The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

[calzephyr]

Marie Kondo's popular book landed on our messy coffee table over a month ago. My husband had ordered it and I ribbed him that the first step to being a tidy person was opening the package. Once that was done, the book went unread until I had a chance to read it on Sunday. It is a very quick read although I ended up skimming parts.

Like most self-help books, you can pick the advice that suits you and discard the rest, but I wasn't finding advice very easily. Kondo is a windy, self-absorbed author and I felt misled as a reader. It's not really a how-to guide but more of an autobiography of her obsession with organization. Perhaps some of my resistance is due to the fact that she likes cleaning, much like how people who like exercising find going to the gym a breeze.

Or perhaps it's just my frowny face at another person promising happiness if you just buy their book. There is really little in this book that is new if you are a student of material culture, have been on the downsizing journey for some time  or follow great blogs like Declutterer.

Some of the advice is terrible for cohabitating couples, like designating a space for everything. For example, I have designated spaces for everything in the kitchen, but when my husband goes to use something, the object isn't in the space he would designate :D Then I wonder why the measuring cups are in a place I can't reach ;)

This book is not written for people like me who just want the straight goods and don't need the cultural or ritualistic appreciation of what an object is doing half the time. If you like fluffy anecdotes and want to have an intimate relationship with your stuff - so far as to thank your socks for working hard - you will get much more out of Kondo's book than I have :D