Recommended Reading: The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up

I have been reading a lot of books lately about organizing, simplifying and minimal living. I don't read them because I feel like we really "need" them, Phil and I are both pretty neat, organized people and we never hang on to much clutter. But, I still really enjoy them (I guess that's the nerd in me). I enjoy getting new ideas. I enjoy the new perspective that living with less gives me.

I recently read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and I loved it. Most of the organizational books I have read all pretty much say the same thing. They tell you when you should get rid of your stuff (when you haven't used it for a year, when it breaks, when you no longer have a place for it, etc...), how you should get rid of your stuff (work on one room at a time, get rid of one thing each day, etc.), and then how to store the things you keep. I like to clean and I like to get rid of stuff. We get rid of stuff all the time (I take a bag to the thrift store every couple of months at least). But none of the books I have read have taken the approach that Marie Kondo does in this book.

She only has one rule when it comes to when to get rid of stuff: get rid of everything that does not bring you joy. And she has one rule for how to get rid of stuff: all at once.

Obviously, some things you just need to have, whether they really bring you joy or not, like toothpaste and toilet paper and wash cloths. But really, when you think about it, most things do require some thought and choice on your part and you should choose the things that you love and make your house feel like home and then get rid of the things that you don't love and that don't bring you joy. This perspective may seem trite, but actually it really works. We hold on to so many things for all the wrong reasons: "maybe I will need it one day, it still works just fine, I spent so much money on it, it was a gift, etc." Even if all of those reasons are true, if you don't love the item, why are you keeping it?

Her second rule, that you tidy your whole house in one go also makes a lot of sense. She doesn't imply that you should actually do it all in one day (unless you actually can do that) but that you continue to work on tidying, in the order she suggests, until you are done (maybe over the course of a week, month or even several months if necessary). If you stop in the middle of the process, or do things out of order, there is a greater chance that you won't finish, or that you will rebound to your old ways and start collecting clutter again.

I think one of the things I loved best about this book was that it takes the focus off of discarding and instead emphasizes enjoying the things you have. I have often focused too much on getting rid of things to make our space neat and tidy, only to find that I have to get rid of things again before much time has passed at all. Instead, if you focus on the things you love, and why you love them, you stop buying unnecessary objects and later don't have so many things to discard. It has really made me appreciate my belongings more, and even given me a new outlook on the things that I have gotten rid of. Rather than feeling guilty about discarding something that I didn't use that much, I can still appreciate it for helping me to know better what I do and don't like, and then I can move on.

Also, my sock drawer. Kondo talks about socks in some detail and at first I thought it was ridiculous. I have always rolled and folded my socks in the same way everyone does (fold the elastic band of one sock over both socks to have a little bundle) and couldn't believe that it really mattered. But, I was curious enough to try out the way she recommends and I cannot believe how happy it makes me. not only do all of my socks now fit in a drawer half the size of the one they were in previously, but I can see all of them at once instead of having to dig around to find the pair I want. I was so excited by the outcome that I did the same things with Phil's socks, and he loves it too. This new way will definitely keep me from over-buying in the future.

I didn't take a before picture of my sock drawer, but I got one of Phil's which pretty much looked the same as mine did before I organized it: 

And this is after I added some magic, plus fit all the socks in a smaller drawer. My drawer looks pretty similar, except that I have lots of tights and peds along with my socks. 

Have you read this book? What did you think about it?