A simple way to treat the epidemic of buying things

Yamashita Hiteko, she is famous for the concept of danshari, which is summarized and developed from making the house neat.[Photo provided to China Daily]

An increasing number of Chinese have started reviewing their surroundings at home and their mental situation.

A new type of house service is being offered in China. Specialists visit a client's house to provide advice on making the space neat, to find out what things clients like or dislike, to tell them to throw away things they don't like and to free people from superfluous goods.

A woman who was present at Sunday's lecture shares her experience of practicing danshari.

She says that she suffered from depression and used to eat a lot, but was unwilling to visit a psychoanalyst.

After reading Danshari, she cleaned her house, ate less and lost 5 kilograms.

"Now whenever I feel unhappy, I clean my house and feel better," she says.

Hiteko says: "The essence of danshari is that you need to focus on yourself, right here, right now.

"Like Japan, China has also become a place of plenty from one which had a chronic shortage of goods. Nowadays, the problem of cleaning the house is not only putting things in place, but trying to accommodate too many things in a limited space. So, first, we need to throw away unnecessary things that you don't like."

The book offers a practical and detailed guide on the concept. At the end of each chapter, Hiteko gives examples.