The life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo describes the author’s system, Kon Mari, for keeping your house clutter free. Her main claim is that by following her system, you will never have to tidy up again. You will do it once and never have to do it again. This does not seem realistic or practical. She does acknowledge that it could take six months.
Kondo wants you to start with clothes and move on from there. You are supposed to take out all your clothes, look at and hold each one and determine if it brings you joy. You would follow the same process for books, mementos and miscellaneous items.
It is easy to mock her concept of inanimate objects bringing you joy. The recent revival of Gilmore Girls did just that when it portrayed Emily Gilmore in a frenzy throwing out most of her furniture and possessions because they did not bring her joy.
Some of Kondo’s processes make more sense and seem easier to put into practice. She believes you should have a place for everything which is something I agree with.
More fundamentally, Kondo believes you must visualize what you want your space to look like before you start the tidying process. This is because tidying is not a goal in and of itself but rather part of the journey.
As far as mementos go, if you can’t tell right away whether an item brings you joy it is either because “you have an attachment to the past or a fear of the future.” I found this to be very insightful.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. I don’t think I will follow the overall process but I may apply some of the individual principles to specific situations. My goal would be a clean, pleasing to look at and peaceful home.
I don’t get the whole “bring you joy” standard. None of my clothes brings me joy, but I have no intention of walking around naked. As for reducing clutter, I maintain a wardrobe that includes no less than 14 pairs of underpants at all times, so that I can go at least two weeks without doing the laundry–now that’s joy! And I also hang on to a pair or two of hole-y undies way past their prime, for emergencies. I don’t think Kondo and her legion of neat freaks would understand.