204 pages
"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 best seller 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."
-Back Cover
I picked this book up at Costco awhile back because my husband is always trying to get us to get rid of more stuff and nagging about having a more organized house. I really liked what she had to say. Her method really does change the way you look at tidying up your home and getting rid of stuff. I loved the idea of only keeping things that spark joy and I liked that she tells you what categories to start with. I think the category idea is brilliant because it forces you to gather everything from your entire house in that category. So often I clean a room at a time and without fail I'm doing it again the next week. Her method tends to give more life to objects then I think some of us in the west are used to, but I also liked the idea of showing gratitude to our home and our belongings for what they do for us.
Having said that, I haven't completed my house purge yet. I did start with my clothes like she recommended. She says that you need to touch and handle each item and ask yourself if that item brings you joy. Doing this with my clothes, it was so easy to get rid of clothes that until then I hadn't been able to part with. I was surprised at how quickly the answer of whether or not it brought joy came. I'd been hanging on to "someday" clothes that I didn't need to hang on to. I ended up with 7 large garbage bags full of clothes to get rid of. I folded and hung the remaining clothes the way she recommended as well. It felt really good. I did break her rule of not giving discarded items to family. I let my sister go through the clothes and I think they're now bringing her joy. I took everything else to D.I.
I still need to tackle the rest of my house. Doing it all at once does, admittedly, feel a little overwhelming, but the idea of having it all done at once is also appealing. A couple of cousins were reading this book at the same time and one of them asked me what I thought about her thoughts on books. She says to only keep a few books, but she also lives in a small space. For the most part, I agreed with what she had to say about books. I'll never not have a home library--it brings me immense joy--but I am to the point where I'm only keeping books that bring me joy, books I'll read again or want to share with others.
This was a great read. I'm looking forward to continuing to tidy up our home and being done with it once and for all.
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