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reviewed The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, #1)

Marie Kondo: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Hardcover, 2014, Ten Speed Press)

Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes …

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I'm in the middle of a Really Big Move (from Alaska to Virginia), and even if I can't put all of Marie Kondō's advice--for instance, about the proper way to fold clothes and store items--into practice immediately, I am already benefitting immensely from the concept of evaluating each item in my life before deciding to keep it ("does it spark joy?" -- do I love it?), and, if I decide not to keep it, thanking it for the purpose it served before throwing it away or donating it, as the case may be. It's very freeing, being relieved of the guilt for not keeping every little thing.

The author has an engaging writing style, and the book is a quick read--less than a cross-country flight (and way less than a cross-continental flight). I think most people would enjoy and benefit from reading it. Some aspects of her approach may not appeal to everyone; she anthropomorphizes inanimate objects, attributing feelings and preferences to them in a way that appealed to and made sense to me, but which might be off-putting to others. Also, she is not a fan of keeping items "just in case," or of buying in bulk, both of which are pretty well-loved practices by many people I know.

I would be interested in how she might modify her advice for someone who does significant crafting, for instance; I don't love cross-stitch canvas until I've done something with it, but then I do, very much.

I would also be interested in how her advice changes for someone with more space than income (which is the opposite situation of her clients in Japan, I realize).

For myself, I may not implement her approach fully, but I enjoyed learning about it and will definitely adopt a large portion of it.