrong. Rather, she thinks you can own as much or as little as you like, as long as every possession brings you true joy.

走進日本協會，前來參加活動的93名“近藤皈依者”(Konvert)以及我，收到了包含我們信息的吊牌：名字、居住地，還有兩個選擇項，要麼是令人自豪的“整潔達成！”，要麼是丟臉的“整潔未達成！”。要被看作整潔的人，你必須已經完成了近藤麻裏惠書中列出的方法。其中包括一種被稱爲“一生一次的馬拉松大掃除”的行動，指的是堆放五類有形所有物——衣服、書籍、紙張、雜物和諸如照片等敏感物品——一次整理一類，查看你有多少那類東西，發現數量過多，然後拿起每樣東西，看它是否能激起你內心的愉悅。那些能讓你怦然心動的東西可以留下來，其他的就通過實打實的口頭交流，誠摯大方地與之告別，把它們送上去往來生的路。這就是KonMari法——馬上將被註冊成商標的暱稱——的關鍵所在，在《怦然心動的人生整理魔法》和她更新的著作《怦然心動》(Spark Joy)中得到了詳細的描繪。她經常被錯誤地看作是那種認爲你不該保留任何東西的人，但這是一種誤解。相反，她認爲你可以依自己意願，儘量多地留，或儘量少地留，只要每一樣都能給你帶來真正的愉悅。

Her book was published in the United States in 2014, quietly and to zero fanfare and acclaim. Kondo’s inability to speak English made promotional radio and talk-show appearances hard sells. But one day, a New York Times Home section reporter happened upon the book and wrote an article discussing her own attempt at KonMari-ing her closets; the book caught fire.

她的著作於2014年在美國出版，悄無聲息，沒有受到大肆宣傳和讚揚。近藤不會說英語，因此她參加電臺節目和脫口秀做宣傳的效果也差強人意。但是有一天，《紐約時報》家居版的一名記者偶然看到這本書，寫了一篇文章，講述她自己採用KonMari法試着整理衣櫥的過程；然後這本書就火起來了。

People in America had an unnaturally strong reaction to the arrival of this woman and her promises of life-changing magic. There were people who had been doing home organizing for years by then, and they sniffed at her severe methods. But then there were the women who knew that Kondo was speaking directly to them. They called themselves Konverts, and they say their lives have truly changed as a result of using her decluttering methods: They could see their way out of the stuff by aiming upward.

對於這名女士的到來和她許諾的可以改變人生的魔法，美國人一反常態地予以了強烈迴應。當時已經有人做家居整理許多年，對她嚴苛的方法嗤之以鼻。但接着就出現了一批女性，知道近藤的方法對她們很有用。她們自稱爲Konvert，宣稱在使用近藤的清理方法之後，她們的生活發生了真正的改變：通過將目標調高，她們看到了一條出路。

During her Japan Society lecture, Marie demonstrated how the body feels when it finds tidying joy. Her right arm pointed upward, her left leg bent in a display of glee or flying or something aerial and upright, her body arranged I’m-a-little-teacup-style, and a tiny hand gesture accompanied by a noise that sounded like “kyong.” Joy isn’t just happy; joy is efficient and adorable. A lack of joy, on the other hand, she represented with a different pose, planting both feet and slumping her frame downward with a sudden visible depletion of energy. When Kondo enacted the lack of joy, she appeared grayer and instantly older. There isn’t a specific enough name for the absence of joy; it is every emotion that isn’t pure happiness, and maybe it doesn’t deserve a name, so quickly must it be expunged from your life. It does, however, have a sound effect: “zmmp.”

在日本協會做演講期間，近藤麻理惠演示了當感受到整潔的愉悅時，身體會有怎樣的反應。她的右臂向上擡起，左腿彎曲，作歡欣狀、飛行狀或架空垂直狀，她做出“我是一個小茶杯”式的姿勢，還有細微的小手勢，同時鼻子發出類似“kyong”的聲音。愉悅不只是快樂；它也意味着高效和討人喜歡。另一方面，缺乏愉悅感時，她會做出不同的姿勢，雙腿站立，身軀猛然跌落，可以看出渾身沒了力氣。在近藤展示缺乏愉悅感的狀態時，她看起來沒精打采，突然老了一些。沒有一個明確的詞可以概括愉悅的缺乏；它是純粹的喜悅之外的所有情緒，或許也不值得爲它命名，因爲這是必須被馬上從你的生活裏去除的東西。不過，它的確有一個聲效：zmmp。

Joy is the only goal, Kondo said, and the room nodded, yes, yes, in emphatic agreement, heads bobbing and mouths agape in wonder that something so simple needed to be taught to them. “My dream is to organize the world,” Kondo said as she wrapped up her talk. The crowd cheered, and Kondo raised her arms into the air like Rocky.

近藤表示，愉悅是唯一的目標，臺下的觀衆連連點頭稱是，態度明確而一致。她們一邊點頭，一邊張着嘴，驚訝於這麼簡單的道理自己原來竟不知道。“我的夢想是讓世界變得有條理，”近藤在演講結束時說。臺下歡呼聲響起，近藤像拳擊手洛奇一樣舉起雙臂。

SHE DID NOT set out to become a superpower in the already booming world of professional organization. It just sort of happened to her, a natural outgrowth of a lifelong obsession with carefully curating her belongings. When she was a little girl, she read all of her mother’s homemaking magazines, and as early as elementary school began researching various tidying methods, so disquieted was her brain by her family’s possessions.

她並非一開始就打定主意要成爲蒸蒸日上的職業整理界的超級力量。這有點像是自然發生的，是從小就有的對整理自己所有物的迷戀帶來的水到渠成。當還是小女孩時，她就閱讀了母親所有的家居雜誌，早在上小學期間，她就開始研究各種各樣的整理方法，爲家裏的東西勞神、煩惱。

When she was 19, her friends began offering her money for her tidying services. At the time, she was enrolled at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, studying sociology, with a concentration on gender. She happened upon a book called “Women With Attention Deficit Disorder,” by Siri Solden, and in it there was a discussion over women who are too distracted to clean their homes. Kondo was disturbed that there was little consideration that a man might pick up the slack in this regard, that a woman with ADD was somehow broken because she couldn’t tidy. But, she conceded, buried in this outrageous notion was a core truth: that women have a closer connection to their surroundings than men do. She realized that the work she was doing as a tidying consultant was far more psychological than practical. Tidying wasn’t just a function of your physical space; it was a function of your soul. After college she found work at a staffing agency but continued to take tidying jobs in the early mornings and late evenings, initially charging $100 per five-hour block. Eventually she quit her job, and soon the wait list for her services reached six months.

到19歲的時候，她的朋友開始給她錢讓她幫忙整理屋子。當時，她正在東京女子大學(Tokyo Woman’s Christian University)就讀，研習社會學，專注於性別研究。她偶然看到了由西里·索爾登(Siri Solden)撰寫的《有注意力缺陷多動障礙的女性》(Women With Attention Deficit Disorder)。書中談到有些女性注意力太過分散，無法收拾屋子。幾乎沒人考慮過，在這種情況下，男人應該接過這項任務，也沒人想過從某種程度上講，患有注意力缺陷多動障礙的女人是有缺失的，無法做整理工作，近藤爲此感到不安。不過，她也承認，這種可恥的觀念深處存在一個核心的事實：與男性相比，女性與周圍的環境有更密切的聯繫。她意識到，自己在做的整理顧問的工作其實遠遠更偏向於心理層面，而非實踐。整理不只是你的物理空間在起作用；也是你靈魂的一個功能。大學畢業後，她在一家人力中介公司找到了工作，但繼續在清早和晚間兼職做收拾房間的工作。她一開始的收費標準是5小時100美元。最終她辭掉了正職，很快她的服務已經預約到了六個月以後。

When she enters a new home, Kondo says, she sits down in the middle of the floor to greet the space. She says that to fold a shirt the way everyone folds a shirt (a floppy rectangle) instead of the way she thinks you should (a tight mass of dignified envelope-shaped fabric so tensile that it could stand upright) is to deprive that shirt of the dignity it requires to continue its work, i.e. hanging off your shoulders until bedtime. She would like your socks to rest. She would like your coins to be treated with respect. She thinks your tights are choking when you tie them off in the middle. She would like you to thank your clothes for how hard they work and ensure that they get adequate relaxation between wearings. Before you throw them out, she wants you to thank them for their service. She wants you to override the instinct to keep a certain thing because a shopping-network show or a home-design magazine or a Pinterest page said it would brighten up your room or make your life better. She wants you to possess your possessions on your own terms, not theirs.

近藤表示，當她走進一個新家時，她會坐在地板中央向這個空間打招呼。她說，像所有其他人那樣疊襯衫（疊成鬆弛的長方形），而非以她認爲應該的那樣（疊成緊湊莊重的信封狀，乃至可以立起來），是剝奪了這件襯衫繼續工作——比如穿在你的肩上，直到你上牀睡覺——所需的尊嚴。她想讓你的襪子得到休息，希望你的硬幣得到尊重。她認爲，如果把緊身褲在中間打個結，它會窒息。她希望你能感謝自己的衣物那麼努力地工作，確保它們在下一次使用之前得到充分的放鬆。在你扔掉它們之前，她希望你能對它們提供的服務表示感謝。她希望你不要因爲一個購物頻道的節目、一本家居設計雜誌或一個Pinterest網頁說某樣東西可以點亮你的房間，或讓你的生活變得更好，就買回來，而是要戰勝這種本能。她希望你依自己的判斷決定你擁有什麼，而不是別人的。

She is tiny — just 4-foot-8. When I interviewed her, not only did her feet not touch the ground when we were sitting, but her knees didn’t even bend over the side of the couch. When she speaks, she remains pleasant-faced and smiling. The only visible possessions in her hotel room for a two-week trip from Tokyo were her husband’s laptop and a small silver suitcase the size of a typical man’s briefcase.

近藤身材嬌小——只有1.43米。當她坐着接受我的採訪時，不僅腳沒有着地，連膝蓋都沒有彎到沙發另一面。說話的時候，她一直保持和悅的表情，一直在微笑。這次從東京過來，她計劃待兩週時間，而在她的酒店房間所能看到的唯一的私人物品是她丈夫的手提電腦和一個典型男士公文包大小的銀色手提箱。

Her success has taken her by surprise. She never thought someone could become so famous for tidying that it would be hard to walk down the street in Tokyo. “I feel I am busy all the time and I work all the time,” she said, and she did not seem so happy about this, though her faint smile never wavered.

獲得這樣的成功，也出乎她本人的意料。她從來沒想過有人會因爲擅長收納整理而變得這麼出名，會因此難以在東京街頭走動。“我感覺自己一直很忙，無時無刻不在工作，”近藤說。她似乎爲此不太開心，但她的臉上一直泛着微微的笑意。