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Mar 04, 2018GLNovak rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Ever since I could read I saw books and articles about keeping a handle on possessions - thoughtfulness about buying, discarding, storing, displaying, commemorating - and as an adult I look around my home and realize I am an artful hoarder, at least I think I am. Mari Kondo has written this book to help us deal with our stuff, first with clothes and then moving on to books, papers (my lost cause), odds and ends, and finally the worst of all, sentimentally charged mementos. Her advice is to discard first using the maxim of keeping only those items that spark joy (all my items spark joy, even all three of my potato peelers). She also says you only need one of something; you should always keep it in it's own place; and you will be happy. I keep duplicates of things like scissors, cutlery, notepaper, pens in the places where they are used, but do follow her belief that everything should have a place, and should be returned to that place when not in use. I expect her experience with smaller Japanese houses led to that one only advice. What she doesn't emphasize is the fact that some of us just buy too much - witness 'retail therapy' as an accepted prescription for the blues sometimes. I did enjoy this book simply because I got to meet an enthusiastic woman who really loves tidying (I notice she never talks about cleaning up). Her upbeat approach would definitely endear her to her clients. I suspect she is sometimes viewed as a therapist, a conclusion I came to when she relayed some thankful comments from clients as followup to her sessions. I would love to meet her, but am afraid that she would not find me a good student. This is an easy conversational read that you might get something out of.