[Review] The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kendo

 

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

Series: Magic Cleaning #1

Author: Marie Kendo

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Format: Kindle, 226p, english

Synopsis: GoodReads

Review: 4*, GoodReads, LovelyBooks, Amazon

Buy: Amazon

 

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 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.

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For a few months now I’ve made an effort to read at least one self-development / non-fiction book a month, and while I didn’t really succeed every month I did on January.

Sadly I have to admit that I skipped over at least two thirds of the book, but at this point the information just didn’t seem relevant to me.

Don’t get me wrong, I quite liked both the topic and Marie Kendos style of writing.

It was very easy to read, had lots of information but wasn’t to dry either. Kendo interspersed a lot of anecdotes throughout the book which lightened it up quite a bit.

I was also really happy to read something along the lines of “do this, it works. I don’t know why, but it does”. Sometimes you read about something and the reasons the author gives just don’t make sense and it seems like the author doesn’t even know what he’s saying, which just makes me distrust the author. In this case her honesty absolutely works in her favor, as it is easy for me to accept that, while there might not be a scientifically proven reason, experience has proven her right.

I also think her method is a really good one, and if you want to become more tidy and declutter I can only recommend the book.

I’ve always been a tidy and organized person and a lot of the problems described in this book weren’t ones I’ve ever had, therefore the solutions weren’t relevant for me.

The discarding part was what caught me, as I’ve been leaning towards minimalism for quite a while and have been thinking about decluttering a lot, yet I never went through with it as I always felt I couldn’t let go of all my clothes.

Just reading the first part of the book made up my mind and I’ve already discarded half my trousers and jeans.

But that’s all it did for me, I get the idea behind decluttering all at once, but I have no doubt that I’ll declutter everything I need to, even if I don’t follow Kendos suggestions, methods and order.