I recently finished reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up:  The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.  I read about organizing and decluttering often, therefore, much of the information was not new to me.  However,  I am very happy to have read the book.  It was enjoyable and a quick-read; even the writing felt simplified (in a good way) and organized.  After reading the book, I was motivated to start “big time” decluttering of our space and to finally tackle my file cabinet (a 10 year in the making project). Thank you Ms. Kondo for the guidance and inspiration to get moving and to keep only things that bring me joy!

Her suggestion to get rid of bed sheets for guests (after considering how many times a year you actually have guests) is probably the only suggestion I will not be taking.  It feels wasteful, a mentality which I know can be a slippery slope in the world of decluttering, but I don’t want to spend the time or money to buy new sheets each time a guest visits.  I am not against, but haven’t found a way that works for me to NOT rotate or pack away off season clothes.  I may figure out how to do it the “Kon-Mari” way (she says don’t take the time to rotate or pack away off season clothing) in the future, we will see. And guess what? Storing items (like your old concert tees, etc. to keep the shape of the purse intact) inside your purse is kind of an irritating time-waster, just like Kon-Mari said!

My favorite thing about this book was that it gave me a framework within which to easily work and it validated my already established habits.

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Click here to read 10 tips to make you tidier now based on Ms. Kondo’s bestselling book.

The video below is a great illustration of a technique described in her book.

Yay for a clutter-free life! It feels really good. Have you decluttered and organized recently? What were your easiest and most difficult areas to declutter?