As I’m sure most everyone has heard, the KonMari method is a Japanese practice suggested by Marie Kondo about how to declutter your surroundings. When surrounded by extra and unneeded objects, you only keep what “sparks joy.” Say your desk is full of unnecessary books, knick knacks and other odds and ends. You hold each object, and if it brings you happiness, then it gets to stay. We would apply this to our desks, our closets and our rooms, but why not our lives? Why do we keep obligations, and dare I say it, people, in our lives that don’t bring us happiness?

While it doesn’t seem like the kindest or the most productive of things, dropping what doesn’t make you happy, in the long term it’ll help you create the most meaningful, best version of your life. I think it will, anyways. I’ve started to put this into practice already through my college transition. The people that I now see didn’t matter, I haven’t kept in touch with. I’ve purged my followers on Instagram and my friends on Facebook. The people who I see what they do and who see what I’m up to are the people that seeing their pictures and their posts brings me joy. The people who I talk to in class and in my oh so precious spare time are the people that when I’m with them, they bring me much more happiness than simple alone time would.

I also realize that this almost callous approach could be seen as just that, callous. That, however, is the mindset we’ve been trained to adapt. We do things because we should and because we feel we ought to. We join this organization because it will look good, and we keep this friend in our lives just because we’ve been friends for so long. Everyone does it, and it has become normal. Yet, if we change this thinking and we all pursue what really sparks joy in our lives, not only will our lives be “decluttered,” we’ll be able to find happiness while doing the select things that really matter.

Sometimes it can be hard to let go. We get so used to holding on with both hands as tight as we can that we forget we even know how to let go. Like everyone else, I forgot how much it was hurting to hold onto some of the things in my life. Once I really sat back and thought about it, however, I realized the things that I was fighting so hard to hold onto had ceased bringing me joy. And once I let go, and decluttered my life, I was newly and freshly able to realize how much happiness I had in the people and places and events around me. No longer did the word “obligations” apply, as everything that was left sparked joy. I decluttered my life, and you can, too.