Book Review: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
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Want to know what this life-changing magic is all about? Here’s my review of the organizing and “tidying” book written by Japanese author, Marie Kondo.
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So, you’ve probably heard about this book by Marie Kondo called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It’s a global bestseller, having first been published in Japan and then throughout the world. The author, a 30-something young woman, is a professional organizer who claims that once you “tidy” (i.e. declutter) your home “all in one go”, you will never have to worry about messes and chaos ever again.
This is a pretty bold claim for a single woman with no children. Ha!
Since I’d seen this book on Facebook, on blogs, and on instagram every time I turned around for the last three months, I figured I’d investigate the book and see if it could solve our problems, too. I confess, I was intrigued, nay, desperate.
I grew up in a crowded, cluttered home. Seven of us were squeezed into 1400-square feet. Ours was never the spotless home you see in the magazines.
And neither is my adult home.
I’ve done a pretty good job paring down our belongings, but we still deal with messes. A lot. Often. All the time.
Seeing as ours is not a small house by any stretch of the imagination, I can’t blame our messes on lack of space. Reading this book was the wake-up call that I have been awaiting for the last 42 years:
We have too much stuff.
The reason that those magazine homes are literally picture-perfect is that they don’t boast an abundance of possessions. They’re streamlined. And there are storage homes for everything.
You know that mantra, A place for everything and everything in its place?
Well, you can’t make that happen if you have more stuff than can easily put in its place.
That was my big A-ha while reading the book. We simply have too much. I suppose that’s a good problem to have, but it’s also a good amount of work to fix that problem.
Reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has been the impetus I needed to get serious about my home management responsibilities. It’s one thing to make my kids do chores, but it’s a different thing entirely to make sure there isn’t so much stuff in our house that it makes chores so cumbersome, difficult, and gosh-darn frequent!
It seems we spend hours every week picking up clutter and relocating it somewhere else. I’m officially fed-up, and determined to get our house — and our lives — streamlined and decluttered.
That’s my new mission.
One of the strategies that Kondo recommends goes a bit contrary to how I’ve previously handled Zone Defense. Instead of decluttering your home one area at a time, she recommends tackling each category of possessions, in a particular order: clothes, books, miscellaneous, and mementos.
Clearly, miscellaneous in a home with children, a homeschool, a musician, hockey fans, and a cookbook author is a very broad category. Yikes!
While this strategy has been a little overwhelming, in the last week, I’ve handled my clothes and all the books we own. The first was easy. The latter was hard! But, I’ve got a growing pile of donations to leave my house and it’s so much easier and nicer to put away books and clothes.
The idea of not having to declutter all the time is also extremely appealing to me!
I will add the disclaimer that since both these categories are mainly stored in closets in my room, I took care of both those closets while I was at it. Except for mementos (hello 21 years of photographs!), I dealt with all the things in those spaces. I really want to cross them off my list!
Already, the author’s suggestion of vertical storage has transformed my drawers as well as our board games.
I was so excited about this new way to fold and store clothes, that I redid my husband’s clothes. His jaw hit the floor. His two drawers were OVERFLOWING and I had more to add, but once I refolded and stored the items vertically, everything fit. We could also see at a glance everything that was there.
I am going to tackle the living spaces and my office before moving to the kids’ rooms, but already I feel really accomplished. Marie Kondo recommends that this “all in one go” period should last no more than six months. I’m trying to keep moving quickly so I don’t lose momentum.
A few caveats about the book: The author is a little OCD about organizing which can seem extreme at times.
Also, she was once a shrine maiden so she has some ideas about possessions and inanimate objects that go contrary to my beliefs and Christian teaching in general. I rolled my eyes a few times, but it didn’t overly bother me. Truth can be found anywhere, and I think that the basic messages in this book are valid and good.
(Annie Kate does a great job addressing the spiritual dimension of the book as well as summing up the author’s premise here.)
I am having a hard time shaking the zone-mentality; I did my bathroom cupboard because once my room is done, I really want it to be done. By the way, it was so freeing to ditch the humidifier we haven’t used in five years as well as curling irons I’d kept since college!
I will let you know in six months if I was able to tidy the whole house “all in one go” and if we’re able to avoid rebounding, something the author addresses in detail. So far I’ve found encouragement and the impetus to tackle our stuff in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time.
And our dresser drawers have seen some life-changing magic.
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Can’t wait to read the book. I’m 164th in line for it at the OC library, so it may be awhile!
Just when I decided the line would never get to me, I bought it. And then as soon as it arrived, the library copy did, too. That said, it’s a book I want my whole family to read. My husband has read snatches and liked it, so I think it was worth my $10.
I did a Bible study a few years ago called the Five Aspects of Woman. In it, the author talks about how since the Fall, our domains fight against us, constantly tending toward disorder. God gives us the power as Mistresses of our Domains to make decisions–decisions to find places for things or even to get rid of things. God has a sense of humor. He gave this neat nick woman eight children. Since we homeschool, most of us are home most of the time. It’s messy here. It helps me to realize that this side of heaven, my domain will always fight against me. Yes, I need to do my best to rule my domain for the glory of God, but not to overly fret about messes, which I have a tendency to do.
That is a unique perspective, one that shows we need to give ourselves some grace.
I think the overly-fret part is important. We can drive ourselves and our families crazy. I think for me, it’s finally the realization that everyone in our home spends a lot of time maintaining stuff instead of enjoying the stuff.
I will be interested to hear how your husband and kids become involved. I would love to declutter more but many items are my husband’s and he prefers to keep things.
I feel your pain Shannon….my husband keeps everything! It makes me crazy when I try to declutter and he doesn’t part with anything.
Something the author of the book talks about is that if you’re having an issue with someone else’s clutter, you probably haven’t decluttered your own stuff enough. At the time, I thought that made no sense, but I’ve been mulling it over for a couple months since I read the book and I am finding it to be true. It drives me nuts that both my mom and mother-in-law have cluttered homes, and I have lived with both of them over the past few years. But, I realized, who am I to think that, when our own home also isn’t quite decluttered enough?
I know it’s hard when your spouse, or kids, or whomever won’t declutter, but the author’s suggestion, I think, would be to deal with all your own stuff first, and forget about the other persons. Chances are, if your stuff is perfect, you might not be bothered by Hubby’s anymore. Just an idea. 🙂
P.S. I don’t mean to make it sound like you are doing anything wrong by wanting hubby to be tidy. I think my above comment may have come off kind of judgmental – I’m not meaning to say you need to get over it!
Just trying to convey a helpful idea to think about from that book, as I find myself in a similar situation with my mom. 🙂 I well know the frustration of having a loved one/housemate who won’t get rid of stuff. Perhaps a copy of this book will “magically” fall into their hands and convince them on their own… we can hope, right? 🙂
Great points! It’s so hard to manage relationships and clutter.
Well, I’ve been doing computer work this week instead of housework so decluttering is at a stand-still. Will let you know when I get back to it.
I just got the book but have been lurking on a FB group about this (and checking out pinterest boards related to it). I started de-cluttering the house in the fall and it has made a big difference in how fast I can clean up — especially when everything has a place. BUT, I still have a way to go (first floor done, basement & storage room done – upstairs and garage (eeeekkkk!) to go. I love the idea of keeping only items that spark joy. Also, for the first time, I’m evaluating whether things “belong” in this home — our permanent, forever home. For example, we have lots of books but no where to store/display them. I dream of a big home library but that is not going to happen in this house so it is time for me to let those books go and utilize the REAL library if I need them again. Same with picture frames — I have so many cool frames but only so much wall space. My goal is to be done with the total house de-cluttering before summer. Already, my house is 1,000 x better. Here’s hoping the book will be the final push I need to finish.
I found BOXES of picture frames from two houses ago that have never made it on the walls here. Need to decide what to do with them.
Ok just bought the book. let’s see if this helps my home with 2 adults and 7 children living in it… I am very optimistic about it. Thanks for sharing.
Let me know what you think!
Thank you, Jessica, for your encouraging words about my review of this book. May God bless your tidying up journey. I’ve quit that for now due to family health issues, but the book is running through my head regularly and its approach to decision making is one that I’ve really learned from.
I hope everyone feels better soon!
I have tried the vertical storage in my 7 year old son’s drawer and failed. It looked neat for a very short time, but when the drawer empties a bit it is chaos. Also I am trying to have the kids be more involved in chores and he has trouble putting things away vertically. Did you do this with children’s clothing too?
I haven’t done the kids rooms yet. I’ll do it with them once I get the general house/work stuff taken care of. I will also need to self-medicate that week/month, I’m sure. Just kidding. Sort of. My kids have many boxes of treasure hiding in closets. Yikes.
I cannot come to a conclusion about my approach to housekeeping. I was raised by grandparents that were married during the depression and parents that were children during WWII. These experiences made my Grandparents very hesitant to throw anything away. Waste not, want not was their mantra. My parent’s response to the WWII rationing was to buy new and throw away the old. Consequently, my grandmother’s closets, basements and garages were overflowing while my mother’s home was sparse but sparkling new. I vacillate between wanting to purge the house and keeping everything just in case of hard times.
That’s a very interesting perspective, and it shows how much the times in which you live can affect all aspects of life!
I agree! One book that I found interesting recently is “Clutter’s Last Stand” by Don Aslett. The author helped me think about how to balance my frugal nature with the reality of a small house with 6 of us living in it! I was able to purge quite a lot without sadness.
I will have to check the book out, thanks for the suggestion.
I read that before I had kids. Ha! Maybe I better revisit it.
One way I think about food: it will go to waste or go to MY waist. I think in some ways the same thing applies to our homes and our stuff.
I get you! My parents grew up very poor so they tend to keep everything. I can’t trash it, but I’m happy to donate. I’ll be honest, though, it’s been rare that I regret getting rid of something.
Do others feel the burden of holding onto family heirlooms? I have two flatware chests full of sterling silver. I have three sets of “good” china – you know the kind you cannot put in the dishwasher. I have a sterling silver tea set. The list of hand cut crystal is equally long. My grandmothers and great aunts lovingly gave all of these to me. But I do not use any of it. After spending hours cooking a holiday meal the last thing I want to do is hand wash the dishes. I could clear out a lot of storage space if these items went, but I feel a great sense of responsibility to hold onto to these for the next generation.
That is so hard! My mom has given me some things that my aunt bought in Norway in the 60s, like this traditional jacket. Unfortunately, I have very broad shoulders so I will never be able to wear it. Not really sure what to do with it.
When it comes to good china i use and put in dishwasher. I have a delicate setting. If it breaks it breaks. At least it gets used. I host a “tea party ” for card club and encourage everyone to drag out the sliver for a fun afternoon.
Perhaps you are too young. When you have grands that you would like to share a piece of yourself/history with and its all gone, will be the time of for regret.
I can see that. There have been a few times when I’ve regretted donating a classic toy and such.
I tried the drawer thing and didn’t like it. Too much work so I changed my closet and have everything there instead. I change in one place and I love it! I bought those vertical shoe hanger bags that you hang in your closet and use it for underwear, socks, bras, and pajamas. I hang up all my tops, dresses, pants and skirts and have a shelf for my sweaters and shorts, a place to hang my belts and scarves. It’s not that big but I got rid of all the clothes I don’t wear. I did get rid of 8 bags of books! It is very rare you ever read a book more than once like she said.
Sounds like you made a great system that works for you. I’m not sure how long the drawer thing will last, but I like it so far.
I’m currently about halfway through this book. Not sure how I feel about her ideas yet. But I have a question for you about the vertical drawer storage. I’m skeptical about how well it works once you start taking things out to wear. Do you find that things are falling over? I haven’t tried this yet because I envision things falling forward, backward or sideways once the drawer is no longer full. I’d love to hear how it’s working for you! Thanks!
It’s been about a week and it seems fine. I’m not worried about them falling over because they used to be flat. If they fall, they’ll just be flat, right? A friend says her sons’ clothes got wrinkled this way. So far, my husband isn’t complaining, so I guess we’re okay. He’s a wrinkle hater.
I have been currently using the vertical storage for clothes for nearly a year with no problems with husband and/or children. My 3 yr old son loves it because he opens his drawer and sees everything at a glance and then can pick out what he wants for the day. It works for me because he DOESN”T tear everything out of his drawer looking for something and messing everything else up. (Actually, as I have progressed with the book, husband says that it feels amazing in the house…he is totally on board with this!) The key is to fold them in such a way that they stay vertical by themselves. Thereby, when you take something out, nothing falls over. It is what she calls a “sweet spot”. There are a lot of youtube videos about folding clothes the Konmari way and her new book, Spark Joy, has more in-depth descriptions about how to fold, including pictures that I found very useful.
Thanks for the tips!