Do you have a pressing problem, annoying anxiety or community conundrum? Jasminda Featherlight, our resident roving Agony Aunt, is here to help. Jasminda will be responding to questions from our News Of The Area papers on a rotating basis. Send your concerns to Jasminda care of edit@mcnota.com.au and include your title, initials and suburb.

Modern Media: Advertise with News Of The Area and you get your ad in 1) in Print, 2) on the News Website (like this ad), and 3) on our Social Media news site. A much more efficient way to advertise. Reach a HUGE audience for a LOW price TODAY! Call us on 02 4983 2134. Or media@newsofthearea.com.au
Or CLICK FOR ADVERT QUOTE

Dear Jasminda,

My wife has become a Marie Kondo convert. She’s chucking everything away. Is this a passing fad?
Concerned Mr KM, Fishermans Bay

For those readers who have not already been bitten by the Marie Kondo craze – actually I don’t think Marie Kondo would bite – she would take neat nibbles and wipe her mouth delicately with a napkin requiring advanced-level origami skills to replicate its precise Marie Kondo folds – Marie Kondo is a celebrity tidier. Yes, you did read that correctly. You can be a celebrity for just about anything these days: for having your buttocks injected, for being a weirdo on YouTube, for marrying a stranger (this is more suited to C-grade celebs), for writing non-erotic erotic fiction (50 Shades of Bad Writing), for being a brat and making a reality TV show (suited to adults and children), for making up new moves (dabbing, whipping, nae nae-ing and now flossing – something dentists should take advantage of in their marketing strategies) and so on. You get my drift. Anyway, Marie Kondo, one of the tidiest-looking humans I’ve ever seen, teaches us how to make do with less by keeping what brings us joy. Of course everyone’s idea of joy is quite unique. Some people find joy in having forty-seven pairs of boots, others by keeping every drawing their child has done since pre-school. Some people find joy in collecting teapots. Others in collecting nutjobs (or so the divorce statistics would indicate). So, I think it is a very personal thing.

The other issue with the Marie Kondo craze, is that it’s pretty much a waste of time unless everyone in the family gets involved. There’s no point spending hours folding your kids’ t-shirts into perfect folds, when they still toss 15 items of clothing onto the floor to find what they’re looking for. Basically, if we’re all going to go Kondo (and being a minimalist, I take no issue with the idea), there may be an opening for Kondo Bootcamps where everyone arrives with a boot-load of junk and then returns home with just one tiny box of joy.

Or, here’s an idea: How about we just stop buying useless crap in the first place? Then all your joyless discards won’t end up in landfill. Again, the problem with this comes back to the idea of fads and fads are what keeps our capitalist society going, as evidenced by people trying to re-sell their 57 Beanie Boos, or 200 Furbies, or their 20 Tamagotchis or 39 slap bracelets, or 15 fidget spinners or their Tickle Me Elmo . . . actually I reckon Tickle Me Elmo would bring Marie Kondo a lot of joy. I bet she would smile, and perhaps even emit an enigmatic, yet controlled laugh with one hand covering her immaculately-penciled lips.

Carpe diem,
Jasminda.