Summary: Read this review of a personal development book about decluttering.
I’ve been interested in reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up for quite a while now. When a personal development-style book becomes very popular, I think it’s important to take notice. I’ve found a lot of people don’t like to share that they’re reading personal development, so if they’re shouting it from the rooftops, then it must be really good.
Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
This guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing.
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 book featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.
I ended up reading this book in just a couple of days, and only about fifty pages in I wanted to jump up off my couch and start decluttering my apartment. I really liked this book and how Marie Kondo explained why her method works so well, and not just sharing what she thinks we should do. I also found that her methods could apply to more areas of life than just our living spaces. The idea that you should get rid of things that don’t bring you joy really hit me and made me think about how that could apply to my activities and the people I associate with.
I highly recommend this book to anyone, even if you think your home is already organized. It’s worth the time!