Thoughts: "The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo

Hello!

So I’ve finished my first book for 2020 last February. 

I finally finished “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo.

I learned about this book about two years ago while watching some of my favorite Youtubers at that time. A couple of them have mentioned this book while tidying and organizing their spaces. And as someone who loves to clean and organize her space, I was naturally curious about it.

I am someone who kind of struggles with decluttering because I often get sentimental on most of the things I own or I become afraid of letting some objects go because I become afraid of needing it in the future and not having it in my possession. I know that this is not really a very good way of living because I have a tendency to accumulate stuff that takes up a lot of space even if I don’t necessarily need them or use them anymore. This is also really bad since I also share a room with my sister who also owns a lot of stuff.

Anyway, I got curious about the book because these people who I follow kept talking about the KonMari method of cleaning and organizing.

So around mid-2018, I decided to buy the book. I remember that I had dinner with my officemates that day and while waiting for my parents so that we could go home together, I went inside a bookstore. I was just browsing around looking at books. I had no intention on buying one but when I saw it, I immediately decided to buy it and find out what all these Youtubers were going on about.

Anyway, I didn’t get to read it immediately because at that time, I was trying to finish the books that I had accumulated throughout my college years. I had my books lined up on when I bought them and I decided to read them in that order. So naturally, this book ended up being unread until the end of 2019 when I finally started reading it around December. 

I started reading the book around December after finishing the books that I bought before it. It took me until February 2020 to finish it because I don’t read consistently which is something that I’ve also been trying to change.

—Warning: Spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.—

Anyway, I thought that the book was interesting because Marie Kondo related it to her experiences as a person who loved cleaning and organizing ever since she was little. I also liked that she talked about the difference of her method versus the other tidying methods that she had tried in the past.

I think I really related to her frustrations when she was organizing and decluttering by getting rid of stuff as opposed to keeping stuff because they made you happy or they sparked joy in you. I am the kind of person who puts discarding stuff as my main goal for decluttering. However, I know that my method of cleaning and decluttering makes it so difficult to maintain keeping my space tidy because I often get demotivated to clean and tidy especially when I’m feeling sentimental. It also takes me super long to decide whether to get rid of something because my mind often wonders about what would happen if I don’t have those items anymore. So I end up keeping some items for a while and then letting them go after a few months when I’m feeling less sentimental.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how much I learned about tidying given that I thought it was something that was so easy and something that came naturally to everyone. I think I got more than what I thought I would when I read the book because I’ve gained so much insight on what I probably was doing wrong with the way I was tidying.

I haven’t really full on committed to the KonMari way of tidying because I’ve been so demotivated lately about a lot of things. But I do plan to start committing to it soon because I want to live in a tidy space and be surrounded by what makes me happy. I think that by doing that, I would be happier and have a more positive mindset.

That’s all for now. Bye!