FRIDAY OPEN THREAD: But Does It Spark Joy?

Ryan Yates
Sep 2, 2016
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Hello fireflies, and welcome to your long weekend Friday Open Thread! A space for cat photos, a space for sharing, a space for love.

image by Rory Midhani
image by Rory Midhani

It’s been so long since we hung out, how are you, how’ve you been, how was that thing with that girl in the place? What’s new at work?

Since the last time we hung out, I’ve gotten really into tidying in the KonMari sense (#virgo), where you put everything you own on the floor by category and try to feel whether owning it sparks joy in your body and if it doesn’t you sell/donate/recycle/trash it. I didn’t own a ton to begin with (except for books), but I was feeling cluttered and unfocused and definitely knew I had some stuff around for the wrong reasons (“I will totally read this book I’ve had in my to-read pile for three years and have moved unopened through four cities any day now,” “I can only fit into these jeans when my body is a certain way and even if I don’t like them anymore I keep them to feel good/bad about myself in turns,” “I just didn’t notice this baking soda expired a year and a half ago,” etc.), and tidying feels good, like imposing order on chaos. Goodbye, ten of the twelve identical tank tops I rotate between nearly 24 hours a day that don’t actually make me feel good about myself; goodbye, six bags of books by mostly straight white cis dudes that no one in my house will ever read again; goodbye, stash of lube with ingredients to which I or my current sexual partners are allergic. I’ve only done clothes and books (and, um, people) and I know I’m probably not going to execute the perfect tidy (extra cleaning supplies do not bring me joy, but I’m not going to throw them out and repurchase them when I need them in a month) but taking a look at all areas of my life and thinking about what actually brings me joy feels really good. Plus it’s easier to do laundry now. Turns out most of the clothes that bring me joy are strappy black bodysuits.

Puppy sparks joy, can stay, is mad I won't let her chew on everything that doesn't.
Sage the puppy sparks joy, can stay, is mad I won’t let her chew on everything that doesn’t.

Have you ever tidied or KonMari’d or minimized or tiny housed or done a capsule wardrobe or owned only a certain number of things? How was it? How did it make you feel? Is fall cleaning as much a thing as spring cleaning for everyone else or just me? What do you do when you want to feel centered in your life?

Also, what are you up to this weekend? Going anywhere? Avoiding anything? Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying and planning and dreaming? Tell me everything that’s going on with you! Let’s go!


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Ryan Yates

Ryan Yates was the NSFW Editor (2013–2018) and Literary Editor for Autostraddle.com, with bylines in Nylon, Refinery29, The Toast, Bitch, The Daily Beast, Jezebel, and elsewhere. They live in Los Angeles and also on twitter and instagram.

Ryan Yates has written 1142 articles for us.