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Title: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, translation by Cathy Hirano
Details: Copyright 2014, Ten Speed Press
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "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 will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire."
Why I Wanted to Read It: I've heard this book mentioned positively for years and I enjoyed the Netflix show inspired by it.
How I Liked It: Have you read a self-help book about ANYTHING in the past, oh, at least twenty years? I have. Quite a few, on a variety of subjects, with varying degrees of usefulness.
Generally, they go something like this. Have you struggled with something? SO HAS THE AUTHOR! And then they discovered their patented Method™ and started teaching it to people. There are personal stories, some buzzwords, and when you reach the end of the book, you too are Re-Eating™ your FalseThoughts™ to Plunderfify™ your Most Successful Realness™ with the LastNameCatchPhrase™ Method! Catchphrase™!
Well! Marie Kondo attacks the various reasons why clutter builds up, including pitfalls in which she herself has fallen. She has a method that's in part based on her last name (KonMari) and there are plenty of personal stories, both of herself and her family, and of her clients. "Spark Joy" isn't really a catchphrase so much as a loose translation of a philosophy based in part on Kondo's Taoist faith, but it's become a sort of catchphrase, at least to people who have neither read her books nor seen her show. And yet this book feels further from any traditional self-help book I believe I've ever read.
Kondo's style is charming without being cutesy or cloying and her earnest, genuine passion for tidying and organization ring through. Her method is fairly simple, well-outlined, and highly adaptable (you can try it the whole way through or try pieces of it). Her philosophy, so often misunderstood and deliberately misunderstood (particularly in the wake of the success of her Netflix show), is not getting rid of anything you own, but rather getting rid of the things that don't make you happy to own them (yes, she covers possessions that might not spark joy from looking at them, but are nonetheless necessary).
Any possession, so long as it sparks joy, is worth saving, and Kondo offers tips on how to display items that spark joy but perhaps take up space (got a poster for an interest you're not comfortable telling anyone walking into your house, like your favorite band from when you were a teen? Put it up in your closet and smile every time you see it! Old postcards? Display them on drawers!). Unlike some other books on organizing, which can take on an abrasive, "tough love" approach that so often backfires, Kondo's gentle and thoughtful technique is surprisingly more effective because she's not commanding you, and I suspect even the most reluctant to organizing (particularly in professional form) at least waver a bit in Kondo's stead.
Shout out to Cathy Hirano, by the way, who did the English translation, since Kondo's words are still full of her character and charm and there is thankfully none of the blockishness that can come from bad translations.
Even if you're at peace with your possessions and home and/or office, the book is worth a read for what feels like a revolutionary break in self-help books as a genre. It doesn't read like a typical self-help book because it's far better.
Final Grade: A
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