I don't know what comes over us in January — perhaps it is being trapped inside by forbidding weather, perhaps it is a New Year's resolution — but women are suddenly obsessed with cleaning.
And it isn't just the dust and dirt that is left behind when the Christmas decorations are stored for another year. It is the clutter, the stuff. We feel suffocated by our possessions.
There are plenty of books and websites and YouTube videos that will teach you how to get rid of unnecessary possessions — I think you can see a therapist and get psychotropic drugs, too — but none are as delightful as a charming little book by Japanese organizer extraordinaire, Marie Kondo.
Released in the United States after it became a best-seller in Japan and Europe, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" describes a spiritual journey that begins when you pick up a possession or an article of clothing and ask yourself if it brings you joy.
Apparently you can fill a lot of garbage bags with joyless stuff — one of her clients filled 200, and most average between 20 and 60 bags.
"There are three approaches we take toward our possessions," she writes. "Face them now, face them sometime or avoid them until the day we die."
"Tidying," as she so sweetly describes it, allows us to discover who we really are, what we really love and perhaps what we would like to do with our lives. She tells stories of clients who have found new passions or new careers under all that junk.
Tidying was the first official task this Japanese middle child was given in elementary school — she was the only person who volunteered for the job, and she spent recesses reorganizing the classroom. She used her "gift" at home, where she tried to earn the attention of her parents who were busy with an older child and an infant.
She describes the way she bows in Shinto-like reverence and greets the house of a client, thanking it for giving shelter. She teaches her clients to treat the discarded items with respect, thanking them for their service.
And she talks about how easy it is to see what items give her clients joy and what items do not.
"We form attachments to things out of fear for the future or an attachment to the past," she writes. "Ask yourself for every item and you will see a pattern."
Do not do what some advise, which is to clean out a drawer, a closet or a small space every day because, she says, "You will never be done."
Instead, dive in and don't quit until the house is completely tidy. "Tidying is not the purpose of life," she said. "If you do it all in one go, the instant results will empower you to keep your space in order."
She writes about clients who report losing weight or being in better shape after tidying. She believes that when we reduce what we own and "detox" the house, it has the same effect on our bodies. You can understand how getting rid of 40 bags of stuff in a single day might have a physical effect.
Certainly, it will have an emotional and mental effect as well. Getting rid of paper, she says, has the particular effect of clearing the mind.
She says her clients report a sense of contentment and a diminished desire to accumulate more stuff.
She believes in owning only what we love and what we need. She describes herself as lazy and forgetful, unable to take proper care of too many things. She wants to cherish properly the things she keeps.
"I can think of no greater happiness in life than to be surrounded only by things I love."
Susan Reimer's column appears on Mondays and Thursdays. She can be reached at sreimer@baltsun.com and @SusanReimer on Twitter.com.