Initial reaction: 3.5 stars. Some helpful tips but perhaps a bit too general for me in places.

Full review: Marie Kondo's "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" isn't so much just an organizational book as it is a psychological one. It has a methodology, but it doesn't lie with a specific set of steps or system as much as it is an examination of one's own relationships with the things they have. I appreciated hearing about Kondo's path to being an organization expert, her own struggles and pitfalls along the way, and ultimately putting into practice what this book highlights as the Japanese approach and experience to decluttering. Putting to practice an all in one staging of singular categories, physically touching them to assess what value they have to you, and tossing those things that don't bring you joy. It is a simple process but not as simple in implementation as I'm making it out to be.

And I somewhat understand this considering the principles of Feng Shui and how that relates to space. I even understand the concept of thanking one's space and giving an object thanks for what it provided you before you let it go. (Psychologists do something similar with hoarders to coach them though getting rid of things.) I got a keen appreciation of the Japanese approach to organization from this book.

Yet, I still felt this missed something along the way. Part of it might've been Kondo's meandering tone (meaning the text wasn't as streamlined as it could've been) and another might be that I still felt something in the process might be missed. I could understand the principles here at the core - and they were good- but there were conflicting points that needed better address. I still enjoyed and got much out of the read, despite those qualms. so much that I'm looking forward to putting ideas from this to my own personal practice.

Overall score : 3.5 / 5 stars.

The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up - Understand The Secrets Of Good Life In every aspect of the human life, cleanliness is important. Although not everyone sees this to be relevant, cleanliness and tidying up sets the basis for a better life and future. Many people over the years have messed up their lives because they are addicted to dirt and are unable to manage their lives where tidying up is concerned. If you have one of those who have such storage spaces, there is the need to make the most out of it by keeping it tidy. In keeping your life clean, you also need to keep your body and mind clean. In a unique way, this eBook will make clear to you how you manage your life very well and keep your life in the right sequence by keeping your space cleaned and organized.

My parents were and are extremely cluttered people. Growing up, I remember feeling constantly stressed by the amount of stuff in our home. I didn't want anyone to come over because I was embarrassed by their inability to act like adults and clean up after themselves. Even now, my mom is a borderline hoarder. As a result, I've always been obsessed with minimizing my possessions, organizing, finding clever storage tricks, and cleaning up. Vacuuming is so fun to me that it doesn't even feel like a chore.

Given this history, I may be biased, but I loved this little book. It's a quick read and while it has its oddities and Marie Kondo can come off as a bit kooky at times, she's utterly endearing in her earnest belief that tidying can transform your life. The main message is that there's no big secret, no storage solution will fix everything... you just need to get rid of things that don't belong in your life. The "does it spark joy?" approach might not work for everyone (probably not for me) but I think physically confronting your belongings, picking up each thing and thinking about why you have it, is a great way to determine whether or not they belong in your life.

The tips about folding your clothes and arranging them vertically in your drawers rather than stacking them have radically transformed my dresser. I unballed my socks and tights, folded them neatly, and arranged them in shoeboxes inside my dresser. It looks so much nicer now and I feel better as a result. So, yes, I was already obsessed with decluttering, organizing, and cleaning, but I liked this so much that I'm recommending it to everyone. Go forth and free yourselves of clutter!!

A while back, I read a fascinating interview, where Jamie Lee Curtis interviewed fellow actress Sigourney Weaver. In between all the other very interesting things they talk about, they mention this book. I was curious, looked it up on Amazon, and because being tidy is not something I think I've ever managed to be in my entire life, the description and purpose of the book appealed to me.

Marie Kondô has clearly turned the art of discarding all your pointless possessions and finding the right place for your remaining ones her life's purpose. She teaches people about her KonMari method in seminars, and writes very compellingly about it in this book. In order for people to be tidy, they need to reduce the amount of stuff they have. People who are untidy and whose lives are full of clutter, have far too much stuff and need to discard most of it, in order to be tidy. Ms Kondô writes about what order you should start sorting through your possessions, and the only criterion she gives for you to keep something is "Does it spark joy?" You have to gather all your items of the same kind (clothes, books, dvds etc) in one place and touch each and every one. If the item sparks joy, that is what you keep. Everything else goes, with very few exceptions.

She claims that once you have managed to discard all of your unnecessary possessions and let go of the ones that don't actually make you happy, it will fall pretty naturally where you want to keep the remaining items that you have. She advises that you keep all the same type of items in one place, and says that this helps you get a good idea of what you have at all times, to avoid new clutter building up. She promises that if you actually follow her method for discarding and tidying, you will never back-slide into becoming an untidy person.

I'm not going to go so far as to say that I'm a hoarder, because having seen cases of ACTUAL hoarding, I'm nowhere near that stage. But I do find a tremendous comfort in owning things. Books, films, handbags, kitchen equipment, beautiful notebooks that I hardly ever write anything in, pens - these are items I probably have way too many of. Especially considering I literally can't remember the last time I actually watched most of my dvds. There are more than a hundred books on my shelves that I haven't read (and that's not even counting all the e-books - they don't cause clutter, as they are stored on my hard drive). There is not a surface in our flat that isn't full of stuff. Our tiny Oslo flat is terribly cluttered, something my father never fails to give me grief about, even when we actually do tidy as best we can every time he's due to come over. We simply have far too many things to keep the place properly tidy.

The husband and I are in the process of looking for a new place to live, and before we do, I have every intention of following Ms. Kondô's advice for de-cluttering our lives. We need to do a major sort-through of our possessions, and we need to do it before we actually move anywhere, because I suspect by that point, we'll be too stressed to go through our stuff without being too stressed and emotional. If this method actually works, I intend to write an extremely glowing review and post it on Amazon - because it will mean this book has succeeded where everything else has failed. I'm already mentally preparing myself for the discard phase, getting myself used to the idea that I don't need to surround myself with physical objects I never use to be happy. The book was a fascinating read, I just hope I can follow the advice given and finally become a tidier person.

I've read a lot of books on organizing. If I'm feeling stressed, and I feel like my "stuff" is taking over my life, I'll read another organizing book and then use this new knowledge to clean/declutter yet again.

This book was highly recommended by a blogger I follow. I'm glad I got it from the library and didn't pay for it. It wasn't a bad book, but if you've read any books on this topic before, you aren't going to learn anything new from this one. However, you will learn things like don't roll your socks into balls because it stresses them out. Not the material - but the sock itself. Unhappy socks make unhappy feet. Shirts piled on top of each other? You're suffocating them! 

I'm reading another book that I bought on the subject: Banish Clutter Forever: How the Toothbrush Principle Will Change Your Life.  I only paid $2 for it, but now it's selling for $10.

Not sure it will change my life, but after one chapter, I was motivated enough to get one room completely cleaned and another room started.