Book Review: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

KonMari-ing my books
KonMari-ing my books by Kars Alfrink

I gave The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo to my wife for Mother’s Day.  It was meant to be a slight joke.  My wife falls into the third category that Kondo points out in her book:

Marie Kondo
Marie Kondo

the “can’t-throw-it-away” type, the “can’t-put-it-back” type, and the “first-two-combined” type.

When I gave this to my wife on mother’s day my mother-in-law was also over at our home celebrating.  When my wife opened the gift she rolled her eyes, but my mother-in-law shrieked.  She said she had had this book on hold at the library for months, waiting to read it.

Since my mother-in-law has such a reaction we made sure she had a copy.  As she read it (she reads faster than my wife) we discussed it and the book interested me.  It’s a short read.  While 224 pages long the text is large.  So, I decided to read it as well.  So, now we have three copies in the family.

As I read the book though, I found it read surprisingly fast and smooth.  I also found lots of tid-bits to use.  Kondo states, that you should clean house in a particular order:

The best sequence is this” clothes first, then books, papers, komono (miscellany), and lastly mementos

I agree with this list as the easiest things to drop are listed first.  However, books would come after papers and komono for me.

As this all these self-help type books there are things you will take away from them and others that you will prefer to leave.