The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

Hardcover, 231 pages

English language

Published Oct. 14, 2014 by Ten Speed Press.

ISBN:
978-1-60774-730-7
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
879469400

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (123 reviews)

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 will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

5 editions

Review of 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I think this book is great. It challenges readers to alter their relationship with the world around them (spoiler: it's about altering what goes on internally, not endowing inanimate objects with agency). It's hard not to notice the minority of hate this book has inspired here on GR. The objections seem to reject the underlying philosophy of the book which I read as a sort of modernized applied Shintoism. Anyway, we could all use a little more truth in present tense these days and I, for one, felt emboldened by the Kon Marie method.

We're going full Kondo on our house this weekend and I'm pretty psyched about it. Wish us luck!

Review of 'The life-changing magic of tidying up' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Marie Kondo keeps releasing the same book over and over again, but this is so cute that I don't even care.

If you're only going to read one of her books (and I'm not convinced that anyone needs to do more than that), I'd recommend this one. There's lots of helpful diagrams, and the art is definitely joy-sparking.

Review of 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose. To throw away what you no longer need is neither wasteful nor shameful.

This was on my "wish I had time to read" list for a while and then I saw her Netflix show and then I finally read this. See my rating up there? I am definitely going to try her method to finally get rid of all the too-much-stuff I own.

It is a quick read and well worth looking at for anyone who has ever felt like they have too much stuff. I like her technique about getting together all your things by category in descending difficulty and then touching everything and seeing if the item "spark's joy".

The best sequence is this: clothes first, then books, papers, miscellaneous items (komono) and, lastly, sentimental items and keepsakes. …

Review of 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Finde einige Aspekte enorm hilfreich, deshalb Lob, obwohl auffällig nervig die Abnehmvergleiche am Anfang und die Aussicht auf Gewichtsverlust zum Schluss, die absolut irrelevant sind. Auch ihr Hang zu Fatalismus und »Aufräumen bringt uns dem Naturzustand näher« ist Quatsch. Ihre Animismusphilosophie find ich aber unterhaltend und ihr Materialismus ist erfrischend (nicht im Sinne von Dialektik, sondern im Sinne der Beziehung, die sie zu Dingen hegt)

Review of 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

I think it was a bit too harsh on books (full bookshelves make me happy), and some of the attributing feelings to possessions and your home were a slight hurdle to go along with, but it was a good book and lit a fire within me.
She's obviously very experienced and knowledgeable in the area, having devoted her whole life to the subject. It's always a delight reading a nerd nerding-out on their nerd subject. And I can see that focusing on things "sparking joy" helps you recognise what makes you happy in a broader sense, and thanking items before letting them go could help alleviate the guilt or fear associated with keeping stuff. I will find out myself when I start the process soon (need to rescue "the room no one talks about" in our house!)

Review of 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

I read this book. I tidied up with my partner. This book was really helpful in that endeavor. My life is still mostly the same but I'll give it a few days to take effect.

Overall a real fun book - Marie Kondo clearly takes a lot of joy in this and is also quite willing to poke fun at herself about that.

Review of 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

This is a really inspiring book. I would say the hardest thing about the book was trying to hold off on implementing the recommendations until I finished the whole book. It's repetitive in some sections, but not in an irritating way. She reinforces the concepts she's trying to convey by referencing them multiple times throughout the text.

Some of the Shinto practices that KonMari mentions threw me off at first until I realized what they were. When she talks about things having energy or life or greeting your objects, that's part of her religious belief, but it makes sense in a way, to take care of and value and appreciate your things. The more care you give to your belongings, the longer they'll last.

What did I get out of this book? It helped me to reevaluate the things that I surround myself with. It helped me to think about …

Review of 'The life-changing magic of tidying up' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Ich habe es lange ignoriert, aber der Millionenbestsellerstatus ist verdient. Ein hilfreiches, freundliches Buch ohne den ansonsten üblichen JETZTREISSTEUCHMALZUSAMMEN-Terror. Darüber, dass die Autorin Gegenstände offenbar nicht nur metaphorisch als Haustiere betrachtet, die artgerecht gehalten werden müssen, kann man leicht hinweglesen, wenn einen so was stört. Es ist etwas redundant, aber es ist ja eh kein dickes Buch, man verschwendet also insgesamt wenig Zeit mit dem Wiederlesen der gleichen Sachverhalte in neuen Formulierungen.

Review of 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I'm a bit messy. Don't judge me. I want to change, and this book seems really popular so I decided to check it out. It is definitely not enthralling reading material. But it does what it intends to do pretty clearly and in an effective manner: It explains a method to clean up your room/house and get rid of all the crap you have accumulated and don't really need.
I have finished the book but can't say I've finished the full experience until I do the actual cleaning up. That will be happening very soon. Then maybe I will update my score for this book.
I recommend reading it if you are wondering about how to go about organizing your space, and particularly if you feel you have too many things and want to simplify, de-clutter and minimize your lifestyle.
I know I need doing that. I thank this book …

Review of 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This woman clearly has OCD. She manically cleaned every wire in a metal shower rack, and worked herself into tears over a slimy shampoo bottle. She's "sworn off" her addiction to storage solutions, insisting you should organize everything into shoeboxes instead. I think a lot of this book is her journey reconciling her tidying obsession with her yearning for tranquility.

Her subjective guidelines of what to trash and how much of something to keep are useful: there is no magic number of socks that's best for every person. Her insistence that you should get rid of momentous because if it was really that great, you wouldn't need something to remember it by is stupid, and I wish she'd spent more time thinking that part through: I've found that photos and trinkets I didn't care for in childhood spark joy in me now.

My takeaways from this book are: 1) get …

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