About

Do you have trouble keeping your house and office clean? Maybe you’re always running out of storage space at home? You can finally clean your living or working spaces by following the KonMari method described in this book. More significantly, having your house in order will result in a deep mental shift that will completely alter your life.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo explains why you should clean up, and the essential concepts and philosophies. This book explains the KonMari process, how to arrange each category, and how to avoid becoming cluttered again. 

 

Notable quotes

• “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.”
• “The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.”
• “The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.”
• “Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle.”
• “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.”
• “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?”
• “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.”
• “People cannot change their habits without first changing their way of thinking.”
• “Clutter is caused by a failure to return things to where they belong. Therefore, storage should reduce the effort needed to put things away, not the effort needed to get them out.”
• “For books, timing is everything. The moment you first encounter a particular book is the right time to read it. To avoid missing that moment, I recommend that you keep your collection small.”
• “The true purpose of a present is to be received.”
• “We should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.”
• “When you come across something that you cannot part with, think carefully about its true purpose in your life. You’ll be surprised at how many of the things you possess have already fulfilled their role. By acknowledging their contribution and letting them go with gratitude, you will be able to truly put the things you own, and your life, in order. In the end, all that will remain are the things that you really treasure. To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose.”
• “Visible mess helps distract us from the true source of the disorder.”
• “There’s no need to finish reading books that you only got halfway through. Their purpose was to be read halfway.”
• “I have yet to see a house that lacked sufficient storage. The real problem is that we have far more than we need or want.”
• “People with large book collections are almost always diligent learners.”
• “It is the same with people. Not every person you meet in life will become a close friend or lover. Some you will find hard to get along with or impossible to like. But these people, too, teach you the precious lesson of who you do like so that you will appreciate those.”
• “The process of assessing how you feel about the things you own, identifying those that have fulfilled their purpose, expressing your gratitude, and bidding them farewell, is really about examining your inner self, a rite of passage to a new life.”
• “If sweatpants are your everyday attire, you’ll end up looking like you belong in them, which is not very attractive. What you wear in the house does impact your self-image.”