I talked to Vox’s Rebecca Jennings about the Victorian roots of maximalism and the psychic toll of the recent mania for decluttering:
Television shows like Hoarders, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, and now The Home Edit, in which a team of organization experts traipse through the pantries of celebrities and explain the importance of color-coding one’s nut butters, have captivated millions.
And yet, “it has this sort of ‘I am declaring victory over my possessions’ [tone],” Howard says. “But what an exhausting way to feel about your stuff.” Millennial maximalism offers a different way of looking at things, one that recalls an approach more like Annika’s grandmother’s: that they can be a collection of joyful, personal, and perhaps complicated things that tell the story of one’s life.
