Off The Shelf: The Magic Art of Tidying Up
Welcome back to Off the Shelf, friends! We’re trying something a bit different with Off the Shelf in 2017. Instead of me posting reviews each month, an entrepreneur friend and I will be trading reviews of the same book. In the spirit of National Organizing Month, first up is the best-seller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which I had somehow never read.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
These discussion questions are from The Beautiful Day blog.
Which of Marie Kondo’s tips had the most impact for you?
I would say that organizing things by category had the most impact on me. Mostly because I have been a believer in organizing by category for a while, and loved how Marie Kondo validated that belief!
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is now a bestseller. Why do you think people are resonating so much with this book?
I really feel people are finding this book so helpful because the overlying message is about owning less so you can enjoy more. This has been a trend we have seen a lot of. Tiny houses. Downsizing. Minimalistic living. All these things lead to the overall message of this book, and that is to own only what you love!
What are the cultural differences you noticed between Japan and the USA?
Space! The biggest thing is space. In the US, we have tons of space to hold all our “stuff”, whereas in Japan, space is limited. You can see this throughout the book when Marie Kondo shares about the one closet that holds all the stuff for the house. In the US, we have many closets that hold different things: clothing, cleaning, linens, etc. The closet she described held all those things in one small space.
Why do you think THIS book on de-cluttering is such a success over others?
I really feel this book has been so successful because of the message of reducing your things. It stresses to only keep what you love, which is a different focus than so many other de-cluttering books. Other books talk about storage and creative ways to hold things. This book focuses on only keeping special things and letting the rest go.
Was this book life-changing for you in the end?
Sad to say this book wasn’t life-changing for me. I am an organized person, and a minimalist, so I didn’t end up getting rid of as much as others. But, it did assure me that my beliefs on organizing are correct. You should organize based on category; store all of one category in one area; and only keep what you wear/love/treasure!
***
To see what I thought about The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, check out Jessica’s blog next week.
Jessica Litman is the founder of The Organized Mama, a blog where creativity and order are used to inspire joy in the every day! She is also a wife to an amazing husband and mother to two kiddos and a fur-baby. When she isn’t organizing, crafting, or running after her family, you can find Jessica watching trashy reality TV shows, using way too many exclamation points, and reading books on her phone while she waits for her kids to fall asleep! Follow along for all her organizing, crafting, and decorating adventures at The Organized Mama.