By now you’ve probably heard of the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, right? It’s basically a guide to decluttering written by Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo. I was seeing it again and again in my Instagram feed and heard it mentioned in a few of my favorite podcasts. The more I heard, the more it sounded like people loved it and truly found it life-changing or they just didn’t get it and couldn’t get through.
I became obsessed with knowing which camp I fell into.
At first, I had a sort of love-hate relationship with the book. The kind where sometimes you’re all nods and warm fuzzy “hell yeahs!” and the next you’re envisioning yourself throwing your Nook directly at your window because watching the glass shatter would bring you so much more joy than reading one more sentence (Kondo’s whole method of decluttering centers around holding something in your hands and deciding whether or not it brings you joy).
But then it started to sink in a little. To sort of melt into the folds of my brain and really make me think. This book isn’t just about cleaning. It’s about life. It’s about consciously choosing joy every single time you make a decision. That’s where the whole “life-changing magic” comes in.