Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
by Marie Kondo
Spark Joy by Marie Kondo is already a well-known book, so I don’t think this review will pull in many new readers. But if you do live under a rock, don’t worry, I won’t judge you especially since I live under one too, read on to see if you should add Kondo’s book to your reading pile.
The premise of Kondo’s book is that one’s environment should spark joy and that you should feel happy when surrounded by your material possessions. She encourages you to do this not only by getting rid of objects in the tidying push but rather by focusing on the objects that give you pleasure.
Who’s going to argue with that?
With this idea in mind, Kondo shows how one can tidy up effectively. She focuses on five main categories: Clothing, Books, Papers, Knick-knacks (Komono), and Sentimental Items.
Clothing forms the biggest section and she goes into depth about how certain clothing articles can be folded properly. I gather that this is where most of the illustrations come from in the printed version. Unfortunately, with the audiobook, I was not privy to this part so I can’t say for sure.
In the section on tidying books, Kondo’s observations seemed fairly straightforward, but then again I’m a librarian and I’ve seen it all before. Some of the ideas you may have to set aside when dealing with books are that all books have value and that you can’t get rid of them.
You would probably be scandalized by the moth-eaten, dusty, useless old reference books that people donate to libraries. Even more, they think they are doing the library a favor!
I’ve been scandalized at least.
Don’t behave like this, please.
As for the knick-knacks, there are some useful passages. Especially when it comes to cleaning goods and bathroom articles. These are areas of the house that clearly don’t spark joy for me. I will be looking for remedies in the near future.
Kondo’s examination of Sentimental Objects is also useful since these items are notoriously hard to part with. I thought Kondo’s suggestion to cover the eyes of stuffed animals to make getting rid of them easier touching.
Kondo recommends several unintuitive methods for selecting objects to remove. Among these are: feeling the object, holding it near your heart, and smelling it. If you are to remove the object, she recommends that you show it your gratefulness. If it is especially difficult to part ways, you may toss large grains of salt at it. This is how people in traditional Japanese culture spiritually cleanse objects.
I found Spark Joy to be both easy to read and moderately inspiring. Now I’m looking at objects around my home with new eyes. I’ll be discarding some, and perhaps this isn’t the intent of Kondo’s tidying focus but I’ll be buying some new items that will bring me joy. So I’ll be adding more things to the house instead of just doing away with the ones that fail me.
Kondo’s suggestions come from her deep experience helping people declutter their personal spaces, and the unorthodox way in which she focuses is a useful tool to keep in mind if going through your own joyful upgrade.
Kondo writes about ‘feminine’ objects. If you don’t have any, this part of the audiobook can be tiresome. But if you have the print version you would be able to skip over any parts that don’t speak to your situation. I’m not saying that the book is gendered in any particular way, and I’m not criticizing Kondo’s writing for the majority of people on earth, just noting that not all sections apply equally to everyone.
I thought that the most interesting parts of the audiobook were where Japanese culture and thoughts peaked through. Kondo personifies objects in ways that a “Westerner” never would. She mentions treating objects with respect and gratefulness which I find quaint. Sometimes she writes about spaces and their resonance with certain elements of Feng Shui. For example, she explains that the area around the sink is related to water, whereas the area near stoves is more related to fire.
And she has a certain penchant for smelling and feeling objects that I find exotic.
But hey, Kondo’s method has worked for many people. In the end, these ideas are putting other ways of seeing the world at your disposal and shouldn’t be discounted off-hand.
I’ve always liked the idea of Feng Shui myself.
In sum, Spark Joy is a must-read if you want to make your home environment more comfortable though I wouldn’t say that it is thrilling on its own. Consider it as you would other Self-Help books, or maybe even as a manual to get what you want.
Did you apply the Marie Kondo method to your home? What did you think?