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

from goodreads

4.5 stars

My house is full of junk. I will admit it. I am slowly (more slowly than I would like) starting to pare down and get rid of things. Unfortunately since I live with my husband and daughters I have to take their wishes into account too. But, I am slowly winning them over to my side, the lets get rid of it side, and that feels pretty good.

I'm not sure why I, or my husband feel the need to hang onto some of the things we do. These things are just inanimate objects. So why is it so hard. Whenever I feel that way I think of the ikea lamp commercial. It helps me get my head on straight.

Synopsis

Marie Kondo goes through her method of decluttering and she claims that if you do it her way, you will not have a relapse. Instead of focusing on a room she focuses on categories.


My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book. I really liked her insights and suggestions. It was interesting how she came to develop this system. It was through trial and error and through her own insights and frustrations that she discovered her own method of organizing her things.

I love her use of categories. I have started doing that too and have found a difference. If you clean by location then you end up moving things from room to room without really dealing with things and then you get exhausted. With the categories you can really focus on one thing, or you find duplicates that can be eliminated. It is fantastic.

She gives you step by step instructions on how to break down each category and she even tells you how to fold your clothes, which I actually found rather interesting.

I did find the book repetitive. We get it, you loved organizing and tidying ever since you were a child and read all the magazines about it. Got it. But despite that it is still a good read with some really interesting lessons.

My biggest take away from this book was "It's served its purpose". Sometimes I get caught in the justifying dilemma where you have a shirt, you don't really wear it but it still has plenty of wear in it. Well using the KonMari method you just figure out if it has served it's purpose. It brought you joy when you bought it and the few times you wore it. That was its purpose for you and it has filled that purpose so it is okay to pass it on. That has helped me so much. If in doubt I can just ask myself "has it served its purpose?" and nine times out of ten it has.

After reading this book I have gotten rid of 3 garbage bags of clothes to goodwill and have a closet full of things for a yard sale in June. I can't wait to see how much more stuff I can get rid of.