With her book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up": The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, author and cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers on a journey to changing their life by getting rid of the detritus of life, retaining only items that “spark joy”.
The runaway bestselling book has already sold over 2 million copies worldwide and the resulting "KonMari" method has spawned subsequent books, videos and a series of newsletters and online courses to follow and learn from. There’s even a Konmari app to download and track your tidying progress.
Kondo encourages us to consider that items and objects have feelings so, saying goodbye to them and thanking them for their service is a way of letting them go. What remains is tidied using a series of special folding methods where you “use the palms of your hands to put love into the clothes”, stacking them upright in draws. Then follows a process of moving through your house, room-by-room to tidy.
Many say they continue to live the KonMari method and will never return to the accumulation of stuff in their lives. It’s easy to see why it’s infectious - Kondo herself sparks joy with her gentle voice, calmly encouraging as you process your belongings, folding and organising into neat piles, with room to spare, leaving things “tidy once and for all.”
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