'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying' - Marie Kondo

[FrancesHB]

Has anyone else read this? I did a search but couldn't find any previous threads.

Marie Kondo is a Japanese expert in tidying and decluttering and her book has been translated into English and is best selling. It's wonderfully eccentric and inspiring and in some ways rather a breath of fresh air compared to other books on the subject (have read 'em all and my house is still messy...).

She asks us to ask if an item brings us joy and if it doesn't we thank it and out it goes. A bit like fly lady 'you can't organise clutter', but in a less annoying and at times quite endearing way.

I wondered if any MNers had used her technique and if it helped them 'get their house in order'.

I'm intrigued - what counts as a top? Just T-shirts and blouses - or cardigans, fleeces and jumpers as well? I thought I probably only have about 40 maximum... until I looked in the wardrobe this morning!

I dread to think how many tops I have. I've read some of the book so far and am hoping to read more today. Have a huge pile of ironing that needs tackling though.

Top is everything that goes on the top half.

If you want to really trim your wardrobe down you might find the Project 333 concept inspiring: theproject333.com/getting-started/

The concept of 160 tops being an "average" amount is bonkers.

160 is the average before.

whenever - it's a massive amount of tops. I wonder what the figures re for other items of clothing?

Hello I read this book recently and have been [semi] inspired.

I used to live in Japan and a lot of the sentiments are, I think, very Japanese. Space is at a real premium there, and whether you do or don't hang on to things will have a real impact on your day to day quality of life. I can remember a fellow expat saying to me that he had seen boats that were less well designed and more wasteful of space than Japanese apartments. But I really agree with the liberating effect of having everything sorted - and again, that is a very Japanese mindset: the tranqulility that comes from proper order.

I'm only semi inspired because I currently have more space than clutter. That does not mean I don't have clutter, obv, just that I'm not currently in danger of it all toppling over and imprisoning me. Which is good, but does lead to a bit of a tendency to think "Ah, sod it!" and instead of seeking ordered tranquility go and have a gup of tea and fill up your drawers with more junk. Also, I have dc who are nearly out of but still in the glue-glitter-bionicles-party bag swag-jenga stack years. Obviously I'll be pushing them towards slim screens to find all their entertainment needs, but for the moment I have accepted that I have to live with a cardboard 3d cyberman head on top of the book case.

I have been gradually de-cluttering by category, as she suggested. It is a bit of an eye-opener to see how much you have that is almost exactly the same.

DH likes blue jumpers. He was convinced that he needed a new one. I said, no, you have loads. He said, no, I don't I need a new one. I dragged him up to the bedroom, and made him pull out all his clothes (we have open shelves which need sorting as they don't work, but that's for another time). He discovered 11 blue jumpers, all pretty identical, at least 8 of which he'd forgotten he had (not sure whether to or about that).

Ever since, an "are you sure, remember the blue jumpers?" makes him stop and think about whether he actually does need a new whatever.

This thread has inspired me to go home from work early and see what I can put out for the bin men tomorrow morning. I know I have a couple of binbags full of charity stop stuff as we had a big sort out of coats last weekend, and I'm washing them all before dropping them off.

DD2 had a clear out of her room a few years ago and had 11 bin bags of broken stuff, junk and rubbish. She was when she heard the bin men wondering "what the fucking hell have they been doing here?" as they collected the bags.

I'm not gong to buy the book just yet (it would be clutter at the moment), but i'll have a read through some of the magazine/newspaper articles she's done/about her to get the general principles. I think categories are a really good way to start rather than one drawer/shelf, then you can see how much you have of one thing, then work out where best to put them. Otherwise you end up with several half empty drawers with similar stuff.

ouch - 10 minutes filled three bin bags . I'll have another 10 minute burst and see what I can find - all the obvious not-in-the-bin-but-still-rubbish stuff has gone, so I need to actively look for rubbish this time round.

actually, I have a question - if I fold my tops as she says, and store them upright - what happens when I've taken a few out of the drawer? Don;t the rest fall over? Or are they supposed to be more like upsidedown "v"s so the splayed legs keep each top upright and still folded?

I find it hard to get rid of things which I don't like, but which were give to me as a gift. I just feel so guilty! I suppose it's good that at least someone would get use of it if I gave the item to the charity shop, but I feel sad for the person who bought it for me, even though they'd be none the wiser!

Leaping, if you fold them firmly enough and position them as you said, in the upside-down "V", they stay up. I have to admit, my knickers sometimes fall over (), but t-shirts and leggings stay in place.

Diryan, why do you feel guilty? The person who gave you the gift was "repaid" by your gracious acceptance at the time. They would want you to be happy, not feel guilty or bogged down by things, especially not by things they gave you because they like you.

I read the whole book on one sitting because of this thread

160 tops was the average for her clients. If you think about it, someone willing to fork out for a professional organiser would naturally have more clutter than the average Jane.

I really love some of her ideas and would love to put it into progress right away! But how to do it with two kids following me around shouting and moving things around.

OP thanks so much for this thread. I love the book. I love the idea that our possessions just want to make us happy, and we should think about how we can help them achieve that. Also - touching everything is surprisingly effective.

I've had another go at my clothes and charity-shopped another few bags full. Depressingly, I've realised I have very few clothes that bring me joy. I'm keeping some stuff just so I have something to wear . I am in urgent need of underwear and shoes that aren't sandals.

We had a huge clearout earlier in the year before we put our house on the market. We had another go during/after the actual move. But we've still gone tons of stuff.

Our books are almost all still boxed up, and I'm really looking forward to applying this method when we unpack them.

It's supposed to take about 6 months so I don't think you do it all in one go. I'm doing one category at a time and waiting until I have a time to do it. So if I were you I'd break stuff into categories (and break down the categories into smaller ones if you have too many things like books) and when you realise you have a spare half hour, quickly run and "do" the next category on the list.

strongandlong I'm thinking I'm going to have to keep stuff which doesn't bring me joy until I can afford to replace it too! But even before I read this I made a conscious decision to stop buying cheap shitty clothes and invest in more good quality stuff even if I buy it second hand or from TK Maxx or something. I hate buying clothes and then they go shapeless in about 3 months.

I'm going to do tops in the morning (which is why I should be in bed!) Hmmmm! Nervous but looking forward to it.

Well timed as well. We moved abroad 12 months ago and I dumped so much stuff then (actually it was quite traumatic :( ) that I decided I have to do the same thing regularly. Haven't managed to do it once in the last year so I'm going to make it a "thing" to do on the 1st September every year.

strongandlong I read this book and quoted massive chunks of it to DH as I read Then we finally collected about 6-8 boxes of books/DVDs/CDs from his mum's attic that he had stored there when he moved into my tiny flat (we moved to a house over 3 years ago but have only just done this ) It was amazing, we sat down with the boxes and sorted them right by our shelves. Barely anything made it onto the shelves. Plus loads of stuff came off of the shelves too. Liberating. I really like our shelves now (they take up one wall of our front room). I googled shelf styling - only do this if you have lots of time to spare, it's mesmerising and addictive...you have been warned!!!

I've only read the first part so far which is mostly background info, but I am feeling determined. When you open your eyes there are just bits of random crap everywhere in our house, any space just seems to attract stuff. Flylady says that you need to clear a space and then put something beautiful there such as a vase of flowers and it will repel clutter. I have found an element of truth in that in the past have found it to be partly true in reverse too, if a surface already looks cluttered a bit more doesn't make any difference.

I downloaded the book last night and finished it this morning - fascinating and as some have said slightly bonkers in a nice way! I like her very down to earth approach on storage - particularly using shoeboxes and shoebox lids to keep things together - and using what you have rather then investing in fancy storage solutions. I might try counting tops later - I suspect when you include all jumpers etc I will have quite a large number but will be suprised if it is as high as 160...

I did my tops today. From 45 I got rid of, er, 4 And repurposed 3 to be cut up and made into a pin board (or 2). But like I said I slimmed down a lot of my posessions when I moved, so we shall see. The biggest thing taking up space in my house right now is rubbish, so that's my mission for this afternoon although I feel drained and exhausted from this morning

I have downloaded the book to my kindle, only to discover I can't find my kindle.

Which is ironic.

Having to read it on my phone until I discover where I put my kindle - clearly not in the proper 'kindle place'. perhaps it never returned from holiday?

That's frustrating BeCool. If it was me it would still be in my carry on bag.

Is anybody else feeling so drained by the process? I've done the folding and by the end my arms were getting heavy and I had to leave the last few because I was getting too easily frustrated with them. I'm not getting the satisfaction or the "sweet spot" from folding. It takes forever and the sleeves annoy me. I've only done one category of clothes :( And now I'm sleepy and grumpy and snapping at DS.

I'm going to watch the video about the folding thing because I could not get some to stand up no matter how hard I tried and generally found the whole exercise quite frustrating - and now my drawer is half empty.

Oh my - I have a bigger problem than I realised. Adding up all tops (including sports tops, t-shirts I wear as PJ tops, all jumpers, cardis, old smart work shirts etc) - absolutely everything - I came to 178!!! I've been trying to do a one-in, one or two-out policy to stop accumulating more but that is a lot of tops! Just yesterday I bought 3 items of clothing from a charity shop and took two carrier bags in so though I was doing well but clearly not that well...