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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
by Marie Kondo - It seemed like I was seeing this book title everywhere, being reviewed or discussed or promoted all over the place. After awhile, I started thinking, "y'know . . . I need to tidy up. Maybe I should see what this is about" so I requested the book from my library and started reading. As it turns out, the monthly theme for #collaboreads was Non-Fiction November so I thought this would be perfect.
Marie Kondo is a Japanese tidying guru, and she claims that those who follow her KonMari method of tidying never rebound and re-accumulate stuff and mess. Her method is basically going through everything you own by category (clothes, books, etc, rather than room-by-room) and discarding everything that doesn't "spark joy" when you touch it. And you are supposed to do it in a very short period of time rather than a bit at a time.
Many of her practical suggestions and instructions truly are just that - practical - and many of the principles make perfect sense. However, much of the philosophical reasoning she employs is based in Shinto or other eastern belief systems that imbue inanimate objects with emotions or personalities, or that energy flows through objects and forms attachments between owner and object. As a Christian, my worldview and beliefs are very different so I found these claims to be nonsensical and I skimmed past some portions that focused on these ideas. For example, she had several practical reasons for recommending that almost everything be stored vertically rather than in piles. But she also lamented the fate of the poor sweater at the bottom of the pile, because it must feel very neglected and unloved squashed under the weight of the other sweaters. I agree that piling is not the best way to keep many objects in good, useful condition; and that objects on the bottom of piles are likely to be forgotten and therefore go unused, which is essentially wasteful. But I cannot bring myself to utter an apology to an object for mistreating it, or concerning myself that it may be offended or sad. Goodness, we have enough people in the world taking offense at everything without worrying that the contents of our sock drawer have been hard done by!
The other thought that kept coming to me as I read was that Ms. Kondo probably has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I'm reminded of the fictional character Adrian Monk (from the TV series) and how his obsessive need for order and attention to detail made him such a valuable consultant in crime detection. Similarly, it appears that Ms. Kondo has developed her lifelong obsession with organizing and tidying into a successful business teaching others to take this extreme approach. Although I say "good for her" I have sifted the advice that I find useful and practical from her description of her thought processes and behaviors that I thought were unbalanced or bizarre. I'm extremely unlikely to pare down my possessions as dramatically as she and her clients do, but I gleaned quite a collection of encouragement, motivation, and practical recommendations from the book. Whether I put it into practice and am able to "tidy up" in the near future remains to be seen!
Riveting. {What part of the book could you NOT get enough of?} I liked the descriptions given of her clients, and her practical assertions that if we're not completely certain that we want to keep an object, then we likely don't need it. The anecdotes and real world examples were interesting. Practical instructions about what order to go through belongings, and how and why to store objects in certain ways abounded and I appreciated the sensibility of those ideas. It does make far more sense to decide what to keep by strict criteria, and get rid of everything else, and to do it by category, than to putz through the house a few random things at a time and figure out "better" ways to store stuff without really thinking about why I'm keeping those things in the first place.
Elements. {How did you relate to/care for the characters?} As I said above, I wondered whether Ms. Kondo might have been diagnosed with OCD had she grown up in the USA. Plus I think it's just a little on the wackadoo side to congratulate her shoes on a job well done at the end of the day, or to say ceremonial good-byes to objects before discarding them. Once again, I found plenty of practical advice even though I don't believe in energy flows, auras, or any of the other mystical flavored things that she believes in. She seems like a sweet and charming person who has found her niche.
Associate. {What other books are like this one? Does it remind you of a TV show or movie with its themes and characters? Did it serendipitously line up with things going on in your life or in the news right now?} I don't know about other books, but I kept thinking about reality TV shows like Hoarders and that sort. Which I don't watch, by the way. Turns out that she does have a reality TV show in Japan! And yes, it does line up in a way with me personally - although there is no way we're obsessive about it, my husband and I have been trying to dramatically reduce the amount of stuff we have in our home. Unstuffing, decluttering, tidying up . . . whatever you call it, we need to do it, and we've been having some successes here and there. I have decided that I will use her method to tidy up my clothes (although I will probably not be able to set aside the time to focus on it until after the holidays) and see what happens from there.
Design. {You know you judged this book by the cover. What did you think of it? How did it relate to the contents of the novel?} I do think the cover looks very clean and uncluttered, and the simple color wash background is certainly reminiscent of Japanese art.
Stars. {How many out of five do you give this book? Would you recommend this book to a friend?} I'm going with a three out of five. It's a quick read, and she does a good job of using the little stories from her own life and from her clients to advantage, while sticking to the point of explaining her method. In other words, she doesn't let the book get bogged down with the stories and veer from the point. I can't give it a higher grade than three stars because I got annoyed with the excessive reiteration of the phrase "spark joy" and with the whole mystical nonsense of objects having feelings and asserting influence over owners or desiring to serve owners. I can't say that I'd recommend this or that I'd tell people to steer clear of it - it would depend on the friend, really. I know some people who would read this and react more or less like I did, and I know others who would be disturbed or horrified by the eastern religious elements that are in such sharp contrast to a Biblical worldview.
November - "NON-FICTION NOVEMBER" and we hope you'll find a book, read it throughout November, and link up with your review on November 30!
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