The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo

Review

I was really excited as the table of contents was promising. There were many topics that I wanted to learn about, like – who would have thought- storing books.

As funny as it sounds, my journal told me to read this book. The journal I´m using has weekly challenges and some time ago the challenge was to start reading “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying” by Marie Kondo. At first I was sceptical, but then I realized that I gotta do what my journal tells me to do 😛  No, I´m just joking. But I thought why not? There must be a reason why that book is recommended to hundreds or thousands of people (I don´t know how many people use that same journal). So I got the book and immediately started reading!

The structure of the book is well-ordered and Marie Kondo starts by teaching us the basis of her formula:
The two main actions of tidying are discarding and deciding where to store things.

Once we know this, the book goes more into detail on how to store different categories of things, like clothes, books, papers, change, photos and many more. These chapters inlcude some good, practical tips. While Marie believes her tips are universal, my opinion is that it also depends on the person applying these techniques. But what do I know? I might be wrong and the techniques might actually work for everybody..!

One thing that I realized and someone else also mentioned, is that the author has some “weird” beliefs/ideas/perceptions. She talks about her clothes and other items like she´d talk about people. According to her, you should treat your socks with respect because they have feelings too. Many people might not be able to relate to that concept.

Main takeaways:

1. Marie Kondo´s folding technique (Watch the video below!)
2. The two basic steps of tidying. (Discarding and deciding where to store things)
3. “Does this spark joy?” This is the question you have to ask yourself when deciding what to discard and what to keep.
4. Take every single item in your hands and look at them one at a time.
5. Tidy once and properly for the best results

Action-Steps:

• Watch the folding technique tutorial below and apply it!
• Schedule a day to tidy your home! Then follow through on the steps from the book!

Basic Folding Method Tutorial: