The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Release Date: October 14, 2014
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list). 

With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

This book created quite a buzz when it first came out in 2014 and Marie Kondo recently came out with a popular Netflix series based on the book. I actually read this book last year (I’m so behind on reviews!) before I knew there was going to be a Netflix series. I haven’t watched it so I can’t say how much of the book is in it.

I think most people can use some help tidying up. I know I can! As with any self-help book, I found there were pieces of advice and information I could use and some I either couldn’t or didn’t want to use. I like the method she uses of grouping items before going through them and deciding what to keep. That was actually a large part of the book.

I did not like the part where she said to get rid of all your books. According to her, you’ll never re-read the books you’ve already read and you’ll never get around to reading the books in your TBR pile. Lies! Lies, I tell you! She also talks to inanimate objects, thanking her purse for its service, etc. That’s a little weird for me.

The author lives and works in Japan (the book is actually translated from Japanese) so most of her techniques are geared toward people who live in Japan. Most dwellings in her examples are very small. Some of them are even just an adult child’s room in their parents’ house. She doesn’t use any examples of people who have small children or teenagers – the untidiest people of them all!

Even though I’m not going to follow her method to the tee, I found The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up inspiring and helpful.