Not sure where to put this, but I didn't want to hijack the October Random Declutter thread.
Here is my extensive review of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo, copyright 2014.
This book is due back at the library today and I don't want to renew it because I know someone else is waiting for it. It's a small book, slightly larger than 5"x7" and only 204 pages plus an index. I didn't expect it to take me so long to finish it, but I had some other junior and young adult fiction books to preview for work. Frankly, those were much more fun to read, so I kept setting this one aside.
Ms. Kondo's approach is to make decluttering decisions not by what you want to discard, but by what you want to keep. She uses the expression, "Does this spark joy?"
She states that in order to declutter thoroughly, you must pick up each item and hold it in your hands. If you're working in your closet, you can't just look at the clothes hanging there, you have to take each piece out and hold it. If you're trying to reduce the number of books on shelves, you can't just read the titles on the shelf, instead you must take out each book one by one to think about it.
That concept makes sense to me. Things that have hung around awhile become invisible, so decisions get postponed. As she says, when you hold each item of clothing in your hands, it gives you the opportunity to inspect it to see if it needs mending or is worn out, if you like the way the fabric feels to your skin, etc. It's easier to make the decision to keep or toss.
She says the specific order of categories is important:
From page 65 "Start with clothes, then move on to books, papers, komono (miscellany), and finally things with sentimental value. If you reduce what you own in this order, your work will proceed with surprising ease. By starting with the easy things first and leaving the hardest for last, you can gradually hone your decision-making skills, so that by the end, it seems simple."
Clothing subcategories:
Tops (shirts, sweaters, etc.)
Bottoms (pants, skirts, etc.)
Clothes that should be hung (jackets, coats, suits, etc.)
Socks
Underwear
Bags (handbags, messenger bags, etc.)
Accessories (scarves, belts, hats, etc.)
Clothes for specific events (swimsuits, kimonos, uniforms, etc.)
Shoes
* Note that she considers it taboo to "downgrade" an item to loungewear to avoid getting rid of it. She thinks clothes for relaxing around the house and pajamas are items that should make you feel good, not just leftovers. Keep getting rid of things that don't "spark joy."
Books & Papers (not including letters or greeting cards, which are sentimental items):
1) Currently in use
2) Needed for a limited time
3) Must be kept indefinitely
She has a chapter on what to do with papers. She throws away almost all. She does admit that some books and papers need to be kept even if they don't "spark joy" -- but she doesn't think a lot of effort needs to be made in regard to storing them.
Komono (misc. items):
CDs & DVDs
Skin care products
Makeup
Accessories
Valuables (passports, credit cards, etc.)
Electrical equipment and appliances (digital cameras, electric cords, etc.)
Household equipment (stationary and writing materials, sewing kits, etc.)
Household supplies (expendables like medicine, detergents, tissues, etc.)
Kitchen goods/food supplies (spatulas, pots, blenders, etc.)
Other (spare change, figurines, etc.)
Hobby equipment or supplies
Do Sentimental Items after all other categories are complete. She also gets rid of most sentimental items, claiming that they fulfilled their purpose the first time you saw them and after time no longer have value.
I agree with her procedure to declutter 1 category of items at a time. She doesn't work by location, because an example that she gives is a client who stored many of her clothes in her husband's closet. If that client only cleared her own closet, she still had more clothes to evaluate that were out of sight, out of mind. So I agree, gather all like things together so you can see how much you have, whether you have duplicates, what is easy to discard, whether damaged items would be easier to mend or to replace, etc.
(editing to add: By "agree with" I mean in order to do a major, serious, must-downsize-or-else project then categories are a good way to go. In reality, I almost always declutter by location -- pick an area according to available time, do a concentrated blitz attack, might come back to the same location at the next declutter session or might pick a totally different location to attack. However, in an ideal situation, focus on 1 category at a time would have more lasting results.)
Where I disagree with her method is her insistence that the only way to effectively declutter any category is to gather all the items at once and pile them on the floor. Don't stop working until you have picked up every item and made the decision whether it stays or goes.
I think many of us here on this forum have tried a version of "I'm going to dig in and do all of this once and for all! This (room/closet/desk/drawer/whatever) will be cleaned today or else!" Unfortunately, most of us don't have the luxury of a long block of uninterrupted time to complete such large projects. That's why we've switched to 15 minute sessions, or small specific projects where we don't make more mess than we can clean up in our allotted time.
I'm halfway through the book and I need to skim read the rest. I'm ok with that. There is a lot of repetition. Some procedures are nice but different, such as saying thank you to each possession before putting it away or discarding it. Some are similar to what other organizers do, like what I heard Peter Walsh say on a show once about possessions being dishonored when they are stuck in boxes and never seen, or overlooked because of an overwhelming quantity of other items.
The old show Clean Sweep also did the method of taking absolutely everything out of a room and spreading it all over the yard outdoors to force quick & drastic discarding. That made for exciting tv programming, but I don't think it's realistic for most people except in circumstances like urgently needing to move to a different house.
I don't know that the result is "Magic" but I think if an idea in her book encourages us to declutter stuff we don't want or need, that's a good thing.
So ... has anyone else read a newish book with helpful or motivational tips?