The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Author: Marie Kondo
Genre: Self-Help Me
Grade: B
I gave this one a B because it’s an easy well-written read. Obviously the author buys into this- she makes her living off of it. The anecdotes with her customers sound suitably like me. I read a couple of them going yep, I’ve done that. That’s me in a nutshell. Her advice for the most part is pretty basic. Do it all in categories. Do it all together.
I pretty much never do anything like that when tidying up.
However it was nice to know that I’m not the only one who “thanks” the things I’m donating or throwing out. It might seem crazy but I always feel guilty. I had a pair of shoes that cost me nothing that I wore every single day for nearly a year at work. That I walked in. That I went through some hard crap in and never made me feet hurt once. Yeah, it’s weird but I actually felt bad when I tossed them even after they split down the back I tried to wear them around the house.
However this is not a book I could really personally follow. Her basic thing is get rid of it. Toss it. If you don’t use it toss it. (I also commit another one of her cardinal sins in that I’ll dump it all on my mom and be like hey, don’t you want to hold on to this?) Yet I couldn’t help but think her advice was too harsh for me. She even feels that way about pictures. If they don’t bring you joy the moment you pick them up get rid of them.
It’s just not me. This book really isn’t about tidying your house so much as the idea that clearing out the clutter from your living space will automatically do it from your life. I like the idea. I actually agree with it. I just don’t know if I’m able to live it yet.
Meanwhile my own three cleaning ideas whose time I think has come:
- A self-dusting house. Specialized vents. You seal down things you don’t want “dusted” and then turn on the vents and it sucks up all the dust into the ceiling and back outside until next time.
- A car with backseats that throw trash back at you.
- Self-cleaning shower and toilet. (These probably exist but not in any places I can afford to live and really everyone should have them.) I remember being so disappointed when I “grew up” and realized I had to clean the shower. It’s a tiny room where you only use water, soap and a drain for heaven’s sake!
Anyway as you can see I had some different ideas on tidying up.
Recommend: Purely personal… If you are looking for this kind of thing and feel like you need something harsh this might be the book for you. If you are just looking for something to get you off your butt (me) this might feel like too much and put
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