The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (Magic Cleaning #1)

by Marie Kondō

Start by discarding. Then organize your space, thoroughly, completely, in one go.

when you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order, too.

As a result, you can see quite clearly what you need in life and what you don’t, and what you should and shouldn’t do.

They are surrounded only by the things they love.

Success is 90 percent dependent on our mind-set.

“Don’t try tidying your entire house all at once. You’ll just rebound. Make a habit of doing a little at a time.”

If you put your house in order properly, you’ll be able to keep your room tidy, even if you are lazy or sloppy by nature.

“If you tidy your house all at once, you’ll rebound. It’s better to make it a habit to do a little at a time.”

People cannot change their habits without first changing their way of thinking.

All you need to do is look at each item, one at a time, and decide whether or not to keep it and where to put it.

Let’s imagine a cluttered room. It does not get messy all by itself. You, the person who lives in it, makes the mess. There is a saying that “a messy room equals a messy mind.”

What is the first problem that comes to mind when you think of tidying? For many, the answer is storage.

Putting things away creates the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved.

But sooner or later, all the storage units are full, the room once again overflows with things, and some new and “easy” storage method becomes necessary, creating a negative spiral.

We need to exercise self-control and resist storing our belongings until we have finished identifying what w...

Tidying up by location is a fatal mistake.

The root of the problem lies in the fact that people often store the same type of item in more than one place.

To avoid this, I recommend tidying by category. For example, instead of deciding that today you’ll tidy a particular room, set goals like “clothes today, books tomorrow.”

Effective tidying involves only two essential actions: discarding and deciding where to store things. Of the two, discarding must come first.

Tidying is a special event. Don’t do it every day.

All you need to do is take the time to sit down and examine each item you own, decide whether you want to keep or discard it, and then choose where to put what you keep.

This drastic change in self-perception, the belief that you can do anything if you set your mind to it, transforms behavior and lifestyles.

Do not even think of putting your things away until you have finished the process of discarding.

Selection criterion: does it spark joy?

These include such rules as “discard anything you haven’t used for a year,” and “if you can’t decide, pack those items away in a box and look at them again six months later.”

we should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.

take each item in one’s hand and ask: “Does this spark joy?” If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it.

Now imagine yourself living in a space that contains only things that spark joy. Isn’t this the lifestyle you dream of?

Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest.

In the majority of households, items that fall into the same category are stored in two or more places scattered around the house.

Say, for example, you start with the bedroom closet. After you have finished sorting and discarding everything in it, you are bound to come across clothes you kept in a different closet or a coat draped over a living room chair. You will then have to repeat the whole process of choosing and storing, wasting time and effort, and you cannot make an accurate assessment of what you want to keep and discard under such conditions. Repetition and wasted effort can kill motivation, and therefore it must be avoided.

To demonstrate the steps involved, let’s go back to the example of clothing above. You start by deciding that you are going to organize and put away your clothes. The next step is to search every room of the house. Bring every piece of clothing you find to the same place, and spread them out on the floor. Then pick up each outfit and see if it sparks joy.

Gathering every item in one place is essential to this process because it gives you an accurate grasp of how much you have.

By exposing them to the light of day and jolting them alive, so to speak, you’ll find it’s surprisingly easy to judge whether they touch your heart.

The degree of difficulty involved in selecting what to keep and what to discard differs greatly depending on the category.

People who get stuck halfway usually do so because they start with the things that are hardest to make decisions about. Things that bring back memories, such as photos, are not the place for beginners to start.

People have trouble discarding things that they could still use (functional value), that contain helpful information (informational value), and that have sentimental ties (emotional value). When these things are hard to obtain or replace (rarity), they become even harder to part with.

The best sequence is this: clothes first, then books, papers, komono (miscellany), and lastly, mementos.

garbage. At this stage, the one disaster that can wreak more havoc than an earthquake is the entrance of that recycling expert who goes by the alias of “mother.”

However, it’s extremely stressful for parents to see what their children discard.

When I noticed that communal spaces such as the living room or bathroom were messy, I cleaned them up without a second thought and never bothered to mention it. I have noticed this same change occur in many of my clients as well.

The urge to point out someone else’s failure to tidy is usually a sign that you are neglecting to take care of your own space.

“Does this spark joy?”

My criterion for deciding to keep an item is that we should feel a thrill of joy when we touch it.

When you come across something that’s hard to discard, consider carefully why you have that specific item in the first place. When did you get it and what meaning did it have for you then? Reassess the role it plays in your life.

“Thank you for giving me joy when I bought you,” or “Thank you for teaching me what doesn’t suit me,” and let it go.

Every object has a different role to play.

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 g...

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.

To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose.