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

I adore this book. I first heard about this method on message boards online. Everyone was talking about it. At first I started going through some of the advice from her book second hand, but eventually I got caught up enough in a decluttering whirlwind that I decided to buy the book (ebook format of course!). I'm really glad I did! It's a very fast read and does tend to repeat itself at times (I think there may be some awkwardness from translation) but well worth the read through. I love that in the book she tells about her own journey involved in developing her method. We see the places she stumbled and get to learn from her experience. Marie Kondo seems to have stumbled upon a lot of concepts that have been heavily researched in the social sciences sciences without knowing about the evidence base form them, just drawing from her own experiences. To me this method maps on conceptually to the concept of mindfulness although the book never uses the word "mindfulness". (Buddhist scholars forgive me here, as I am going to talk about mindfulness from a western psychological research perspective rather than a religious one since that is that area I am familiar with.) Kondo instructs people to attend to their present moment feelings as they hold each object. Even when discarding objects it is done so in a way that expresses gratitude an acceptance for all experiences the objects brought both positive and negative. Did you love this object in the past, but now it is worn out? Taking Kondo's advice of thanking each object for the role it had before discarding it may seem a little silly, but it works. It creates a context in which removing the object from your life is not about you expressing hatred for the object, rather it is acknowledging that it has served it's purpose and can move on. This makes it easier to discard objects like that dress you used to wear all the time and loved, but now has a stain on it. In Kondo's method discarding is not about you waging a battle against your stuff, rather you attend to end object and the feelings it evokes in the present. By removing this antagonistic perspective about cluttering I was able to part with some formerly beloved objected that at present no longer evoked that that feeling of joy that they had in the past. Similarly I love that in this method a similar expression of gratitude is used when discarding object that never met expectations. Kondo recommends thanking the object for teaching you about what you like and/or for bringing you joy at the time you bought it. She targets logical fallacies suck as the sunk cost fallacy without using technical jargon. One of the most brilliant parts of this method is the emphasis on separating the process of identifying what to keep and the process of organizing. These are two very different types of mental processes. To me this again maps onto the concept of mindfulness. This process of attending to the feelings evoked by each object requires one to attend to their feelings in the present. As soon as you switch to organizing you are no longer in that same mindful present-focused place because organizing requires thought about future use of the object. Kondo does a brilliant job of targeting common reasons why people hold onto objects they no longer need. This was very helpful for me regarding books. I had a large number of books that had moved with me 6+ times in the past 10 years. Kondo pointed out that often the thing we needed from the book is already inside of us after reading it. I had held onto so many books because I had fond memories of reading them, and Kondo helped me realized that for many of these holding onto the physical object was not important because I had gotten everything I needed from the book. I love that she does not emphasize going out and buying a million containers. That has long been my decluttering downfall. I am great at having lots of neatly organized stuff in lots of little containers. With Kondo's method though I realized that much of this neatly organized stuff was not actually stuff that brought me joy. This book is not just for someone who is very messy, it can also be for the person who is overorganized to the point where they have lost sight of what they really want to have. Don't be tempted to reject her method of folding clothing. I was skeptical but decided to try it out. Over a month into this with many laundry cycles, the organization has held up for me. This is the most sustainable clothing organization method I have ever used. It's not burdensome to put clothing away and it is so easy to find each item in the drawer. I love this this method has helped me become more attuned to how items I own make me feel. Those little feelings of irritation can add up and it's lovely to look in my drawers and on my shelves and have a feeling of quiet contentment. I am close to reaching the goal of going through every object in my home. There have certainly been bits that didn't resonate as much. For example, I'm not super into the idea of greeting my home. But some of the anthropomorphizing of objects does resonate with me and help me keep things more organized. When I see my shoes out of place thrown out on the floor now I feel a twinge of empathy for my shoes which pushes me to place them gently in their proper location. I'm not on board with her suggestion to empty the purse each day. I understand why, it helps reduce clutter from accumulating there, but I am someone who has enough trouble just remembering my phone and car keys. I don't want more things I can forget in my half awake morning state. There are some areas I think she could have better addressed though. I think there are a lot of ways that a functional necessary object might be modified to bring joy rather than being discarded. I realize this could be a slippery slope making it harder to discard, but I have personally found that items I have modified with crafting in some way have become favorite items. Similarly some clothing items may be able to bring joy if repaired in some way. Overall I loved this book and have been recommending it to everyone I know.

I found the ideas in Marie Kondo's book transformational. My wife and I have felt for quite some time a weight in our lives and until recently realized that it was all the “stuff” that was around us. We keep a fairly neat house for having a youngster but we have accumulated a lot over the years. It is true that many articles and books on de-cluttering talk about baby steps; get rid of one item at a time. The problem with that method is that you NEVER finish AND you can never possibly keep up with the amount of “stuff” that is flowing into your house and life One VERY important tip Marie shares is that after you are done gathering up all the things you are donating and throwing away don’t tell or show anyone! They will just end up either talking you out of getting rid of some of the stuff or taking it and cluttering up their own lives. This is a great tip. Luckily my wife and I ended up following that tip but we resisted at first. A few times we deviated from it and decided to start finding individual homes for some of the stuff. That quickly became a full time job as people who said they wanted something could not take it when we offered it and asked us to hold on to it for them. Even when we had some family over for dinner and offered them some of the stuff, they would pick out a few things and then promptly forget it when they left. So yet again we were holding on to the things for them and burdened by them. Do yourself a favor…collect the stuff and give it to one single charity and move on with your life! It is simpler and you are more apt to give things away as they come rather than making it a full time distribution job. Another benefit we found by getting rid of a lot of the stuff in our house is you also get rid of the memories. At first you might think this is a bad thing but it is not. Almost everything you have has a memory behind it. The piece of furniture in the living room which was your grandmothers has a memory attached to it. The extra calculator in the drawer that your uncle gave you has a memory attached to it. Perhaps that memory is not a good one. Maybe each time you use that calculator you are reminded of your uncle and how he was often rude to you. What about the coat that is not your style that you keep simply because your mother-in-law bought it for you and you feel obligated to keep – memory. As we walk through our house and by all these items consciously or unconsciously these memories and thoughts bombard us. Freeing yourself from some of these memories can be very powerful. It is your life and you should live it how you see fit and never feel obligated to keep stuff just to avoid hurting feelings. The gift givers will get over the fact that you got rid of some of their stuff but you my friend have to live there so do yourself a favor and free yourself up a little. I can tell you this works as my wife and I struggled with this very thing. Most people did not realize or pay any attention to the fact that we got rid of some of the things they gave us. A few people acted like they were disappointed but that lasted a microsecond in the grand scheme of things and they are still friends with us:-) Use other tools as well to simplify your life. After you get rid of the “stuff” you might find the book Unsubscribe: A Story About One Man’s Profound Discovery helpful. It is a short book about a guy who starts “Unsubscribing” to not only the stuff in his life but perhaps equally as important the obligations in his life. He finds he is not living the life he wants to and never has time to do the things he wants to do. By making an easy shift he starts to Unsubscribe to some of the obligations. He becomes happier and has more time to do what he wants to. It is another great tool and has a great message with lots of good examples. That stuff works as well! My wife and I are now looking at our life subscriptions and unsubscribing to many things. Also another very good resource is the documentary Minimalism: A documentary About Import Things. That really gets you thinking about how we value “stuff.” I gave Marie’s book 5 stars as it is a very practical book that leads to a simpler and more organized life. My wife and I have more work to do but so far have not looked back at anything we have gotten rid of! Our house feels much calmer and we can find the things we need and use now! Also it is interesting because our 3 year old seems calmer. My wife was the one that brought it to my attention. Maybe it is a coincidence I can’t say for sure. Either way he has embraced the new de-cluttered life! Best wishes and breathe easier my friends!

From the very first impression, I thought this was gonna be a book on how to sort and store things. Well boy was I wrong. It's much more of a psychological master piece on how we live with things. It cures the problem of clutter not technically but from the deep source. A must read for the ones who are searching improvements in this area.

انصح بالكتاب جيدا جدا ومفيدة

I really liked the passion with which this book was obviously written. I have only just finished reading it, and have only just begun the tidying process in my home, but I knew from a very early stage whilst reading this book that 1) I loved this book and 2) I was definitely going to be putting much of her advice to good use. Just a word about Marie's habit of anthromorphising everything. I am a straight up atheist at peace with myself and I steer well wide of anything touching on supernatural or superstition which I consider rubbish. Never the less I was moved by Marie's approach. Her take on fung shui really epitomises the situation; That is to say, it's not some mystical force at work magically improving ones life. Rather, it's the relationship we have with the inanimate objects around us that in many ways determine the quality of our lives. That relationship may be created only in our mind, but that doesn't mean it's not real. This was made clear to me one day at work - the bathroom door had been changed, from a rather heavy door to a light door, and so when I went to open it, I inadvertently slammed it open. You see, every inanimate object in our lives has a relationship with our brain - we know where it is, how to treat it, how hard to push it, pull it, etc. Marie simply takes that relationship and let's it work *for* us by giving it more strength, more independence than we otherwise might. Of course in reality they are just objects. But the truth is our mind doesn't care about the difference: we are in a relationship with everyone and *everything* in our lives, whether we realise it or not. Was there anything I disliked? I suppose at times it does feel a little fluffy at times, as if the publisher said "Well, we can't sell it if it's too short!". So there are times one feels the message gets a little repetitive. But really there weren't many times I felt I was starting to skim. And though I do feel there's power in Marie's approach, at times I wished she would occasionally stop and acknowledge that yes, well, there is a stack of anthromophising going on here and she's not really so crazy as to think all our clothes, shoes, books, etc have feelings. I chose a rating of five stars because so far I feel that this book has delivered on the promise made in the title (and yes, I know I have not yet completed the tidying process so take that as you will) and does so with passion and purpose. It was a pleasure to read, and just the few times where I have started applying Marie's advice I already feel the power and yes, magic, of her approach. I have no reserve at all in recommending this book to others. As Marie herself says, those who aren't interesting in tidying their home will never pick up this book anyway. For the rest of us; learn from Marie; it seems that she's been doing this a very long time and she's darn good at it.

I learnt and implemented the KonMari method. As an avid organizer, I realize that my methods were still leading to an untidy space. The tips which I enjoyed learning is the order in which to start organizing (and it’s not by room!), as well as how to use boxes to essential divide items visually, and finally stacking, touching, and moving all of the same items out so they can be seen and dealt with. Her method is so very simple. I am ready to welcome a new baby at home & I think this book has been a lifesaver. I recommend reading this book first and watching a few episodes of the KonMari method to see it entirely in action. I also appreciated Mari’s humble approach and background of mistakes she’s made over the years while trying to perfect this method. This is a must read!

Am about a third of the way through this tidying process, stalled a bit as life got in the way, but I love it. It's SO refreshing to clear out things that just clutter your life and your mind. The Author's main point is to let go of things that don't bring you joy, and cherish the things that do. It's very Zen, and once you get the hang of it, you don't look at posessions in the same way every again. For example, since I did the big clothes clear out, I have lost my appetite for buying clothes just for the sake of it, or on impulse. In fact, I can see things for what they really are and have become much, much more discriminating in what I buy. I have also started re-using some lovely things I own that I had forgotten about becuase they were buried under a mound of other stuff which I didn't really like. I also have a MUCH more conscious idea of what fits and suits me and am falling less and less into the trap of buying clothes which are nice .. but just not ME. When clearing out my books and CDs, I was astounded at how many of them did not bring me joy, or that I had grown out of, or were just there because I thought they looked good in my collection. I have now stripped it down to the essence of what I love, and my living room and bookcase looks and feels about a thousand times better now. It made me look round my house and it only took a moment to identify many dust-gatherers which I have had for years which have come with me over several house moves... but they just don't bring my joy. So out they went, and my house looks much more stylish because what is left, all fits a harmonious theme and I actually really love it. It belongs. But this extends to more than just posessions. I'm slowly reawakening my awareness of people, places and activities which do and do not bring me joy and focusing just on the ones which make me happy. What a relief! I bought this book for a relative and a friend and they both loved it too, and intend to pass it on when they have finished. The book is also quite humorous in places; the Author is Japanese and the way she explains things is adorable and funny. I'd highly recommend it.