Marie Kondo. Marie Kondo (@MarieKondo) Thoughts on Decluttering and Organizing: What Do I Want to Keep? - York Avenue. Image source By now you’ve probably heard of the new book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, by organization expert Marie Kondo.
It’s gotten a lot of attention and coverage due to Marie’s unconventional and slightly wacky, yet apparently eye-opening and yes, life-changing, approach to decluttering. I haven’t read it yet, but my Mom recently did, and the other night we got to talking about it. I recalled her showing me the NYT article about the book a while back since she knows I’ve always had a thing for decluttering and organizing. At the time I thought it seemed interesting, but because I’ve always been really good at decluttering, organizing, and getting rid of things, I didn’t feel like the book was something I would need to read. So, as my Mom described it to me, Marie says you must use a certain phrase when going through your belongings.
That simple phrase struck me so much! Image source Keepin’ it real, folks. The life-changing magic of tidying up: Testing Marie Kondo's method. I can't remember when I first heard someone gushing over Marie Kondo's "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up," but all of a sudden this spring, it seemed like everyone I knew — or sat next to on the subway — was reading this mysterious Japanese organization manual.
"You have to see my closet," a friend confided one night, taking me by the hand to show off her suddenly spare shelves. "I Kondo-ed everything. " So I decided to find out: How could this pocket-sized book, which has already sold over 2 million copies and sits firmly atop the New York Times Best Seller list, make such a big promise? Here's the short answer: Because it's legit. WATCH: Testing Marie Kondo's magical method It all comes down to one over-arching question: Does your stuff make you happy — or in Kondo's words, spark joy? The Illustrated Guide to the KonMari Method. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: Here in the states, minimalism isn’t exactly a point of pride (we like stuff, and lots of it), so it’s especially remarkable that Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo’s brutally strict approach to de-cluttering took off here.
The no-excuses elimination method, has spawned legions of Konverts who devote vast amounts of time to kondo-ing their lives top to bottom. The best-selling book that started it all is easy to digest (and infectious…you will literally start itching to toss stuff), though its central thesis is kind of hard to stomach at first: Unless you truly, deeply love an item, it has no business in your home. This means the first purging session can be rough, but the euphoria that comes with unloading a single bag of unnecessary clutter makes going H.A.M. on the rest of your space easy.
We’ve laid out the basics below—along with an illustrated guide to her folding technique, which we found impossible to figure out based on the text alone. 7 Ways to Declutter Like a Goddess with the KonMari Method. I want to share with you a book that has absolutely changed my life.
It’s called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying: A Simple, Effective Way To Banish Clutter Forever by Marie Kondo, the creator of the KonMari Method. As the title says, this is a very simple (though not easy) way to get to the root of your clutter problem and help you to resolve it once and for all: If you don’t love it, don’t keep it! Piles of stuff in our homes are one of the greatest stress triggers. Clutter literally increases your cortisol level! When we have a lot of clutter in our homes, it has the affect of distracting us and can even cause chronic restlessness. For most of us, clutter accumulates over time.
What Does Your Clutter Symbolize? Everyone’s tolerance for clutter is different. 5 life-changing lessons the KonMari decluttering method taught me - Happier. When it comes to clutter, I'm fairly clutter-free.
Well, let me be more honest: I'm kind of a neat and organization freak. I'm constantly on the hunt for clutter around the house, looking for something we don’t need that we can get rid of. More than a few times my husband has had to chase after me as I was about to throw away something actually useful or necessary (say, our in-progress tax returns or a battery he was about to install). Naturally, when I came across a little book titled The Life Changing Method of Tidying Up, I was intrigued. Written by Japanese professional organizer, Marie Kondo, it describes a simple method to declutter your life, from clothes to books to knickknacks. The idea of joy.