Marie Kondo's Kurashi at Home: How to Organize Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Marie Kondo’s book, but I see that she and I are worlds apart in many of our ideas. My house will never be as clean and uncluttered as hers, nor would I feel comfortable living in such a sparse environment.

At the beginning of this book, Marie Kondo says to state the last day of tidying. I cannot do that. I will have to take it in small pieces and make the last day of tidying the last day of my life. That’s okay. To me tidying is a process toward a goal. If I never get there, I will have made improvements along the way.

Married family life with children has suited the author well. She has a picture in this book where she is sitting with her husband and daughter and is smiling with a true “spark of show more joy”. It‘s a sweet picture.

Marie Kondo would probably not like to see the room in which my grandchildren play, but she would delight in my three bedside drawers for storing small toys: the animal drawer, the transportation drawer, and the people drawer! :D

I am fascinated by Marie Kondo’s obsessive qualities (not to disparage them as we all have some of these). In photos of her closets, all of the hangers are situated equal distances apart!

Two different quotes (admittedly taken from different sections of this book) cracked me up when I copied both of them together:
“Are you feeling overwhelmed by tidying?”
“Since I began living in America, I’ve been hiring professional cleaners as well.”

I strongly disagree with one thing that Marie Kondo wrote: “I wanted to do something different to celebrate the special occasion of her marriage and decided to give her something handmade, which is number one on the list of unwelcome gifts”. To the contrary, for me handmade items are among my most treasured gifts.

I enjoyed reading Marie Kondo’s new book although her methods would definitely not work for me, a person whose house is not clutter free and doesn’t “shine”. Everything in the house pictured in this book is so white and clean! Some of her ideas, especially those taken from her native Japanese culture, are interesting to me. In conclusion, any book which inspires me to declutter and tidy my home...even a bit more...is a good one. show less

Kurashi at Home is Marie Kondo's book of vibes. It's not a how to; that's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which covers everything. This book is intended for people who have read the main book and also like a book with pretty illustrations of spare, well-curated rooms.

I read the first book awhile ago and am still folding my laundry and using a few of the ideas from that book, but a year ago we all moved to a new house and there are still, a full year later, a few boxes stuck here and there. I was looking for more inspiration than instruction, and this book suited that aim. The main thing I took away from this book was that the purpose of finishing up the move and unpacking those final boxes and getting those last spaces organized show more and clear is the satisfaction that comes from being in a space that looks the way I want it to look. It's about making one's home, regardless of size or how long one plans to live there, into a space that feels restful and restorative.

All in all, a pleasant book, in which it's fun to see that Kondo has relaxed her standards now that she is married and has young children. There's some interesting bits about how her religious faith influences how she looks at her surroundings, making the process of tidying up something other than being uptight about clutter. show less

Paradoxically, this latest Marie Kondo book contains less text yet has a wider scope than her previous ones. It is an illustrated hardback that can easily be read in an hour, as the structure and content are rather like a lifestyle magazine. I wasn't wild about the interior design pictures, due to the preponderance of white, beige, and grey. On the other hand, Marie's outfits are elegant - I especially like the green wrap cardigan. Rather than contiguous text, the chapters with broad advice are broken up by little Q&A sections and even recipes. (The latter were a surprise.) Scattered amid the main messages are more specific pieces of advice that reminded me of articles, e.g. wipe the soles of shoes, minimise the number of cleaning show more products you use, and choose natural fibre pyjamas. These definitely contributed to the magazine-esque feeling.

The librarian that issued [b:Kurashi at Home: How to Organize Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life|60855576|Kurashi at Home How to Organize Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life|Marie Kondō|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1650537489l/60855576._SX50_.jpg|95975750] to me had already read it and gently cautioned that its advice is more difficult to follow than that of previous books. That's fair, as it suggests asking yourself what your ideal home, ideal lifestyle, and ideal daily routine would be then working towards achieving them. This is inspiring as well as ambitious. The concept of analysing how you spend your time daily and consciously choosing habits that bring joy is very similar here to [b:Happiness by Design: Change What You Do, Not How You Think|18667892|Happiness by Design Change What You Do, Not How You Think|Paul Dolan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386587591l/18667892._SY75_.jpg|26493555]. It's also sensible in general, while seeming quite overwhelming. Marie Kondo suggests breaking it down into pieces: the morning routine, how you spend evenings, whether the entrance to your home is welcoming, etc.

Despite this, I would have liked greater guidance on the more challenging parts. I'm quite satisfied with my morning routine, as it maximises how late I can sleep in while still retaining an acceptable working pattern. (Until 9:40, in case you were wondering.) My ideal home is much more mysterious. How can I determine what I want my flat to look like, really? I've been trying to decide what colour the living room walls should be for nearly five years and have yet to come up with an answer. My crappy shower makes washing unpleasant, but is it worth replacing when it still works? How to decide?

Nonetheless I am receptive to Marie Kondo's suggestions to make decisions based on consideration of what sparks joy, as I've recently started trying this in daily life. This is intended to be a substitute for basing decision-making on anxiety minimisation, which turns out to be totally ineffective at actually minimising anxiety. Perhaps by thinking more deeply about whether discrete objects, foods, and daily activities spark joy, one can work up to wider lifestyle stuff? For me the challenge is that I'm very good at tidying, because it's fun, but couldn't tell you what my ideal life would be without veering into facetious fantasy (e.g. as a plant-being living in constant mental communion with a vast intelligent forest). My clothes are well-organised yet I don't think anyone would describe me as joyful. While I enjoyed [b:Kurashi at Home: How to Organize Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life|60855576|Kurashi at Home How to Organize Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life|Marie Kondō|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1650537489l/60855576._SX50_.jpg|95975750], it has less substance than Marie Kondo's prior books and is probably not as helpful. Expect the experience to be more like reading a magazine than a book. That said, it did motivate me to finally dust behind the fridge after meaning to for months. show less

It's odd that the queen of tidying produces coffee table books, one of the more useless objects that one can own.

I continue my love/hate relationship with Marie Kondo.