Book Review Wednesday: Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

I am not one to pass up on a trend, especially a book/lifestyle trend. I live to know what the new thing is, and if something is being talked about in articles, on blogs, and on the internet in general, I need to know about it.

That's what happened when the book "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" hit the interwebs and everyone was talking about it. They were describing it as something that was changing their lives (uh, yeah for a book with the term "life changing" in it) & altering the way they thought about 'stuff'.

I am someone who LOVES stuff and this book came at a time when I was just finding out my family & I had to move, so what better time to clean out then moving?

After a lot of back & forth, I bought the book off of Amazon and started reading.

Well, it wasn't what I expected.

I JUST finished reading the book and I have a lot of odd feelings about it.

First off, the book is basically about cleaning out & tidying up your life by removing the items that don't bring you joy, or things you've been holding onto & don't really know why. It is written by Marie Kondo, who makes a living out of this. She has clients who sign up for her course & basically she goes in and helps you get rid of stuff, and store items the right way. She says that people throw out bags & bags filled with items, and therefore feel lighter afterwards.

The main message of the book is to not tidy as you go, but to tidy all at once and the rest will follow.

The main message of the book I can totally get on board with and I'd be lying if it didn't make me want to clean out my closet or drawers; I'd definitely be lying if I said that every time I read a chapter,  I didn't grab a garbage bag and empty the contents of my drawers into it.

The book did inspire me to clean & organize, but just not the way that Marie Kondo wants me too.

Her way, I think is a bit overboard & unrealistic. It was just very aggressive, so aggressive that she had to write a book about it. I almost felt like she was a little condescending in the book and it annoyed me a bit.

I didn't really understand what was so life changing about it -- I could get the same information from a blog post or article about organizing. Maybe because I don't have as much stuff as some other people, or my house isn't big enough, but the way she told me to tidy isn't the way I'd tidy.

Maybe when I'm older & have my own house, or something along those lines but not right now.

It was good for inspiration, just not as a to-do list.

Have you read this book? What were your thoughts? I'd love to know if I'm riding solo on this one!

xoxo
B