This book is about the magic of tidying but boy is it more than just about tidying. I can't count the number of times I've referred people to this book.
Much has already been written about the best selling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: A Simple, Effective Way To Banish Clutter Forever by Marie Kondo. This is a testament to the fact it’s so much more than a book or a clearing system, it’s a way of living. It also explains why celebs who don’t have to do their own tidying, like Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson, are huge fans.
I knew early on in the book that the ‘magic’ being shared was about so much more than tidying. The book reveals a recipe for life through the process of assessing your stuff. I was so enamoured that I began recommending the book to anyone who would listen. I’m a big fan too if that’s not already clear.
What can the book teach us?
So much.
· How to fold to save space
· A method to clear and declutter your belongings that makes sense
· How to be free of the stuff you don’t need
· Being a more mindful shopper to only buy items you love so you don’t introduce clutter again
· Valuing your physical space, from where you work to where you relax
· Simplifying life to be able to re-evaluate what’s important, and
· Not only keeping what you love, but doing what you love.
The biggest a-ha moment from the book
The book is truly very rich. However what strikes me more than the process and the metaphor for life, is the story behind the book, Marie Kondo’s journey. Marie shares her experience growing up and her fascination for tidying. When she was growing up, Marie’s love of tidying led her to test different tidying approaches and subject her family to her experimentation. Her interest in this area from a young age didn’t wane as she grew up. In fact, it was Marie’s persistence in her interest that led her to develop her ‘system’.
On the surface, you might think, tidying isn’t my thing. True. What’s interesting though is that something as seemingly trivial as keeping our spaces tidy was a treasured past time for Marie, giving her a lot of joy, and sometimes frustration, along the way.
What’s interesting is if Marie had pushed her interest to the side, or discounted it, we wouldn’t have the benefit of her knowledge on how to improve our life. Her seemingly insignificant childhood interest spawned a career for Marie. She now does talks, runs seminars, and shares her message globally. Marie was able to use her interest to benefit others. This is the real magic.
The power of your interests
The biggest take away from the book is to give time to your interests or make time to understand what interests you. On the surface you might not appreciate if there’s a career in it for you. Perhaps you have a few interests that you can put together to create a blue ocean. It’s worth remembering too that Marie didn’t just wake up and understand her love of tidying would give her a career that she would be passionate about. It was a process of self discovery as much as it was about developing a technique. There was much trial and error, and testing the patience of her family. Marie respected her interest and didn’t discount it when others didn’t share her obsession.
Are you ignoring a past of current interest that you need to give more attention to? It’s worth giving time to it even if you don’t understand if there’s a career in it or not. Reconnect with what you love and declutter what you don’t.
A snapshot of the Marie Kondo tidying process
In case you want to know the magic behind the tidying, the steps go like this:
1. Start with your most impersonal possessions first, like clothes, and then work through to your sentimental items once you’re confident in the process.
2. Take the subject of your tidying out of your cupboard, everything needs to be seen and touched. This is a not a room by room method, it’s a category at a time exercise.
3. Decide what to keep, donate and what to throw, and then throw and donate quickly.
4. Keep only what you love. Not like, only love. Don’t sit on the fence, if you don’t love it, it goes.
5. Before you discard anything, appreciate it, reflect on the good times it gave you, and then let go.
6. Of the keepers, find a place for everything. Everything you own needs a home. This is why clutter builds, because objects don’t have a place to be stored.
7. When you keep only the things you love you won’t need new storage systems. It will leave you to focus on how you store inside your existing storage instead.
8. Apply a form of origami to your folding and storing and you’ll regain space in your drawers. Check it out The KonMari Method here. Your drawers will look great and opening your cupboards will be a joy.
Also, do read the book for the full detail as this list doesn’t do it justice. Did I already mention I’m recommending it to everyone? That’s a recommendation for you too.
I'd love to hear your thoughts if you've read this book too. What did you learn?
