Can I actually write this on an iPad, she wonders...
Full disclosure, I didn't read the whole thing. It got repetitive, I got bored, you know the story.
Like many books I read, I think this could have been an excellent essay, or maybe even a pamphlet. But a whole book? Nah. Kondo herself writes that there are just two things you need to do in order to tidy: get rid of things and make sure everything has a place. And that's it, really.
Want a little more? Be ruthless in getting rid of things, keeping only the joy-giving ones. Tidy by category of item, not room of house. Do it all at once (or at least, over several months), not for the rest of your life. And that's really it.
The category thing I'd not thought of, and can see being quite useful. But taking all my pictures out of their albums to touch each one and test the amount of joy it gives me? Ain't nevah gonna happen. If I've managed to actually get photos into an album, they're not coming back out. Not for Kondo. Not for liberation from clutter. Not for Santa.
Now, Kondo does have some other insights, stories, methods, etc. There's much in the way of feelings and intuition and sensing how much a thing matters to you. And yes, it is good not to just keep things for things' sake, but I think she's missing a key consideration: some of my things give me pleasure just by existing. Even if they are in a box and I only look at them once every two years, they are part of me. My childhood toys, my books, my random kitchen gadgets. I try not to let these things pile up (usually using the "if I were moving would I care enough about this to pack it up, load it in a moving truck, and sort through it again in the new house" method), but they are my things and I love them. I love their memories. I love their connecting me to other people.
You would be right in thinking the minimalist lifestyle is not for me.
I admit a certain confusion at this book's sudden popularity. It has a clear and functional writing, and a novel approach to house/life organizing. But it's not astoundingly written, or blazingly revolutionary. Any other readers out there, especially who found it compelling, care to weigh in?
...Maybe it's just suffering from TPFIOG (too popular for its own good). Had I read it cold, with lesser/non-existent expectations, I might have liked it much better.
xo,
Devo
PS: The answer is no, no I could not write this whole post on an iPad.
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