 | Marie Kondo, author of the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, is a professional consultant who helps clients "tidy" their homes. Her technique is simple. Step 1: Throw out anything that doesn’t spark joy. Step 2: Organize it. I originally wrote an entirely different review. But it has irritated me every time I saw it on my Goodreads books or the website. So here is my revision. |
I was pretty enamored with this concept until about a month after I had begun clearing things out. That was when I realized that what gives me joy is HAVING things. And more specifically having EXTRA things. Having a spare set of sheets that I don't love is magical to me in the middle of the night when a kid throws up for the 4th time. And having junk clothes is fabulous to be able to give my kid to cut up to make fairy clothes.
I guess after some time away from this book, I was glad to have read it because it helped me to look at my things differently, but now I wish I had not been so gung-ho to toss everything. Because raising a family isn't about having a perfect house or being perfectly ordered. For me, I like having things that help me do LESS work. I want items to help me to be less stressed so that I can focus instead on being with my family and taking care of them more cheerfully. Maybe that means a junk bag of old socks that I loathe, but those old socks just became the puppet show game that distracted my kids and enabled me to make dinner.
I guess after some time away from this book, I was glad to have read it because it helped me to look at my things differently, but now I wish I had not been so gung-ho to toss everything. Because raising a family isn't about having a perfect house or being perfectly ordered. For me, I like having things that help me do LESS work. I want items to help me to be less stressed so that I can focus instead on being with my family and taking care of them more cheerfully. Maybe that means a junk bag of old socks that I loathe, but those old socks just became the puppet show game that distracted my kids and enabled me to make dinner.
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