The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

That’s what its called.  A book by Marie Kondo about how to implode my very fragile mental stability.  I say this from just reading the table of contents.

She appears to endorse

• A tidying marathon:  Designed to kill me or send me to the darkest deepest parts of the Abyss of Stillness.  But I realize not everyone is working under the duress of Depression.  So Maybe for some people.
• Says tidying a bit each day means you tidy forever:  Yeah but – you tidy forever either way, right?  Unless she has found a way around entropy?  💩
• Storage Experts are Hoarders:  Uhm. Well, I’m NOT an expert.  So.  That shut her up.
• What you don’t need, your family doesn’t need either:  Wow.  I’m single and I can see all kinds of things wrong with that statement.  Narcissistic Cleaning – I didn’t even know it was a thing. 💩
• Sorting papers – Rule of thumb – Discard Everything.  – As the girl who recently paid $50 for 2 copies of her birth certificate, a piece of paper she definitely had 3 years ago before she was homeless and much of her life was thrown away – I cannot endorse this philosophy.  💩
• Small change: Make ‘into my wallet’ your motto:  I don’t have a wallet. But coins are easy to pitch into a Coinstar. It’s costly but ultimately less costly than not spending them at all.   Which I don’t.
• Make tidying a special event, not a daily chore:  That’s crazy pants.  Does she know the conditions that people (OK, I’m talking about me) will allow themselves to live in. This is NOT a good plan. 💩
  Also – and I don’t like to heap on the criticism – but cleaning is not a Holiday like event for me.  I mean who thinks it is?  Unless she meant it like a “Very Special Episode of Blossom”  But we all know those were Tearfests.

I’m sure she means well, but I think she is basically just playing into the hands of people whose lives are out of control and want someone to tell them its OK to live out of control as long as once in awhile you have a Very Special Blossom Episode of Cleaning.

This is the delusion that people who let their homes escalate into chaos live in already.  I know.  I have lived that delusion in my twenties.  Its a bad and horrible drowning feeling.  And depression just plays right into that madness.

In fairness to her, there are several chapters that I think probably offer advice I could use.

• Clothing Storage: Fold it right and solve your storage problems: I have always suspected this is true.
• How to fold:  I’m seriously contemplating buying the book just to read this chapter. 💰
• Keep things because you love them, not just because. Sounds suspicious but I’m willing to listen.
• Designate a place for everything.  This is already a mantra in my life.  I cannot stand having things without a home, even if its not in the home, it should have one.
• Discard First, Store Later.  At first glance illogical but I think shes not talking about the same item, but the process as a whole.
• How to identify what is truly precious.  This is what was driving me batty me all day. So maybe I would buy it for this.  But if she is so loco on fundamentals, can I trust her on this?  I think… NOT.

Anyway, I’m afraid I can’t recommend this book, I haven’t read.  Giving it a 2 star rating based on no more than the table of contents.

Take the review at your own risk.