Week 42 has been very productive, and this might be a great turning point for me.
My achievements in Week 42:
- Completed a draft of my data analysis for the preliminary data, which looks like a rich resource.
- Added a table of prospective participants, the amount of data, and some descriptions of the context in the methodology section, which can serve as an important basis for my next fieldwork.
- Made a decision to undertake ‘Dan Sha Ri (Refuse – Throw away – Separate)’ in my house – I have disposed of dozens of things.
The concept of tidying up, proposed by Hideko Yamashita, has been well known in Japan since 2010. I had not read the book until recently, but had been following the tidying-up method proposed by another author, Marie Kondo. I liked her first book, The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up. These two authors published their first books in the same year 2010.
Marie Kondo’s method is much simpler: “tidying is a special event. Don’t do it every day”. She calls this a tidying marathon. The selection criterion of her method when it comes to throwing things out is taking each item in your hand and asking yourself “does it spark joy?” If it does, keep it; if not, dispose of it.
I was not interested in the concept of Dan Sha Ri until I read the book last week, because I had thought it would be something similar to ‘spark joy’, and the three letters Dan Sha Ri discusses were enough to make a guess about what the book was about. But what was remarkable for me was that Dan Sha Ri focuses on the ‘relationship’ between possessions and a possessor, drawing on yoga’s philosophy (Dan-Sha-Ri, Refuse – Throw away – Separate). This website explains Dan Sha Ri very well.
Hideko Yamashita proposed ‘the rule of 7:5:1’, which sets three criteria for cleaning up:
- If items are in invisible storage (inside of a closet, drawer, etc.), discard items until you secure 30% of the space
- If items are in a visible shelf (cupboards, etc.), discard items until you secure 50% of the space
- For a display shelf (such as ornamental objects), restrict objects to occupy 10% of the space
Hideko Yamashita mentioned that she distinguished Dan Sha Ri from minimalist art. She did not consider Dan Sha Ri as “I do not need stuff anymore” or only having a “few things at home”. Instead, Dan Sha Ri is constantly aware of the quantity of material possessions and the balance between excess and deficiency. I think some (beginner) minimalists also share this relationship with personal items – your perception of who you are is constantly shaped by the things you actually use.
My goals for Week 43:
- Have an in-depth discussion regarding the methodology, referring to the analysis of preliminary data
- Reading and editing for the contextualization section
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