Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
Marie Kondo
Introduction: The KonMari Method
- One of the most common mistakes people make is to tidy room by room. This approach doesn’t work because people think they have tidied up when in fact they have only shuffled their things around from one location to another.
- The correct approach is to tidy by category. This means tidying up all the things in the same category in one go. For example, when tidying the clothes category, the first step is to gather every item of clothing from the entire house in one spot. This allows you to see objectively how much you really have.
- It is crucial not only to tidy by category but also to follow the correct order, which is clothes, books, papers, komono (miscellany), and finally, sentimental items.
Part 1: KonMari master tips
1: Honing your sensitivity to joy
- “It might come in handy” is taboo
- Believe me, I’m not trying to be mean. I know exactly how hard it is to get motivated when you don’t feel like doing something. It’s just that, in my experience, it’s more effective to hit rock bottom, rather than to push myself to try harder. Once I’m down there, I get fed up myself to try harder. . Once I’m down there, I get fed up with being discouraged and can pick myself up much faster.
2: How to fill your home with joy
- “Finish discarding first.” I’m sure you know by now that this is a cardinal rule of the KonMari Method. If you start thinking about where to store this and that before you have completely finished throwing stuff away, you won’t get very far. That’s why it’s imperative to concentrate solely on discarding first.
- Having spent most of my life looking at things of every description, including those in my clients’ homes, I have discovered three common elements involved in attraction: the actual beauty of the object itself (innate attraction), the amount of love that has been poured into it (acquired attraction), and the amount of history or significance it has accrued (experiential value).
3: Everything you need to know about storing joyfully
PART II: The tidying encyclopedia
4: Tidying clothes
- Bag-in-bag method
5: Tidying books
6: Tidying papers
7: Tidying Komono
- The focus was not on ease of use, but on ease of cleaning.