The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

It is a non-fiction work that serves the purpose of educating its readers about different tidying up techniques they can adopt in order to maintain a better lifestyle. In guiding us through the recommended steps in the tidying up process, the author provides us with the acronym S.P.A.C.E. — which stands for Sort, Purge, Assign, Containerize and Equate.

Sorting

Kondo suggests for readers to categorize their belongings before choosing which to discard. Seeing the totality of your possessions for each category makes it easier for you to judge which to keep, as you will often find you have more than you need. While you are free to choose your own categories, she advices to tackle the easier ones first.

Purge

The idea is to avoid clutter, and owning few objects fascilitates this. During the discarding process, Kondo advices readers to exclude their families. However, in order to avoid giving away items of value to the household, she suggests to ask family members individually if there is anything they need or want before starting the discarding process. If the answer happens to coincide with one of the items being discarded, then the item can stay.

Assign, Containerize and Equalize

Once you finish the ‘purge’ process, you can move on to assigning a particular place to each of the categories. From there, we move towards the Containerize step, where we find the best way to place the items in their new location. In this section, Kondo discusses best practices in storing belongings — including better care, and how to make the most out of limited space. The final step — Equalize — refers to finish accommodating all the categories in their proper containers, and in their assigned location.

Conclussion

This book is an absolute most read for anyone who is looking to improve their habits. Marie Kondo has a talented writing style, as I found it clear and concise. I never felt she deviated from the main idea, and she managed to tie together a wide array of different subjects.