The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, #1
Hardcover, 231 pages
English language
Published Oct. 14, 2014 by Ten Speed Press.
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.
Is there a sixth star for this book ?
Marie Kondo has a unique approach to decluttering one's home, and having begun the Konami process, I'm finding it going pretty well so far.
The idea of only having things in your household that give you joy, though, is a tricky one for a lot of us. Kondo works in Japan with people who can afford to hire someone to come over and help them get organized. So if they have blender they never liked that well, they can throw it away and buy a new blender. A lot of us have to hold onto things because they work and we need them, not because they give us joy.
You kind of have to translate Kondo's advice to your own way of life. Her system for going through books is insane, in that you're supposed to just hold a book and decide if it gives you joy, but you're not …
Marie Kondo has a unique approach to decluttering one's home, and having begun the Konami process, I'm finding it going pretty well so far.
The idea of only having things in your household that give you joy, though, is a tricky one for a lot of us. Kondo works in Japan with people who can afford to hire someone to come over and help them get organized. So if they have blender they never liked that well, they can throw it away and buy a new blender. A lot of us have to hold onto things because they work and we need them, not because they give us joy.
You kind of have to translate Kondo's advice to your own way of life. Her system for going through books is insane, in that you're supposed to just hold a book and decide if it gives you joy, but you're not supposed to peek inside. This is fine for books you've read, but useless for those you haven't. But then, I think Kondo feels that you should only have one unread book; she doesn't see the point in a library.
Kondo's advice also reveals how she has incorporated personal quirks into the book. For example, her attitude is, if a button falls off you should toss the item because you'll never get around to sewing it back on (and because, in her odd estimation, if a button falls off it's a sign the item is wearing out; never mind I've had buttons fall off of new shirts). This both shows that she's a procrastinator and that she has enough money that she can toss out perfectly good things at the first sign of wear.
Kondo is a little nutty. Her stories of being obsessed with cleaning since she was a young child are perplexing to me, and as for saying thank you to her shoes, I don't see myself doing that. It makes me a bit skeptical of her, but then, it also makes the book more interesting than something less personal.
I've only Konami'd my clothes so far (books are next) and I did cheat a little on the "spark joy" concept because sometimes something that individually sparks no joy is the only good accessory for something that does, but overall I think her ideas - declutter by category rather than area, toss stuff you don't really like that much - are solid ones. I'd recommend taking a look.
2.5 stars.
relentless and meticulous thinking about stuff
This book is great. I liked the cheesiness, I'm going to talk to all of my possessions.
I think the idea that you need to be able to see al of your possessions and know where they are to appreciate them is the most important idea here.
I'm now going to re-read this and go through each step.
