2015 The year of Change – The Life Changing Magic of Tidying! Marie Kondo

I know we’re already in February but I do feel like 2015 holds lots of promise for us as a family, I feel excited and happy to be looking forward to the future. We really hope to move house in the next few years too, so that certainly will be a big change. In order to move though we need to do a few odd jobs around the house first as well as a big de clutter. De cluttering is something I love doing but never seem to nail it. Even when I spend ages doing it, a mere few weeks later the house is always a mess again. So this time around I needed a different approach and as if by magic the solution may have presented itself. I was browsing around Amazon as you do and up popped a book suggestion that intrigued me. The title was “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying” by Marie Kondo.

I was interested immediately, how could tidying up be life changing? I’ve always been a tidy person. I love nothing more than coming home to a tidy house, I love the feeling of looking around and everywhere being clean and tidy with all my things in the places they should be! So I clicked on the book and headed straight to the reviews, somewhere I always looks before I buy things. Four and a half stars from over 200reviews, this looked promising! Without further ado I purchased it (in kindle form obviously as I didn’t need more clutter in my life!) and read it pretty quickly over a weekend. It’s not that long and an easy read. It’s main theme being that all the things you own in life should bring you joy, if they don’t then you don’t need them! It deals with how to get rid of things that you feel guilty about getting rid of. For example presents from loved ones that you don’t actually like! There are a few far out principles in the book, but on the whole I really enjoyed it and couldn’t wait to get started applying the principles. The book suggests that although the the process can happen quickly it would take an average of six months to complete a whole house, this timescale did surprise me but it didn’t put too much pressure on either. Within a few days I had already got rid of two bin bags of clothes (that’s just mine!) and a big box of other items. Things I’d held on to for years but that actually brought me no joy, things that I thought one day I may use but who knows when that day will come.

The book also describes how to fold you clothes in your draws, I had to read the description a couple of times to try and get the hang of it. I also went to youtube to try and find some info videos. There are a couple but I thought perhaps that I may also be able to do one now that I’ve got eh hang of folding. I didn’t take a picture of the draws before (something I should have done!) But heres a picture of how mine and hubbies draws look now that I’ve finished folding them.

I’ve also made a start in the boys room too, it already brings me pleasure to look inside and see exactly what we can choose from.

Back to the book, is it life changing? I’ve yet to be able to comment on that as I haven’t finished the process. The author describes the exact way you should go about tackling your house starting with your clothes as they are the easiest thing to part with. Followed by books. I can’t remember the exact order of the rest but I’ll refer back to it when I need to. I know that sentimental things such as photographs were last on the list. I’m still working my way through clothes. I’m due to tackle the underwear any day now and I know there will be lots of bras to get rid of. Whats the point in keeping the ones that are too big or too small? I do feel that the progress I have made though has been great and I get great pleasure from going into the bedroom and it felling a whole lot less cluttered already.

If you’d have asked me if I thought I’d be reading books in my 30’s about tidying up I’d have laughed a lot but here I am doing it and acting on its principles!

I will be going back to amazon to review the book as I think it’s always good to put your own review on if you rely yourself on reviews and I’d be giving it 5 stars and would recommend it if you seem to never be able to part with things or your life feels cluttered. I do want to mention also that I have no association with the author and I haven’t been paid to write about the book. I paid for my own copy after just coming across it, but I’m glad it found me and hopefully it really will be life changing!