The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Summary of Key Ideas – Marie Kondo
Life gets busy. Has The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up been gathering dust on your bookshelf? Instead, pick up the key ideas now.
We’re scratching the surface here. If you don’t already have the book, get the audiobook for free to learn the juicy details.
Introduction
Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?
Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).
With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire
Marie Kondo’s Perspective
Marie Kondo is a tidying expert, star of the Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, #1 New York Times bestselling author, and founder of KonMari Media, Inc.
Enchanted with organizing since her childhood, Marie began her tidying consultant business as a 19-year-old university student in Tokyo. Today, Marie is a renowned tidying expert helping people around the world to transform their cluttered homes into spaces of serenity and inspiration.
Marie has been featured on more than fifty major Japanese television and radio programs as well as in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, Vogue, Ellen, the Rachael Ray show, and many more. She has also been listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people.
Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, teaches the most important ideas behind tidying up a house.
Marie Kondo’s KonMari method changes how you think about your stuff, allowing you to become a better decision maker, live a healthier life, and reach your dreams.
Before you can begin to tidy up, you must first visualize a tidy, feminine home, with pink, antique items.
She took a bath, drank herbal tea and did yoga before going to bed, and then fell asleep feeling relaxed and unhurried.
You should respect your space by keeping only things that you truly love and getting rid of things that you don’t.
Whenever you regret giving away a book, it means that you’re truly interested in the topic.
The purpose of tidying is to organize your living space in a way that feels natural to you, so it improves your body and mind.
Sort by category. Focus on what you want to keep and let the rest go.
The power of tidying lies in its ability to heighten your own awareness of self.
When tidying your living space, you may experience physical reactions, such as diarrhea, as your house and body get rid of toxic materials together.
When you spring clean, you can look at keepsakes from your past to help guide you in your future.
Start with easy categories and then move onto photos to keep the ones you remember taking.
When getting rid of sentimental items, think about your parents’ feelings and whether they would enjoy the items.
When you’re tidying, ask yourself if a document or course material meets your current needs. Discard items that don’t.
Go through your things to discover new passions that may bring you closer to your ideal life.
To help you take action, make your space visually pleasing and use visual order.
A good place to start when decluttering your wardrobe is by organizing it by fabric, then size, then color.
Organising your space can improve your disposition and give you the power to make decisions.
The author advises people to ditch negative self-perception and to focus on their clean living space. This allows them to feel confident and decisive.
People think about keeping their home tidy the wrong way.
You can make tidying a special event by making it a process that takes about 6 months to complete.
Communication with your belongings will help you to clear up your relationship to them, making the project smoother and more natural.
The author begins by kneeling down to show respect for a client’s home.
After a thorough tidying, the author should thank her house and empty her bag completely before leaving.
You can make the process of throwing things out easier by determining whether the object’s purpose has yet been fulfilled.
To organize your belongings, start with personal categories and work your way to more general items.
Clear about your goals and let go of items that are no longer useful.
In cases where your intuition is at odds with your reason, consider whether the item still makes you happy.
By letting go of unwanted gifts, you can create the ideal living space.
Decluttering your life should be extremely simple, but you must decide what kind of life you want to live.
Gretchen Rubin is the person to ask about happiness and how to find peace in life.
Rubin takes you on a quest for joy and shares her experience in The Happiness Project.
Conclusion
Decluttering your life and cutting out the unnecessary, gets you closer to your goal of living in an ideal living space and living out your ideal life.
And while it seems daunting and overwhelming, make it simple. Decide what you want to keep and discard what you don’t.
Keep what makes you happy, serves a purpose and adds value to your life. Discard the items that don’t make you happy. Don’t we do this in our lives already? It’s time to apply these principles to the items in your home.
Dig deep within yourself and determine what you want out of your living space. Visualize your ideal space and take action that will lead you to bring that vision into reality.
Once you tidy up your home, consider tidying up your life and improving your lifestyle.
To learn the details, get the audiobook for FREE.
What did you learn from the summary of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up? What was your favorite takeaway? Is there an important insight that we missed? Comment below or tweet to us @storyshots.
Marie Kondo Quotes
“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
“But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
“But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
“But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
“But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
“Imagine what it would be like to have a bookshelf filled only with books that you really love. Isn’t that image spellbinding? For someone who loves books, what greater happiness could there be?”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
“No matter how wonderful things used to be, we cannot live in the past. The joy and excitement we feel here and now are more important.”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
Related books
Book review and summary of Getting Things Done by David Allen (Open in the app)
Book review and summary of Essentialism by Greg McKeown (Open in the app)
Book review and summary of Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven (open in the app)
Book review and summary of The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch (open in the app)
Book review and summary of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (open in the app)
Book review and summary of The Paradox of Choice by Barry. Schwartz (open in the app)
Book review and summary of The One Thing by Gary Keller (open in the app)
EN 
PT 
ES 
JA 
DE 
FR 
TR 
IT 
AR 
PL 
UK 
SV 
NL 
KO