The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Ratings425
Average rating3.6
Overall, I found “The Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo to be a nice year-end book to remimd myself to keep things tidy, which has been an issue in a year of floods. However, everything in the basement was tidied up for me, so perhaps I may count that as progress in Kondo land.
I find Marie Kondo's tone hilariously bossy and perfect for someone who does what she does. However, she doeesn't provide a suggestion to stop bringing unneeded items into the home, which is part of the problem. It's all well and good to get rid of things, but it doesn't stop one from piling up a bunch of stuff!
Her definition of rebound is hilarious! I suppose the word “rebound” isn't used to describe jumping into a new relationship with a person right after another one ends, but that could also be a translation issue.
Below are random thoughts I had while listening to the audiobook.
Clothes – Marie Kondo's advice is well-taken on this topic. As someone who has far too many clothes, I do plan to go through my closet soon to get rid of some garments that I haven't worn and will not wear. Taking care of ones garments is also a good idea – clothes are one of the first things that people notice about you and it helps to fold garments that can be and to arrange them properly for easy access.
Books – I am conflicted about her advice. It is true that book fiends like to collect books and have a hard time letting them go. Many of the books I have are those that I have read at least once and would like to read again or may loan out to a friend or family member. In fact, I started getting almost all of my books from the library about 7 years ago, so I rarely buy a book other than the handful for my Great Books book club (the club is through the library, but they can't always get enough copies for our group discussions).
Papers – Infrequently and more frequently used papers. That's it for categorization! Perhaps, her advice works if you do not work from home, have your own business, or own property. I, for example, do all three and must keep documents. Imagine the auditors' horror if I said the papers did not spark joy and simply discarded all of my documentation! It is interesting that someone who seems to have OCD does not appreciate proper organization for items that must be kept. In the US, a used checkbook can be useful for year-end taxes, so it is not necessarily a good idea to discard them as soon as you fill one up. Similalarly, paycheck stubs may be needed if you plan to refinance your mortgage.
General approach to items – It is a good idea to think about items with similar purposes that are located in more than one place in the house, review them together, and then discard items which do not spark joy. She's not necessarily advocating that we discard a second pair of scissors and that we keep all scissors in one place. Perhaps, if one lives in a very small apartment or house, it is a good idea to limit the number of duplicte items. However, I think it is worthwhile to have a pair of scissors in a home office and separate pair that is used to open food packages to avoid contamination (each pair has a different type of blade).
Keepsakes – getting rid of all letters and keepsakes would horrify my Czech grandmother, who did a great deal of research on our family tree and put together binders with letters written by ancestors and stories about their lives. In fact, if she knew that every important card and letter I received were lost in a flood this summer (including letters that my mother wrote to my grandmother about me when I was a baby), she would find that sadder than the tremendous financial burden. I have really enjoyed reading letters that my English grandmothers kept, incliuding a teenage diary about my English grandmother's life during WWII, meeting my grandfather, and her trip to the US.
How to handle stockpiles? It is true that only certain items need any sort of stockpile either because they can only be purchased in multiples or because and item is used regularly, such as toilet paper or paper towels.
Designating a spot for each item is a good idea because it requires that you think about how each item is really used and where it is used. However, putting all shelving into closets is not necessarily workable. It is a good idea to keep a room clean, but displaying certain keepsakes and regularly viewing them may be what sparks joy in a person, even if that person is not Marie Kondo.
Deciding where to store things based on where they are used is a good idea – putting all items in one place may not be the most efficient and may end up creating more clutter, especially if the available storage is small. It is true that all storage cannot be within arm's reach, which one of Marie Kondos' client prefers.
Store things in bags, such as purses. This is not a bad idea, although the idea of a bunch of straps hangning out so I'll know what's in each bag sounds unappealing. Also, I have 3 cats, and 2 of them really like getting into any open bags and 1 of them opens closet doors. 2 of the cats also think dangling straps are a toy.
HAHA Confronting our posessions!! It's all about facing inadequacies and faults! Tidying makes the people more accountable and able to make decisions.
Thanking posessions for their service to you may sound nutty to Western/non-Native American ears, but it is a good way to create closure for those posessions and to better appreciate what each item does for you, as opposed to stuff that sits in a pile. Thanking the house for sheltering you is not silly; when you put more value on something, you are more likely to tend to it properly.
I'm gonna try to implement the methods of tidying up in this book and i hope they'll work for me :D
overall i enjoyed this book , it was sweet , simple and practical , i didn't get bored while listening to it and i was trying to learn as much as i can from what i'm hearing.
i' think i will buy the physical copy because its the kind of books that you wanna get back to as a reference , not just read it once .
but if i wanted to summarize it in one sentence , it will be :
If it doesn't give you joy . get rid of it .
Hvis du vil starte å holde orden på hjemmet ditt: Begynn med å kaste denne boka.
«Life truly begins after you have put your house in order» ?
Mixed bag. Much of my cringing could be due to translation or different cultural concepts.
Also mixed because it is asking one to change, often to change a life long habit or family way of life.
Dislikes:
kept talking about garbage and ‘throwing away'; she didn't mention donating or recycling until about 3/4 of the way through :/
She came off as very judgemental when talking about her clients, there is a way to convey interesting and exciting tidbits without it smacking of ‘holier than thou' mentality
sigh just because the author is Japanese does not mean that she can speak for all of Japan/Japanese culture
Odd mix of ‘no-nonsense' tone with treating inanimate objects with more respect than living beings (not exactly, but it's just a slightly odd concept to this American, at least the degree to which she seemed to take it, or it came off as a bouncing between two stereotypes)
Smacks of (middle)class privilege
Sometimes hard to visualize the concept she was talking about. Did the print version have diagrams, pictures, etc.? Well, I have ‘Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up' in my to-read stack.
Likes:
Well organized (duh). Liked that it was systematic/hierarchical.
Is supportive and encouraging of the one attempting to change
At times is very straightforward
Some great ideas
Comes off as a real person (in part because of her mixed tone)
Made me question certain concepts (such as not having to keep most documentation, which goes against my teachings, haha)
At the end, especially when she was talking about greeting the house(s), I thought that this might make a good manga, then there would be diagrams/drawings to show things, and in an odd way might make the mixed tone more credible.
This book is a light read that asks you to dive into your soul or self-identity, and divine what you find.
Before reading this book, I thought the idea that each of one's possessions should spark joy was irrational. Mostly, I still feel this way. I feel no joy when I pick up any given kitchen utensil, but they sure do make my life easier and get used frequently. So, I think I should keep them. I think this message has the most value for things like clothing, books, decorations, etc. I watched the minimalist documentary before reading this book, and I thought it was interesting how they have different views towards objects, but ultimately the same goal of only owning what's most valuable - whether that value lies in usefulness or its ability to make you happy. There's a middle ground between the two and I think that's what we should strive for. One should only have items that are either useful or which make you happy. Do you need spoons? Absolutely. Should you keep that decoration you adore which has no useful purpose? Definitely.
I was a bit unsure if I should rate this 2-4 stars. I find the book very repetitive and pretty annoying to read. She sounds a bit condescending throughout it and every chapter says the exact same thing. However I can see the point of being repetitive when you're trying to drill a method into someone.
Her method though I think stands for itself. I've been moving recently and haven't fully organized my house yet (though I have thrown everything out that doesn't bring me joy). I'll have to see how it goes months from now with her method but so far I've found my husband and I are a lot tidier and organized and it's a lot easier to be that way mostly due to ease of putting items away when you know exactly where they go and don't have to look for a spot every time. I definitely recommend her method if not necessarily this book.
I found this book interesting; it gave me new ways to think about tidying up my space/life.
The author's basic strategy would seem extreme to a lot of people (myself included), but given the basic East v West culture differences the more minimalist theories make sense.
I know I won't be putting the full strategy of the book into play any time soon (or ever), but there were definitely useful elements to be incorporated into creating a more personalized strategy for myself. I think the biggest thing that I can take out of the book is to be grateful and thankful for what you have, and be prepared to treat the things you have with respect even as their place in your life comes to an end. Things that have served their purpose in your life have as much value as things currently doing so. It just may be that the items value may be better served out of your home.
No, weird Japanese lady, I won't throw away my toilet brush, camping gear, or the leftover potting soil, even though they don't “spark joy”. Also unlikely to thank my inanimate objects for their service. But the tips may apply to my CLOSET, so that's good I guess...!
This book was AMAZING! I highly recommend it to any who wants to find clarity in life. Clarity in physical space as well as in the mental state. It's a book that'll help clear all that noise around you so I definitely recommend it.
I can see how people who have trouble getting rid of things would get something out of this, but it didn't do anything for me. The author is also out of her mind and believes that you can make your underwear happy by caressing it and speaking to it aloud.
Interesting concept but I feel it could be condensed into a much smaller book. All the spiritual part of touching your stuff to “wake” it up really puts me off... But I got some good tips from the method.
Not worth your time
Maybe it's the translation, but I thought this books was poorly organized and could have been condensed into a one-page bulleted list.
Four stars for tidying! The book, and her method, are quirky enough to be fun, and there are ideas with real merit here. She makes the very good point, for example, that most of us in the US or Japan have probably always had so much stuff that we haven't had the chance to know what it's like to live a truly uncluttered life.
This was a very long read for a short book, and not even that good. Maybe I'm just not tuned to the “japanese art of tidying”, but the repeated phrases and wisdom-nuggets did not inspired joy at all. And if you believe this book, there's nothing more important if you want to put your house (and by extension, life) in order.
But if you don't get stuck on the form, there might be some value in the message: cleaning house - literally and figuratively - can have a refreshing effect on your life, and it might lead to a generally happier existence. I'm just not sure I want to achieve it by saying hi to my house every time I come home.
throw out all the things! everything else should have a proper place! I keep meaning to do this... maybe I will, someday :p
I put this on my to-read list after reading this great article about the backlash. This summary in New York Magazine nails it:
But Kondo doesn't nag. Instead, she urges a kind of animistic tenderness toward everyday belongings. Socks “take a brutal beating in their daily work, trapped between your foot and your shoe, enduring pressure and friction to protect your precious feet,” she writes. “The time they spend in your drawer is their only chance to rest.” Purses merit similar reverence: “Being packed all the time, even when not in use, must feel something like going to bed on an empty stomach.” Kondo's thesis—that the world is filled with worthy recipients of mercy, including lightweight-microfiber ones—is as lovely as it is alien. It's empathy as an extreme sport.
The things we own are real. They exist here and now as a result of choices made in the past by no one other than ourselves. It is dangerous to ignore them or to discard them indiscriminately as if denying the choices we made. This is why I am against both letting things pile up and dumping things indiscriminately. It is only when we face the things we own one by one and experience the emotions they evoke that we can truly appreciate our relationship with them.
Inspiring book. Keep only those things that inspire joy! Such a clear and simple way to live.
I may be alone here, but the only thing more boring than cleaning is reading a book about cleaning. I just grabbed it from the library because it is very popular right now and I wanted to get an idea of what it is about. What I am taking from this is less about HOW to clean and more about the philosophy of cleaning. IMHO the crux seems to be: if you only surround yourself with stuff that you love and are grateful for said stuff all of the time, then you are more likely to keep it cleaned up and tidy. Fabulous. Stuff, btw, seems to primarily concern clothes.
There is a very lonely undertone in this book. I blame it on the translation.
At the core of the book, there is some useful advice for de-cluttering, which could have been conveyed in about ten pages. The rest, most of which has not been adapted for a non-Japanese audience, is filler and nonsense.
This book made some interesting points. I don't feel her technique is right for my home or my life right now, but I am incorporating some of her ideas into my homemaking.