I’m very selective these days in what I choose to read if for no other reason than I don’t have as much free time to read as I once did. What I’m reading now, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
, is not a book I would have necessarily selected if I hadn’t seen it constantly popping up from friends on Facebook, being pinned and repinned hundreds of times, featured again and again on TV segments and in various magazines that I haphazardly peruse in the grocery store check-out lines.
I guess you could say I purchased a copy for myself more out of curiosity than anything else. I began reading it without any expectations that I’d be going through a magical metamorphosis that would somehow make me tidier. Having read over and over again that the book really was aptly titled “life-changing,” I still harbored no hope of anything more than a trick or two that I might use to clean up a closet or organize a cupboard.
So I began as an intrigued reader, although not an overly optimistic one, and I think the popularity of the book comes from the simplicity of the magic itself. This one passage probably sums it up:
“The best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item in one’s hand and ask: ‘Does this spark joy?’ If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it. This is not only the simplest but also the most accurate yardstick by which to judge.”
So with this yardstick in hand, I decided to kick a few items to the curb that weren’t sparking joy in that moment.
Maybe not exactly the magic the book had in mind, but life-changing for sure.
Just kidding, you guys –
I kept the vacuum!
I think it’s safe to say my husband didn’t appreciate the book as much as I did. And if you read this post about getting rid of my kids’ toys, you can guess how they feel about the magic of tidying up!
Overall, I’d have to give the book 5 out of 5 stars though! I have used a lot of the book’s techniques to clean and clear out items that we just didn’t need. Also, after jokingly putting my husband to the curb, he finally agreed to take me shopping for new flooring (something I’ve been wanting for at least eight years now). Was that a coincidence? Perhaps, but either way, I’m finally getting rid of something I’ve wanted to trash for almost a decade – my carpet!
So what about you? Have you read the book? Do you need help organizing? What are you reading now? Leave me a comment, I love hear from you!
p.s. Not a sponsored post.
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