Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up book review

Marie Kondo told me not to do these things, and I did them anyway. Keep reading to find out what book I'm talking about today. 

Hello, I'm Kyla Denanyoh, and today we're discussing tidying up, cleaning up, and getting your life together. Today's book we're talking about is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The author of this book is Marie Kondo. The book's genre is nonfiction. The theme of the book is cleanliness. The theme of the book is housekeeping and home economics. 

So, if you're a little bit older, you remember taking a home economics class when you were in high school. We had to learn how to sew. We learned how to make basic recipes. Now, when I started reading this book, I was like, 'I wasn't ready.' I started reading it, and then I was like, 'I don't want to get rid of my stuff,' and I literally put the book down and stopped. Because you're reading it, she explains why she's so passionate about this, starting from when she was five years old and began cleaning and tidying up, finding it fascinating. 

I read this because Austin Kleon mentioned it in his book, Steal Like an Artist, and so I picked it up. Because whenever someone mentions a book in a book, I pick it up and read it, but that's an aside. 

Alright, so let's get into the most important lesson: number one, don't talk about it. You know how in Fight Club, the number one rule of Fight Club is: 'We don't talk about Fight Club.' Marie Kondo says you're going to start cleaning, you're going to start organizing, and you're going to tell people, and they're going to say, ' But you love that shirt, and you look so good. Oh, don't toss that. ' So don't mention it. And then for the rest of the evening, I'm like, ' Dang, should I take that dress out? ' Man, I really should have kept that. No, don't tell people. 

I now live in this house with my husband and our daughter. So he saw me doing stuff, and that was amazing. And that leads us to point two, which is: Does it spark joy? The entire basis of this book is that you are keeping things that spark joy. When I come down here to record and I see these signs on the wall, it makes me happy. It sparks joy. It makes me want to be around. It makes me want to be in this room. That's the same way for your clothes. 

But the big thing that doesn't spark joy for me was that you can't toss other people's stuff. I live in this house with my husband and my toddler daughter. So my husband saw me going through my winter clothes, looking at things. Do I like this? Do I want that? I was tossing my daughter's clothes, which was really hard. She is three years old, and we've been talking about having another one, but Kyla, are you going to keep these clothes for six years until you've another baby? That's silly, because we had mountains of clothes. 

We donated 10 boxes of men's clothing, women's clothing, and baby clothing. So I needed to go through this stuff. So I'm going through it, I'm not touching my husband's stuff. And he's watching me, and he's like Oh, I'm never gonna wear those pants. Oh, I'm never gonna do it. Can you put this stuff in your pile? Marie Kondo says that you cannot toss other people's belongings because you don't know what sparks joy for them.

Additionally, they will see you and want to separate out their things, keeping only those that spark joy for them when they're ready. This backs up point number one, which is to not tell people what you're doing; just do it. Either they'll be motivated and encouraging, or it won't matter because they don't know what you're doing. 

The third most important thing Marie Kondo says in this book is that you must follow the steps in order. Marie Kondo recommends starting with your clothes. The first step in going through your clothes is to gather all of them. We have clothes in the basement in tubs. We have clothes upstairs in our closet. I have clothes in my daughter's little dresser. And so Marie Kondo says, take the tags off your clothes. Let the clothes be welcome into your house. And I was like, oh. Now you feel like they're inviting you. When it's time to wear them, they're just ready. Love that. 

As I'm tossing things at my daughter, I'm thanking the clothes, right? You learn that in the book. Thank you for providing comfort to my daughter. Thank you for keeping us warm. And there were some clothes that I did thank, and I still gave them away. There were some things that I kept, and we just put them on teddy bears for my daughter. 

This was so important that you go in order, because the clothes are usually the hardest thing for you to tackle, as you have memories associated with them. Go through the paperwork, then review old receipts, and finally, examine instruction manuals. You're not gonna look up the manual for how to use this camera. Kyla, you would just Google it, so why don't you toss it? Toss them, let go of the clutter. 

It is life-changing magic, it absolutely is. The book is not huge, okay, but I will tell you this: don't pick it up if you're not ready. This is not a book that you casually read and think, 'That was interesting.' The way she writes is so provoking that it will make you get up and start looking at your own stuff. I understand the magic of this book because it was absolutely phenomenal, and it will make you get up and get active. 

Until the next book review, Kyla