�The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy, I thought everyone knew that. They�re working from within to bring down the Ministry of Magic using a combination of Dark magic and gum disease.�
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Marie Kondo is the Luna Lovegood of tidying, and I love her for it.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a juggernaut among organization and decluttering books because Marie Kondo is a zealot. There is only one way to live in a tidy home, and that is the KonMarie way. She has a strict folding policy; she demands that you only keep items that spark joy; she anthropomorphizes her socks.
Marie Kondo is also a marketing genius. The treatment she demands for hosiery is the best way to show what works about this book and why it has so many fans.
Treat your socks and stockings with respect
Have you ever had the experience where you thought what you were doing was a good thing but later learned that it had hurt someone? At the time, you were totally unconcerned, oblivious to the other person’s feelings. This is somewhat similar to the way many of us treat our socks.
[…]
Never, ever, tie up your stockings. Never, ever ball up your socks.
This is classic Kondo. She leads off with an out-there observation involving inanimate objects, lectures the reader on their deplorable behavior, and then closes with a bright-line rule in bold.
At this point, you are either laughing or offended. I laughed because if nothing else, her imagery and language is excellent.
With the reader’s attention suitably drawn, she explains the reasoning behind the rule.
The socks and stockings stored in your drawer are essentially on holiday. They take a brutal beating in their daily work, trapped between your foot and your shoe, enduring pressure and friction to protect your precious feet. The time they spend in your drawer is their only chance to rest. But if they are folded over, balled up, or tied, they are always in a state of tension, their fabric stretched and their elastic pulled. They roll about and bump into each other every time the drawer is opened and closed. Any socks and stockings unfortunate enough to get pushed to the back of the drawer are often forgotten for so long that their elastic stretches beyond recovery. When the owner finally discovers them and puts them on, it will be too late and they will be relegated to the garbage. What treatment could be worse than this?
This is brilliant! I almost love this book more for her strategic and engaging writing style than its content. Again, Kondo grabs the reader’s attention by beginning the lesson with wild declarations. In this case, we’re all sadists when it comes to our socks. Then she sneaks in a�brief home economics lesson on fabric care in such a disarming way that the reader doesn’t realize they just read a lesson on sock care. When you take away the loony language, she’s basically saying that when we roll our socks, we keep the fabric pulled and tense, which, coupled with the friction that occurs�during�storage, weakens fabric elasticity and shortens the lifespan of your socks.
Same lesson, two different lesson plans.
Once I figured out Kondo’s teaching style, my appreciation for the book skyrocketed. Kondo made home economics humorous and inspirational. If a quirky Japanese woman who sends her cell phone thank-you notes can do it, I can, too. She makes it sound fun, like there is nothing she’d rather do than fold socks properly. What she says isn’t too far removed from what I learned during two years of The William Morris Project, so I feel confident in what I have done and in what I am going to do.
I’m moving forward with my Thursday WMP posts, but I’m going to employ KonMarie methodology as best as I can. I won’t be 100% true to the book. I knocked off 1/2 star from my review because some aspects seem unrealistic or were vaguely explained. The KonMarie way has you purging all at once, yet she never explains what that means. The whole house? The whole category? She implies it’s the whole house, but I don’t see her clients working around the clock or taking time off work the complete an entire house purge. The size of my American house alone–and I live in a modest-sized home–prevents me from tackling everything in one day. This will be a long-term project lasting at least two months.
Her instructions to get rid of anything that doesn’t “spark joy” were also vague. I understood the concept–it’s similar to the William Morris quote–but I wanted a sharper definition. Additionally, many of us are in a position where there are items we must keep not because they “spark joy,” but because we can’t afford to replace them. My clothing, for example, and nearly all of the glasses in my kitchen.
This leads me to the final area I found lacking. Marie Kondo asks that we organize in the right order: clothes, books papers, komono, and things with sentimental value. Komono, Japanese for miscellany, is an enormous category that includes the kitchen. Absolutely not, Marie Kondo. Absolutely not! The kitchen is the lifeblood of most American homes and a hotspot for useless items and clutter. Komono sounds like the place enthusiastic organizers go to die. Tighten up that category, woman. It’s a balled up sock rolling around in a drawer, bumping into other categories.
I suppose that’s what the second book is about, you sneaky, brilliant woman.
Next Thursday I’ll be posting the first step: visualizing my destination.
But� What IS the right way to fold socks, then? Don’t leave us in suspense!
There are all sorts of posts devoted to folding socks the KonMarie way, as well as her upcoming illustrated book. Whether I will employ her method remains to be seen, but here’s a very brief video on how to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tglp9eWQEhY
OMG – those underwear are so tiny!!! (yes, that’s the only thing I learned from that video …haha)
Oh that’s hilarious! I was thinking along the same lines about those bras. I laughed imaging me putting my bras in a small draw like that! I’m envious! :)
Oh I know! I had to find a deep drawer for my bras. Sigh.
And Jules I love your comparison of her to Luna. Totally spot on. Remember the story she tells of randomly falling asleep on her bedroom floor and waking up with an epiphany back in her school days?
So funny, so charming. So very Japanese.
Can’t wait to follow along with this again! We’re moving soon and it’s the perfect chance to just GET RID OF STUFF.
Moving! My friend is in the process of moving and it’s reminding me how stressful it is!
I love this book! It’s made my morning routines so much faster and more pleasant because my clothes and socks are folding so nicely and not sitting in a basket somewhere. I thought I was someone who didn’t keep tons of extra clothes around, but when purging, I realized that I had drawers full of stuff I never wore and pajamas that I kind of hated. I got the feeling that she meant purge the whole house, category by category, within six months. I’m pretty sure she says six months.
I was hoping that I just missed the timeline! I’ll have to search the book again. If you happen to come across the page number or chapter, please let me know? :)
It’s on page 34 of the Kindle version. I missed this the first time through, and it drove me nuts, which is why I was sure it was in there somewhere, too. :)
I *love* how beautiful my dresser drawers look after Kondo-ing them!!! My socks seem a little too relaxed sometimes, but no matter — they still look so very neat all rolled and lined up. Now if only I could get mastery over the whole “no paper” thing….
Sorry: Kindle pg 34 is Chapter 2, under the heading of “Start by discarding, all at once”
Off to reread! Thanks!
I’ve been folding (rather than rolling) my socks for years, but I’m not going to be placing them upright in their drawers. I have a hard time visualizing everything she describes in the book, and despite her insistence that all directions must be followed for the method to work, I think general principles are enough to substantially change our relationship with our stuff.
I think her advice to do all of a particular category of item at once is brilliant. No, I can’t do the whole house all at once, but I can the whole of one part of it. I LOVE what she has to say about having a particular place for every single item we own to go. I know the lack of that is the biggest cause of clutter for me. (And clutter breeds like cockroaches. Let one spot in, and others come out of the woodwork.) I also like what she has to say about perfection. Finally, someone giving me validation (rather than condemnation/concern) for my desire to do things as well as I can.
I will never send my cell phone a thank you note, but I’d sure send her one for writing this book.
I’ve been trying to have particular spots for things for years, but it’s hard when you have a family. She doesn’t address that other than to say to avoid touching anyone else’s stuff. Okay, fine, but with kids it’s different.
I like what she had to say about perfectionism, too. Martha Stewart said that once in an interview with Oprah. “Why wrong with wanting to do your very best work?” Of course, I don’t think Marie Kondo is talking about true perfectionism, which can be immobilizing. What she is encouraging is drive and achievement.
This is the part where it all goes to hell in a (very cluttery) handbasket for me – the family. It has taken me 17 years of marriage to get the cabinet doors closed, by the time I get the measuring cups back in the right drawer, well, I will have stopped needing them. I do like her take on perfectionism, if only I could actually apply it. Thanks for the review!
So glad to know I am not the only one who has particular drawers for particular things. I tried to make it simple in the kitchen–there is a drawer for measuring tools, a drawer for serving tools, and a drawer for what my kids call “hurting food things” (tools that chop and mash). They mock me, but it mostly works!
Now I’m looking at the book in a different light. I did laugh out loud at the touchy-feely attention she tells you to give your clothing, etc. Then I started skipping over those places because really? So I took notes (library book) and am now ready and primed to begin with my clothing. Only my husband has to NOT be on night shift. I guess I can wait a while longer.
I was lucky to read the book so late. By the time I read it, I had heard every complaint under the sun and was prepared for the absolute worst. My expectations were really low. I’m also glad I lost the first book (hah) because I didn’t pick up on her writing style until the 2nd read-through. What she says about socks is what she says about purses and shirts and wallets.
I read this book back in January and LOVED it. It lit a fire under me and got me purging my clothes and personal possessions that are in our second bedroom, which is my closet/guest room. After my first night, I ended up with 7 garbage bags of clothes, accessories, blankets, and whatnots…. and then never did another thing. It’s been gnagging at me, but not enough to do anything else.
However, after listening to a podcast with Gretchen Rubin last week (maybe the same one that you mentioned?) and taking the tendencies quiz, I’m on notice now that I’m a Rebel! It makes sense to me, but I have no clue as of right now how to work with that! I think I need to get Better Than Before, instead of re-reading the KonMari book.
Also, it’s hilarious to me that she has another book coming out right before the new year. Sneaky, brilliant woman, indeed.
My husband has a bit of rebel in him, too. He’s never thrilled when I suggest to him a way to do things. Even when it’s obvious that my way is the only way one should ever do anything. ;)
I love this review! It makes me think I actually might read (and benefit from) the book. I have owned it for at least a year, and have yet to actually open it.
I’ve read it once and now I want to re-read and digest more. Luna Lovegood is the perfect description! She strikes me as a nut, but as you say, a brilliant one. I want to try, I just need to do it.
Luna Lovegood EXACTLY!
I’ve been sucked into watching the YouTube Konmari videos!
Regarding items that don’t spark joy but you need to keep for practicality’s sake, I saw a YouTube video of a talk she gave, and someone asked a question about that (the questioner’s examples were textbooks for school or an old spatula). Marie Kondo said to give the item lots of praise and thank it for doing its job whenever you use it, so that even if it doesn’t spark joy in you, you can come to a place where you can have appreciation for it. I got the impression that she was basically saying, fake it ’till you make it, or that if you say good things about it enough you’ll start to believe it.
Maybe that advice is too touchy-feely for you, but I don’t think it hurts to recognize that the object, while not your ideal object, is still useful… and to learn to be content with that.
my favorite tidbit is where she explains how to let things go, such as, “Tshirt that I have never worn since I bought it, buying you brought me joy and fulfilled at the time I bought it. Thanks for your service.”
Ha, I’m number 204 in the library queue for this book. Looking forward to getting my hands on it…in 2016 sometime.
Okay I’ve heard about this book before but was never convinced to really read it. Now I want to. Thanks for the encouragement! In the meantime, while I wait for my book order to arrive, I can start on my sock drawer and un-ball those socks.