The KonMari Method

Marie Kondo

At the store where I work, I was advised to really stock up on a new book that was coming in, a “Self-Help book about Tidying Up by a Japanese Lady” that had been written up in the paper and was sure to be in big demand. And sure enough, when the book arrived, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo sold out almost overnight! Three more cases arrived and even THOSE sold out… What was it about this book? I had to find out!

 Here in Hawaii, when you say “Japanese Lady”, you immediately think “Local Hawaii Woman”, especially when it comes to household helper books, so I was surprised to find that this Marie Kondo (or, KonMari, as she is better known) is actually a famous Tokyo Tidying Consultant and the book is actually an English-translated version of her successful Nihongo Book.

Kondo's method of organizing consists of going through all your things, and then, one by one, deciding if the item is worth keeping or not (Does this object bring me joy? Is it just takling up space?)  once sorting through everything, you then begin organizing and utilizing various ways of finding places to permanently put them. "Have a place for everything and make sure to put each item away when you use it".
    My friend, who has a bit of a problem when it comes to keeping things uncluttered and organized, asked me if I could pick up the book for him, which I happily did, and since I wasn’t going to see him til the weekend, took the week to read the book myself- though I’m a pretty organized guy, I knew there would be things even I could learn!

  Gotta say, though there WERE much to take in and learn, the REAL JOY of this book is reading the personal stories of Marie Kondo’s life peppered throughout the book- tales of her as a precocious 8 year old already reading ESSE magazine and having her parents get her a subscription to Home and Design Magazine, a cleaning-obsessed 10 year old coming home from school, and while still in her uniform, going straight to the pantry to organize the shelves, reading about new space saving techniques at the store and running home to try out the new ideas in her room.. all these stories made for SUCH an enjoyable read!

  Seeing as how famous Marie Kondo was, I wondered if there were videos of her online, and sure enough, there were MANY clips, though most of them posted by English Speaking clients and businesses with translators doing the talking…Much prefer the Japanese interviews with English Subtitles…

PS: By the way. When I finally gave my friend the book, he perused a few chapters before rejecting the KonMari method of “Discard and Put Away”, saying “this woman clearly has never had to deal with someone who is a Contractor, Plumber, and Landlord . I can’t discard any of this stuff, it’s ALL important.” He handed back the book, saying “I can’t use this”, but it was just as well seeing as how I’d fallen in love with the book and was happy to keep it!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com