Audiobook Review – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Non-Fiction/Organization
Length: 4 hours and 50 minutes
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Release Date: January 6, 2015
ASIN: B00RC3ZGN4
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home-and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.”

As one of my New Year’s resolutions I am trying to get my clothing habit in check and in general adopt a more minimalist attitude towards material items. This book was a great discussion around that and how you can once and for all “tidy” your home and as a result your life and mind.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was well done. The narration was easy to follow and listen to.

I found this to be a quick and inspiring read and ended up really enjoying some of the ideas presented. The tidying method presented here is very simple and logical, yet not necessarily intuitive.

I liked the idea of only keeping around items that bring you joy and of respecting your items and considering how they would want to be treated. Kondo’s idea that you must physically handle every single item in your house and ask if it brings you joy is a good one; it really brings home how much stuff you have that you don’t really love or need.

My only complaints were that I felt that the book was a bit repetitive and that some of this was just pure common sense. Also, I thought Kondo spent a bit too much time “selling” her methods to the reader. I obviously wanted to learn about this since I picked up the book, I didn’t need her to convince me that I needed to learn about it.

Additionally she does go into a bit of discussion about the psychology between people and their stuff and this was intriguing to me. This book provided a lot of interesting food for thought and will definitely change how I interact with the material items in my life. It made a huge impression on me.

Overall this was a well done book about minimalism and organizing your materials objects. It could have been a bit less repetitive and done a bit less “selling” and it would have been even better.