Marie Kondo - The Magic of Tidying Up. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life. “Magical cleaning. The Japanese art of tidying up your home and life" by Marie Kondo The Magic Power of Tidying read online

Marie Kondo

Magic cleaning. The Japanese art of tidying up your home and life

Preface

The KonMari method is simple. This is a clever and effective way to beat clutter for good. Start by getting rid of trash. Then organize your space—thoroughly, completely, one at a time. If you adopt this strategy, you will never go back to clutter again.

Although this approach goes against conventional wisdom, anyone who fully implements the KonMari method has had success keeping their home tidy—with unexpected results. Getting your home in order has a positive impact on all other aspects of your life - including work and family. Having devoted more than 80 percent of my life to this topic, I I know that cleaning can transform your life too.

Do you still think it sounds too good to be true? If your idea of ​​tidying up is getting rid of one unnecessary item a day or tidying up your room little by little, then you're right. This is unlikely to have any serious impact on your life. However, if you change your approach, cleaning can have a truly immeasurable impact. In essence, this means getting your house in order.

I've been reading housewife magazines since I was five years old, and that's what inspired me to get serious about finding the perfect way to clean when I was fifteen. Which, in turn, led to the creation of the KonMari Method (KonMari is my pseudonym, made up of the first syllable of my last and first names). Now I've become a consultant and spend most of my time going into homes and offices, giving practical advice to people who find cleaning difficult, who clean but suffer from the rebound effect, or who want to take up cleaning but don't know where to start. .

When you put your house in order, you put your life in order.

The number of items thrown away by my clients - from clothing and lingerie to photographs, pens, magazine clippings and trial cosmetics - has probably already exceeded a million items. This is not an exaggeration. I happened to help individual clients who threw out two hundred 45-liter bags of garbage at a time.

As a result of my research into the art of organization and my extensive experience helping disorganized people want to become cleaners, there is one belief that I can say with absolute certainty: major home reorganization brings about equally significant changes in lifestyle and outlook. She transforms life. I am not kidding. Here are just a few of the testimonies I receive daily from former clients.

“After finishing your course, I quit my job, started my own business, and now I’m doing what I’ve dreamed of doing since I was a child.”

“Your course helped me understand what I really need and what I don’t. So I filed for divorce. Now I feel much happier."

“I was recently contacted by someone I’ve been wanting to meet for a long time.”

“I’m happy to say that after I cleaned out my apartment, I was able to significantly increase my sales.”

“There was a much greater understanding between me and my husband.”

“I was amazed to find that by throwing away some things, I changed in many ways.”

“I finally managed to lose three kilograms.”

My clients are beaming with happiness and the results show that cleaning has changed the way they think and approach life. In essence, she changed their future. Why? A more detailed answer to this question is given throughout the book; but, in a nutshell, by putting his house in order, a person puts his affairs and his past in order. As a result, he quite clearly understands what he needs in life and what he doesn’t need, what he should do and what he shouldn’t.

I currently offer classes to clients in their homes and to business owners in their offices. These are all private lessons, taking place one-on-one with the client, but there is no end to those interested. My waiting list is currently three months long and I receive inquiries daily from people who have been recommended to me by past clients or who have heard about my course from someone else. I travel all over Japan from end to end, and sometimes I go abroad. One of my public lectures for housewives and mothers was completely sold out in one evening. Not only was a waiting list drawn up in case of refusal of classes, but also a list of those who simply wanted to get on the waiting list. However, the number of repeated requests to me is zero. From a business perspective, this may seem like a fatal flaw. But what if the lack of repeat requests is actually the secret to the effectiveness of my approach?

As I said at the very beginning, people who use the KonMari method never clutter their homes or offices again. Since they are able to maintain order in their space, there is no need to return to class. From time to time I contact people who have completed my courses to see how they are doing. In almost all cases, their home or office is still in order; Not only that, they also continue to improve their space. From the photographs they sent you can see that they now have even less stuff than they did when they left my course, and that they have purchased new curtains and furniture. They are surrounded only by the things they truly love.

Why does this course transform people? Because my approach is not just a technical method. The act of cleaning is a series of simple actions in which objects are moved from one place to another. It involves moving things to the places where they belong. It seems that everything is so simple that even a six-year-old child should be able to do it. However, most people fail to cope with the task. Soon after cleaning, their space returns to a chaotic mess. The reason for this is not a lack of skill, but rather a lack of awareness and inability to clean effectively. In other words, the root of the problem is in thinking. Success is 90 percent dependent on our mental attitude. If we exclude from the total number of people the lucky few for whom organizing is a natural process, for everyone else, if we do not deal with this aspect deliberately, the reverse effect is inevitable, and no matter how many things are thrown away or how intelligently the rest are organized.

So how do you get into this right mindset? There is only one way to do this, and, paradoxically, that way is to acquire the right method. Remember: The KonMari method that I describe in this book is not just a set of rules for sorting, organizing and storing. This is a guide to getting into the right mindset to create order and become a tidy person.

Of course, I cannot say that all my students have mastered the art of cleaning. Unfortunately, some, for one reason or another, had to interrupt the course without completing it. And others stopped studying because they expected me to do all the work for them.

As an organizing fanatic and professional, I can tell you right now that no matter how hard I try to organize another person's space, no matter how perfect a storage system I design, I will never be able to organize another person's house in the true sense of the word. Why? Because a person's awareness and perspective on their own lifestyle is much more important than any sorting skills, storage or anything else. Order depends on personal values ​​that determine the desired lifestyle for a person.

Most people would prefer to live in a clean and tidy space. Anyone who has managed to tidy up at least once will want everything to remain that way - tidy. But many do not believe that this is possible. People try out different approaches to cleaning and find that things soon return to “normal.” However, I am absolutely convinced that everyone is capable of keeping their space in order.

To do this, it is extremely important to take a close look at your habits and existing views on cleaning. This may seem like a lot of work, but don't worry! By the time you finish reading this book, you will be ready and eager to do this work. People often tell me: " I am a person who is not organized by nature. I can not do it" or " I have no time"; but disorder and sloppiness are not hereditary qualities, and they are not associated with a lack of time. They are much more strongly associated with the accumulation of misconceptions about cleaning, such as these: it is best to deal with one room at a time; or it is best to clean a little every day; or storage must match the streaming plan.

In Japan, people believe that doing things like cleaning your room and keeping your toilet spotless will bring good luck, but if your home is cluttered, polishing your toilet will still have little effect. The same is true for practice. Feng Shui. Only after you get your home in order will your furniture and decorative items begin to sparkle with life.

Why can't I keep my house tidy?

You just don't know how to clean properly

When I tell someone that my job is to teach other people how to clean, they usually get a surprised look. " Is it really possible to make money from this?“- this is the first question from my interlocutor. And it is almost always followed by another: “ Do people really need cleaning lessons?»

Indeed, although a variety of instructors and schools offer courses in almost any discipline, from cooking and gardening to yoga and meditation, you will have to work hard to find a cleaning course. It is commonly believed that cleaning is not taught and that cleaning skills come naturally. Culinary skills and recipes are passed down from generation to generation like family heirlooms, from grandmother to mother, from mother to daughter; however, no one has ever heard of the secrets of cleaning being passed from hand to hand in any family, even in the same household.

Think back to your own childhood. I'm sure most of us have been scolded for not cleaning our rooms; but how many parents consciously taught us to clean? How many people had this as part of their upbringing? In one study on this topic, less than half a percent of respondents answered affirmatively to the question “ Have you ever received formal cleaning training?" Yes, our parents demanded that we clean our rooms, but they themselves were never taught how to do it. When it comes to cleaning, we are all self-taught.

Teaching cleaning is not paid attention not only in the family, but also in school. In home economics classes in Japan and around the world, children may be taught how to cook hamburgers in a cooking class or use a sewing machine to make an apron; but, unlike cooking and cutting and sewing, almost no time is devoted to the topic of cleaning.

Food, clothing and shelter are the simplest and most important human needs, so one would think that the conditions in which we live should be considered as important as what we eat and wear. However, in most societies, cleaning, the work that makes a home a living space, is not given much importance due to the misconception that basic cleaning skills are learned through experience and therefore do not require special training.

Are people who have been cleaning for more years than others actually better at it? The answer is negative. Twenty-five percent of my students are women over fifty years of age, and most of them have been homemakers for about thirty years, making them practically veterans of the job. But can we say that they do cleaning better than twenty-year-olds? Just the opposite is true. Most of them have spent so many years using conventional approaches that don't work that their homes are now overflowing with unnecessary items and they struggle to keep the clutter under control with ineffective storage methods. How can they be expected to have effective cleaning skills if they have never studied the topic properly?

If you don't have the skills to clean effectively either, don't despair. Now is the time to learn. By learning and applying the KonMari Method presented in this book, you can avoid the vicious cycle of clutter.

Let's put things in order once and for all

« I'm cleaning when I suddenly realize how untidy my house is, but as soon as I finish cleaning, everything soon becomes a mess again." This is a common complaint, and the standard recipe offered by magazine columnists is: " Don't try to clean the entire house at once. You will only achieve the opposite effect. Get into the habit of doing a little each time." I first heard this old song when I was five years old. Being the middle child in a family with three children, I could not complain about the lack of freedom as a child. My mother was busy taking care of my newborn little sister, and my brother, who was two years older than me, was glued to video games. As a result, I spent most of my time at home, left to my own devices.

When I was growing up, my favorite form of leisure time was reading lifestyle magazines for housewives. My mother had a subscription to ESSE– a magazine filled with articles about interior decoration, making housework easier, and containing reviews of new products. As soon as the magazine arrived, I would snatch it from the mailbox before my mother even knew about it, open the envelope and dive headlong into its contents. On the way home from school, I liked to go into a bookstore and look through Orange Page, a popular Japanese food magazine. I couldn't read all the words yet, but these magazines, with their pictures of delicious food, amazing tips for removing stains and grease, and ideas for saving that extra yen, fascinated me the same way game manuals fascinated my brother. I folded the corners of pages that caught my interest and dreamed of putting these tips into practice.

I also came up with all sorts of solo “games” for myself. For example, after reading an article about how you can save money, I immediately got involved in a game called “save energy,” during which I scoured the entire house and pulled out appliances that weren’t working at the moment, although I didn’t know it at the time. nothing about electric meters. After reading another article, I started filling plastic bottles with water and putting them in the toilet tank in a solo water saving challenge. Articles on storage methods inspired me to turn cardboard milk cartons into cubbyholes for my desk drawers and build a mail rack by wedging empty VHS boxes between two adjacent pieces of furniture. At school, while the other kids were playing tag or leapfrog, I would sneak out to tidy our classroom bookshelves or check the contents of the mop closet, constantly complaining about poor storage methods: “If only there was an S-hook here, everyone it would be much easier to use..."

But there was one problem that seemed insoluble: no matter how much I cleaned, very soon any space would again turn into chaos. The drawers in my desk drawer, made from milk cartons, soon became overflowing with pens. The letter rack, made from video cassette cases, soon became so packed with letters and papers that they spilled onto the floor. In cooking or sewing, it is true that skill can be achieved with practice, but although cleaning is also a subset of housework, I could not make any improvement, and no matter how often I cleaned, neither room remained tidy for long.

“There’s nothing you can do about it,” I consoled myself. – The reverse effect is like a natural disaster. If I do all the work at once, it will only lead to disappointment." I have read these words in many articles about cleaning and have come to the conclusion that they are true. If I had a time machine now, I would go back in time and say to myself: “This is not true. If you take the right approach, there will be no reverse effect.”

Most people associate the phrase “reverse effect” with dieting, but in the context of cleaning, it does not lose its meaning. It seems logical that a sudden and drastic reduction in clutter can have the same effect as a significant reduction in calories - short-term improvement may be possible, but it won't last long. But don't be fooled. The moment you start moving furniture around and getting rid of unnecessary things, your space changes. Everything is very simple. If you tidy your home in one giant effort, you will clean it completely. The reverse effect occurs because people mistakenly believe that the cleaning has been done thoroughly, when in fact they have only partially sorted and stored things. If you organize your home correctly, you can always keep it clean, even if you are lazy or messy by nature.

Clean a little every day and you'll clean forever

What about the assumption that you need to clean a little every day? Although it sounds convincing, don't be fooled. The reason you feel like cleaning never ends is because you clean a little at a time.

Changing lifestyle habits acquired over many years can often be extremely difficult. If you have never succeeded in maintaining order, you will soon discover that it is almost impossible to train yourself to tidy up little by little. People are unable to change their habits without first changing the way they think. And it's not easy! After all, it is very difficult to control your own thoughts. However, there is one way to radically transform the way you think about cleaning.

The topic of cleaning first came to my attention when I was in middle school. I came across a book called “The Art of Getting Rid of Unnecessary Things” ( The Art of Discarding) Nagisa Tatsumi, which explained the importance of throwing away unnecessary things. I picked this book up in a store on the way home from school, intrigued by the topic, which I had encountered before, and I still remember the thrill with which I read it on the train. I got so carried away that I almost missed my station. Once home, I went straight to my room, taking a bunch of garbage bags with me, and locked myself in there for several hours. Even though my room was small, by the time I was done I had eight bags full of trash—clothes I'd never worn, textbooks from elementary school, toys I hadn't played with in years, collections erasers and stamps. I simply forgot about the existence of many of these things. After that, I sat on the floor like a statue for almost an hour, staring at a pile of bags and thinking: “Why did I even need to store all this nonsense?”

What shocked me the most, however, was how different my room looked. After just a few hours, I was able to see areas of the floor that had never seen daylight before. My room was completely transformed, and even the air inside it became so fresh and cleaner that my head immediately became clearer. It turns out that cleaning can have a much greater impact than I could have ever imagined. Amazed by the magnitude of the changes, from that day forward I turned my attention from cooking and sewing, which I had previously considered the most important skills of a housewife, to the art of cleaning.

Cleaning gives visible results. Cleaning never lies. The main secret of success is this: if you remove it in one fell swoop, and not gradually, you can forever change your thinking and living habits. My clients don't develop the habit of cleaning gradually. They've all gotten rid of clutter forever since they started their cleaning marathon. This approach is the key to preventing the rebound effect.

If people keep cluttering their spaces even when they clean frequently, the problem is not the space itself or the amount of stuff, but a way of thinking. Even if they feel inspired at first, they find it difficult to stay motivated and their efforts gradually fade away. The main reason for this lies in the fact that they do not see results or feel the impact of their efforts. That's why success depends on the ability to immediately experience tangible results. If you apply the right method and focus your efforts on thoroughly and completely decluttering within a short period of time, you will see instant results that will empower you to keep your space tidy—now and always. Anyone who has experienced this process for themselves, no matter who they are, will vow to never clutter the room again.

The goal is perfection

« Don't aim for perfection. Start small and simply throw away one item per day." What sweet and comforting words for those who lack confidence in their ability to clean or who are convinced that they do not have enough time to complete the task properly! I came across this tip while I was binge-reading every cleaning book ever published in Japan... and I took the bait, hook, line, and float. The inertia that my sudden insight into the possibilities of cleaning had given impetus was beginning to fizzle out, and I began to feel discouraged by the lack of consistent results. It seemed to me that these words made sense. It seems so difficult to strive for perfection from the very beginning! Moreover, perfection is – supposedly – ​​unattainable. By throwing out one item a day, I could get rid of 365 items by the end of the year!

Convinced that I had found a very practical method, I immediately began to follow the instructions in this book. In the morning I opened the closet doors, wondering what I could throw out today. Seeing a T-shirt that I no longer wore, I put it in the trash. Before heading to bed the next night, I opened my desk drawer and found a notebook that seemed a little too childish to me. I threw it in a trash bag. Noticing a stack of post-it notes in the same drawer, I thought to myself, “Oh, I don’t need these anymore either,” but as I was about to reach out to take them and throw them away, I hesitated because a new thought occurred to me. “I can save them to throw away tomorrow.” And I waited until the next morning to throw away the papers. Another day passed, and I completely forgot that I needed to throw something away, so a day later I threw away two items at once...

To be honest, I didn’t last even two weeks. I am not one of those people who likes to pore over something for a long time, moving forward in small steps. For people like me, who tackle problems just before a deadline, this approach simply doesn't work. Plus, throwing away one item a day doesn't make up for the fact that I buy multiple items each time I go shopping. Eventually, the speed at which I was cutting back couldn't keep up with the pace at which I was acquiring new things, and I had to face the discouraging fact that my space was still cluttered. It didn't take long before I simply forgot that I needed to follow the rule of throwing away one item a day.

So I will tell you, based on my own experience: you will never get your house in order if you clean it half-heartedly. If, like me, you are not the hard-working, persistent type of person, then I recommend setting your goal to excellence right away.

Many may object to the word “perfection,” arguing that it is an unrealistic goal. But don't worry! After all, cleaning is simply a physical act. The work done in its process can be roughly divided into two types of actions: deciding whether or not to throw away a particular item, and then deciding where to place it. If you are able to perform these two operations, then you can certainly achieve perfection. Items can be counted. All you have to do is look at each item, picking them up one at a time, and decide whether it's worth keeping or not, and if so, what space to allocate for it. You don't need anything else to do this job. It is not that difficult to carry out a perfect and complete cleaning in one fell swoop. In fact, anyone can do this. And if you want to avoid the reverse effect, then this is the only way.

Cleaning resets your life

Has it ever happened to you that you couldn't sit down to study the night before an exam, but instead started frantically cleaning? I confess: this happened to me. In fact, it was business as usual for me. I collected the piles of extra materials that littered my desk and threw them in the trash. And then, unable to stop, she collected all the textbooks and papers that cluttered the room and began to arrange them on the bookshelves. Finally, I opened the desk drawers and began organizing all sorts of pens and pencils. Before I had time to look back, it was already half past two in the morning. Overwhelmed by sleep, I woke up with a jerk at five o'clock in the morning - and only then, in a state of complete panic, I opened my textbooks and sat down to study.

I thought that this uncontrollable urge to tidy up before an exam was something I had in common; but after meeting many people who do the same thing, I realized that this is a common phenomenon. Many people feel the urge to tidy up when they are stressed, such as before an exam. But this urge does not arise because they want to clean their room. It occurs because they need to get something else in order. In reality, their brains are eager to engage in activities, but when they notice a cluttered space, their focus shifts to the thought “I need to clean my room.” The fact that the urge to clean rarely “survives” after a crisis situation is over supports this theory. Once the exam is over, the energy that went into cleaning the night before dissipates and life returns to normal. Any thoughts about cleaning disappear from the person’s mind. Why? Because the problem has been solved, that is, the need to study for the exam has been “removed.”

Visual clutter distracts us from the true source of clutter in our lives.

This doesn't mean that cleaning your room will actually calm your overstimulated mind - although it may help you feel temporarily rested since you haven't addressed the root cause of your anxiety. If you allow yourself to achieve temporary relief by tidying up your physical space, and thereby deceive yourself, you will never recognize the need to clean out your psychological space. In my case this was the case. When I was distracted by my “need” to clean the room, cleaning took so much time that I always sat down to study too late, and the result was always terrible grades.

Let's imagine a cluttered room. The disorder in it does not arise on its own. It is you, the person who lives there, who is causing the mess. There is such an expression: a mess in the room means a mess in the head. I look at it this way. When a room becomes cluttered, the reason for this is not only physical. Visual clutter distracts us from the true source of clutter in our lives. The very act of cluttering is actually an instinctive reflex that diverts our attention from the root of the problem. If you are unable to relax in a clean and tidy room, try to deal with your feelings of anxiety. This way you can shed light on what is really bothering you. When your room is clean and uncluttered, you have no choice but to examine your inner state. You gain the ability to see problems that you have been avoiding and are forced to deal with them. From the moment you start cleaning, you are forced to reset your life. And as a result, life begins to change. That's why the task of putting your home in order should be solved quickly. This allows you to tackle the issues that really matter. Cleaning is just a tool, not a destination. The real goal should be to establish the lifestyle you desire most immediately after getting your home in order.

Storage Experts - Hoarders

What is the first problem that comes to mind when you think about cleaning? For many, the first and quickest answer is a question of storage. My clients often want me to teach them what to store and where. Believe me, I can understand this - but, alas, this is not the real problem. The booby trap lies in the very word “storage.” Articles about how to better organize and store things and products always contain cliched phrases that make it seem like a simple matter; for example, “organize your space in minimal time” or “make cleaning quick and easy.” It's human nature to take the easy way out, and most people fall for storage methods that promise quick, convenient ways to get rid of visible clutter. I confess that I, too, was once fascinated by the myth of storage.

Having been a fan of magazines for housewives since childhood, every time I read an article about how to put things away, I immediately tried to put the proposed methods into practice. I made boxes out of boxes and broke out my piggy bank to buy all sorts of cute little things designed to hold things. When I was in high school, I would stop by the DIY store or browse the magazine rack on the way home to make sure I didn't miss the latest idea. One day I even called the office of a company that manufactured storage items that particularly interested me and pestered them with demands to tell me how these things were invented. I dutifully used these items to organize my things. And then I stood in the middle of the room and admired the fruits of my labors, pleased with how comfortable my world had become. Based on this experience, I can declare with a clear conscience that storage methods do not solve the problem of clutter. Ultimately, they are only a superficial solution.

When I finally came to my senses, I saw that my room still didn't look tidy, even though it was chock-full of magazine racks, bookshelves, drawer dividers, and all sorts of other storage devices. “Why does my room still feel cluttered even after I’ve worked so hard to organize and tidy up my things?” – I was perplexed. In desperation, I began to review the contents of each storage item - and then a revelation overtook me. I didn’t need at all – for the most part – the things that were in them. Although I thought I was cleaning, in reality I was just wasting my time shoving things around and putting them out of sight, hiding things I didn't need at all. When things are not visible at first glance, it creates the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved. But sooner or later, all the storage devices become full, the room becomes overrun with things again, and it becomes clear that some new and “easy” storage method is needed, which creates a negative spiral. That's why cleaning should start with getting rid of unnecessary things. We need to exercise self-control and resist the urge to put our possessions into storage until we have finished figuring out what we actually need and want to keep.

I started studying cleaning in earnest when I was in middle school, and most of that learning consisted of continuous practice. Every day I cleaned one room - my own room, my brother’s room, my sister’s room, the bathroom. Every day I planned where I would clean, and alone I started “campaigns” that resembled sales at bargain prices with their slogans: “The fifth day of every month is living room day!”, “Today is pantry cleaning day,” “Tomorrow is the fight against cabinets in the bathroom!

I continued this habit even into high school. Arriving home, I immediately went to the room that I decided to clean that day, without even changing my school uniform to home clothes. If my goal was the plastic cabinets in the bathroom, I would open the doors wide and unload everything from one drawer, including cosmetic samples, soap, toothbrushes and razors. Then I sorted it all into categories, organized it with drawer dividers, and returned what I unloaded to the locker. Finally, I stared at the neatly organized contents for a long time in quiet admiration before moving on to the next drawer. I would sit on the floor for hours, sorting things out of my closet, until my mother called me for dinner.

When cleaning, we most often just shove on the shelves what we don’t need at all.

One day I was sorting the contents of a drawer from a chest of drawers in the hallway and suddenly froze in amazement. “It seems that this is the same box that I processed yesterday,” I thought. No, the box was different, but the items inside were the same - cosmetic samples, soap, toothbrushes and razors. I sorted them into categories, put them in boxes, and returned them to the large drawer, just like I had done the day before. And at that moment it dawned on me: cleaning based on location is a fatal mistake. I'm sad to say that it took me three years to figure this out.

Many people are surprised to learn that this supposedly viable approach is actually a common pitfall. The problem is rooted in the fact that people often store the same type of item in different places. When we clean each place individually, we lose sight of the fact that we are repeating the same job in many places—and we get stuck in a vicious cycle of endless cleaning.

To avoid this, I recommend cleaning by category. For example, instead of deciding that today you will clean a specific room, set a goal like “clothes today, books tomorrow.” One of the main reasons many of us struggle with cleaning is because we have too much stuff. This excess is caused by the fact that we simply do not know how much we actually have. When we spread storage of similar items throughout the house and clean one room at a time, we have no way to estimate their total volume - and therefore, we can't finish cleaning. To avoid this negative spiral, clean by category rather than by storage location.

There is no need to look for “your” cleaning method

Books on cleaning and decluttering often argue that the causes of clutter depend on the individual's personality, and that we should therefore look for a method that best suits our personality type. At first glance this argument seems convincing. “So this is why I can’t keep my space clean! - we think. “The method I used does not suit my character.” We can even consult a handy chart that tells us which method works for lazy people or busy people, picky people or unscrupulous people—and choose the one that works for us.

At some point, I became fascinated by this idea - to classify cleaning methods by character type. I read books on psychology, asked clients what their blood type was, what the personalities of their parents were, etc., and even paid attention to their dates of birth. I spent over five years analyzing my findings, searching for a general principle that would dictate the best method for each personality type. Instead, I discovered that there was absolutely no point in changing your approach to suit your personality. When it comes to cleaning, most people are lazy and also too busy. As for being picky, everyone has a particular affinity for certain things, not all. While studying the proposed personality categories, I realized that one way or another I fall under each and every one of them. So by what standard should I classify the reasons that motivate people to be sloppy?

I have a habit of trying to categorize everything, probably because I've spent so much time thinking about ways to organize things. When I started working as a consultant, I worked diligently to categorize clients and tailor the content of my services to suit each type. However, now, looking back, I see that I was driven by some ulterior motive. I somehow imagined that a complex approach, consisting of different methods for different personality types, would help me look more professional. However, upon reflection, I came to the conclusion that it makes much more sense to classify people by their actions, and not by some generalized personality traits.

Using this approach, people who are unable to keep order can be classified into just three types: the “can’t throw it away” type, the “can’t put it back” type, and the “both together” type. Then, looking at my clients, I realized that ninety percent of people fall into the third category - the "can't throw away and can't put back in place" type, while the remaining ten percent are the "can't put back in place" types. I've yet to meet a single person who is a pure "can't throw it away" type, probably because anyone who can't throw things away soon ends up with so much stuff that their storage space becomes overflowing. As for the ten percent who can throw away but don't know how to put things back, when we start cleaning up in earnest, it soon becomes apparent that they could be throwing away a lot more, because these people collect at least 30 bags of rubbish.

Effective cleaning involves just two important steps: getting rid of what you don't need and determining where to store what you need.

What I mean is that cleaning should begin with getting rid of things, regardless of the personality type of their owner. If my clients understand this principle, I do not need to change the content of what I teach to suit the individual. I teach the same thing to everyone. Of course, how I present it and how each client puts it into practice is different because each individual is as unique as the way they furnish their home. Effective cleaning involves just two essential steps: getting rid of what you don't need and figuring out where to store what you need. Of these two actions, throwing away should come first. This principle does not change. Everything else depends on the degree of neatness that you personally want to achieve.

Make cleaning a special event

I begin my course with these very words: “Cleaning is a special, once-in-a-lifetime event.” Usually these words are followed by several moments of stunned silence. And yet I will repeat: cleaning should only be done once. Or, to be more precise, the cleaning job must be completed once and for all within one space.

If you think that cleaning is an endless boring task that has to be done every day, you are seriously mistaken. There are two types of cleaning – “daily cleaning” and “special event cleaning”. Daily cleaning, which consists of using things and putting them back in their place, will always be a part of our lives, as long as we need to use clothes, books, writing instruments, etc. But the purpose of this book is to inspire you to organize it as soon as possible “special event” – getting your home in order.

By successfully completing this once-in-a-lifetime challenge, you will achieve the lifestyle you desire and be able to enjoy a clean, uncluttered space of your choosing. Can you honestly swear that you are happy when surrounded by so many things that you don't even remember what you have? Most people are desperate to get their home in order. Unfortunately, most of them are unable to treat this task as a “special event”, but instead live in rooms that look more like warehouses. Decades may pass while they unsuccessfully try to maintain order through daily cleaning.

It's hard to get truly organized if you have too much stuff.

Believe me! Until you accomplish the one-of-a-kind event in your life of getting your house in order, any attempt at cleaning every day will be doomed to failure. Conversely, once you get your home in order, cleaning will be reduced to the very simple task of putting things back where they belong. In essence, it becomes an unconscious habit. I use the term "special event" because it is extremely important to handle this work in a short period of time while you are energized and excited about what you are doing.

You may be afraid that when this event is over, your space will return to its previous clutter. You probably love shopping and imagine your belongings starting to pile up again. I realize that this is difficult to believe if you have never tried it; but once you've completed this massive purge, you'll no longer face any difficulty putting things back in their designated places or deciding where to store new things. As incredible as it may sound, you only need to experience the state of perfect order once and you will be able to maintain it. All you need to do is take the time to sit down and look at each item you own, decide whether you want to throw it away or keep it, and then decide where to store what you keep.

Have you ever told yourself something like this: “Cleaning is just not my thing” or “I shouldn’t even try: I was born a slob”? Many people nurture this negative self-image for years, but it disappears the moment they feel their own, ideally clean space around them. This dramatic change in self-perception, the belief that you can do anything if you set your mind to it, transforms behavior and lifestyle. This is why my students never return to me. Once you experience the powerful impact of a perfectly organized space, you will never go back to clutter again. Yes, I mean you!

It may sound difficult to hear, but I give you my word of honor, there is nothing difficult here. When you clean, you deal with objects. Items are easy to throw away and move from place to place. Anyone can do this. Your purpose is clear and distinct. The moment you put everything in place, you have crossed the finish line. Unlike work, scientific research or sports, in cleaning there is no need to compare your achievements with others. You are that very standard. Moreover, the one thing that every person considers the most difficult - continuing to maintain order - turns out to be completely unnecessary. You only have to decide where to put things once.

I never tidy up my room. Why? Because it has already been put in order. The only cleaning I do happens once or twice a year, and each time it takes a total of about one hour. The days I spent cleaning without seeing any lasting results were so many that now it seems almost unbelievable to me. Now, on the contrary, I feel happy and content. I have time to feel bliss in my headspace, where even the air itself feels fresh and clean; I have time to sit and sip herbal tea as I reflect on my day. As I look around, my eyes fall on a painting I bought abroad that I especially like, and a vase of fresh flowers standing in the corner. Although the space in which I live is small, it is decorated only with those things that somehow touch my heart. My lifestyle brings me joy.

Don't you wish you could live like that?

It will be easy once you learn how to truly get your home in order.

First, get rid of unnecessary things

First, get rid of unnecessary things - in one fell swoop.

You think you've tidied everything perfectly, but just a few days pass and you notice that your room is starting to get cluttered again. Time passes, you acquire some more things - and before you know it, your space has returned to its previous state. The reverse effect is caused by ineffective methods, due to which cleaning stops halfway. As I mentioned, there is only one way to avoid this negative spiral - by cleaning everything effectively at once and as quickly as possible to create the ideal, clutter-free environment. But how does this create the right mental frame of mind?

By completely cleaning your space, you transform the “scenery” around you. This change is so fundamental that you will feel as if you are living in a completely different world. It affects your mind deeply and causes a persistent aversion to the previous cluttered state, to which you no longer want to return. The main thing is to make this external change so sudden that you experience a complete spiritual change. Such an impact cannot be achieved if the process is gradual.

To achieve this sudden change, you need to adopt the most effective cleaning method. Otherwise, before you know it, the day will pass, and you will not move forward at all. The longer cleaning takes, the more tired you are, the more likely you are to give up after only half the job is done. And when things start to pile up again, you'll find yourself in that downward spiral. From my experience, "fast" means about six months. This may seem like a long period of time, but it is only six months of your life. Once the process is complete and you experience what it's like to live in a perfectly tidy space, you will forever be freed from the misconception that tidying is not your thing.

The secret to success is to remove everything at once, as quickly and completely as possible, and you should start by getting rid of the unnecessary.

For best results, I ask you to strictly adhere to the following rule: clean in the correct order. As we have already seen, the cleaning process involves solving only two problems: throwing away unnecessary things and deciding where to store things. Yes, there are only two tasks, but discarding should come first. Make sure to completely complete the first task before taking on the next one. Don't even think about putting things away until you've completed the decluttering process. Failure to follow this order is the only reason why people fail to achieve constant progress. In the middle of decluttering, they start thinking about where to put things. And as soon as the thought arises: “I wonder if this will fit in that box?..” - the work of getting rid of unnecessary things stops. You'll be able to think about where to put things away when you're done getting rid of everything you don't need.

To summarize: the secret to success is to remove everything at once, as quickly and completely as possible, and start by getting rid of the unnecessary.

Before you start, visualize your end goal.

By now you already understand why it is very important to throw away the things you don't need before you start thinking about where to store the things you need. But to start throwing away unnecessary things without thinking about it in advance would be to set yourself up for failure before you even begin. Instead, start defining your goal. There must be some reason why you picked up this book. What initially motivated you to clean? What do you hope to achieve through cleaning?

Before you start throwing things away, take the time to think things through carefully.

This means visualizing the ideal lifestyle you dream of. If you skip this step, you will not only delay the entire process, but you will also expose yourself to a much higher risk of backfire. Goals such as “I want to live a clutter-free life” or “I want to learn how to organize things” are too general. You need to think much deeper. Think in concrete terms so you can vividly imagine what it would be like to live in an uncluttered space.

One of my clients (no older than 30 years old) defined her dream as “a more feminine lifestyle.” She lived in a cluttered “seven-mat” room—in Japan, this means a seven-tatami room, or 3 x 4 meters in area—with a built-in chest of drawers and three shelving units of different sizes. It was supposed to provide ample storage space, but no matter where I turned, the only thing that caught my eye was clutter. The closet was so overcrowded that the doors wouldn't close and things were peeking out of the inner drawers like the toppings of a hamburger. The cornice above the bay window was hung with so many clothes that there was no need for curtains. The floor and bed were covered with baskets and bags filled with magazines and newspapers. When my client went to bed, she would move things from her bed to the floor, and when she woke up, she would put them back on the bed to clear the way to the door so she could go to work. Her lifestyle could not be called “feminine” even with the most titanic efforts of the imagination.

– What do you mean by “feminine lifestyle”? – I asked.

She thought for quite a long time before finally answering:

- Well, suppose that when I come home from work, the floor will not be littered with anything... and my room will be as clean as in a good hotel, and my eyes will not cling to anything... I would have a pink bedspread on the bed and a white antique style lamp. Before going to bed, I would take a bath, light incense sticks and listen to classical piano or violin music, do yoga and make herbal tea. I would fall asleep with a feeling of leisurely space.

Her description was as vivid and vivid as if she had actually lived in this environment. It is important to achieve just this level of detail, visually imagining your ideal lifestyle, and describe it on paper. If this is difficult for you, if you are not able to mentally picture for yourself the kind of life you would like to live, try looking in interior magazines for photographs that will attract your attention. It may also be helpful to visit a show home or two. Looking at a range of different rooms will give you a rough idea of ​​what you like. By the way, the client I described above now really enjoys baths, aromatherapy, classical music and yoga. She emerged from the abyss of clutter to find the very feminine lifestyle she was striving for.

So now that you've envisioned the lifestyle you want, is it time to move on to getting rid of unnecessary things? No, not yet. I understand your impatience, but in order to prevent the rebound effect, you need to move forward properly, step by step, to achieve this once in a lifetime event. Your next step is to determine why you want to live the way you do. Review your notes about your desired lifestyle and think again. Why do you need aromatherapy before bed? Why would you want to listen to classical music while doing yoga? If your answers are like this: " Because I want to relax before bed" And " I want to do yoga to lose weight“- ask yourself why you want to relax and why you want to lose weight. Perhaps your answers will be: “ I don't want to feel tired when I go to work the next day." And " I want to go on a diet to become more beautiful" Once again ask yourself the question “why?” for each of these answers. Repeat this process three to five times for each topic.

As you continue to explore the reasons why you think this is the ideal lifestyle, you will come to a simple realization: the whole point of getting rid of unnecessary things and keeping what you need is to be happy. This may seem obvious, but it is important to experience this realization for yourself and let it be imprinted on your heart. Before you start decluttering, take a look at the lifestyle you're aiming for and ask yourself, "Why do I need to declutter?" When you find the answer, then you will be ready to move on to the next stage - studying what you own.

Selection Principle: Does It Cause Joy?

What standards do you use when deciding what to throw away?

When it comes to throwing away unwanted items, there are several common patterns of behavior. One is to throw things away when they are no longer functional, such as when they break beyond repair, or when part of a complex item or set becomes unusable. Another approach is to throw away items that are outdated, such as clothes that are out of fashion or items associated with a long-ago event. It's easy to get rid of things when there is a clear reason for doing so. It is much more difficult when there is no obvious motivating reason. A variety of experts offer different criteria for throwing away items that people find difficult to part with. These criteria include rules like “throw away everything you haven’t used in a year” and “if you can’t make a decision, put them in a box and look at them again six months later.” However, the moment you start focusing on How choosing what to throw away actually takes you significantly off course. Continuing cleaning in this state is extremely risky.

At some point in my life, I practically turned into a living “waste disposal facility.” After discovering The Art of Decluttering at age 15, I became completely focused on decluttering, and my research efforts redoubled. I was always looking for new places to practice, whether it was my brother and sister's rooms or my lockers at school. My head was full of cleaning tips, and I had complete—if misguided—confidence that I could clean any room.

My specific goal at the time was to get rid of as many things as possible. I applied every criterion offered in various books for reducing the number of things that came into my hands. I tried getting rid of clothes I hadn't worn in two years, throwing out one of my old items every time I bought something new, and throwing out anything I wasn't sure I needed. In one month I got rid of 30 bags of garbage. But no matter how much I threw away, not a single room in my house began to seem tidier.

What's more, I found myself going on shopping trips just to relieve stress, and pathetically sabotaging my attempts to reduce my overall inventory. At home I was in constant tension, constantly looking for extra things that could be thrown away. Whenever I found something that hadn't been used for a long time, I would vengefully attack the item and throw it in the trash. Not surprisingly, I became increasingly irritable and tense and could not relax even in my own home.

One day, coming home from school, I opened the door to my room to start cleaning it, as usual. Seeing this messy space, my patience finally ran out. “I don’t want to clean anymore!” – I exclaimed. Sitting down on the floor in the middle of the room, I began to think. I spent three years cleaning and throwing things away, but my room still felt cluttered. Please someone tell me why my room is still a mess even though I put so much effort into cleaning it! Even though I didn’t say the words out loud, I was almost screaming in my heart. And at that moment I heard a voice.

"Take a closer look at what's here."

What do you mean? I look at what is here every day - so closely that I could drill several holes with my eyes. With this thought in my head, I fell fast asleep. If I had been a little smarter, I would have realized before I became so neurotic that focusing solely on throwing things away could only lead to depression. Why? Because we should choose what we want save, not what we want get rid of.

When I woke up, I immediately understood what that voice in my head meant. Take a closer look at what's here. I was so focused on what needed to be thrown away, on attacking the unwanted objects around me, that I completely forgot to appreciate the things I love, the things I want to keep. Through this experience, I have come to realize that the best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to hold each item in your hands and ask, “Does this spark joy?” If it does, keep it. If not, throw it away. This is not only the simplest, but also the most accurate standard for judgment.

You may doubt the effectiveness of such a vague criterion, but the trick is to hold each item in your hands. You don’t just need to open a wardrobe and, glancing diagonally at it, decide that everything in it delights you. You must pick up every piece of cloth. When you touch an item of clothing, your body reacts to it. His reactions to each subject are different from each other. Trust me and try this.

I chose this algorithm for a reason. What is the point of cleaning anyway? If our space and the things contained in it do not give us happiness, then, I think, there is no point in it at all. Therefore, the best criterion for choosing what to keep and what to throw away is to answer the question of whether keeping a given item will make you happy, whether it will give you joy.

Are you happy wearing clothes that don't make you happy?

Do you feel joy when surrounded by piles of unread books that do not touch your heart?

Do you think that owning accessories that you will never use will bring you happiness?

The answer to these questions must be negative.

Now imagine that you live in a space that contains only those things that strike sparks of joy from your soul. Isn't this the lifestyle you dream of?

Keep only those things that resonate in your heart. And then take the plunge and throw away everything else. By doing this, you can “reboot” your life and choose a new style of being for yourself.

Let me start by telling you what No need do. Don't start the selection and discarding process based on where things are located. Don't think, "I'll clean the bedroom first and then move to the living room" or "I'll go through my desk drawers, starting at the top and working my way down." This approach is a fatal mistake. Why? Because, as we have already found out, most people do not bother to store similar items in one place.

In most households, items that fall into one category are stored in two or more places scattered throughout the house. Let's say, for example, you start with your bedroom wardrobe or chest of drawers. Once you've finished sorting and throwing away what's stored in it, you're bound to come across clothes you kept in another closet or clothes draped over a chair in the living room. After this, you will have to repeat the entire selection and storage process; Under such conditions, you will be wasting time and energy and simply will not be able to make an accurate assessment of what you want to keep and what to throw away. Repetition and wasted effort can kill motivation and hence should be avoided.

For this reason, I recommend that you always think in terms of category rather than place. Before deciding what to keep, collect all the items that fall into one category at the same time. Take each of these items and put them all in one place. To illustrate the entire process, let's return to the clothing example above. You start by deciding that you want to organize and put away your clothes. The next step is to search every room in the house. Bring all the items of clothing you find to one place and put them together. Then hold each item of clothing in your hands and ask yourself if it sparks joy in you. These - and only these - things should be preserved. Follow the same procedure for each category of items. If you have too many clothes, you can create subcategories - for example, tops, pants and skirts, socks, etc. - and view items by category.

Gathering all the items in one category in one place is essential because it gives you an accurate idea of ​​how much stuff you have. Most people are shocked by the sheer volume of the pile, which is often at least twice the amount they imagined. Plus, by collecting things in one place, you can compare items that are similar in design, making it easier to decide if you want to keep them. There is another good reason to take all the items in one category out of drawers, closets and chests of drawers and put them together. Things kept out of sight are dormant things. This makes it much more difficult to decide whether they make you happy or not. By exposing them to the light of day and bringing them to life, so to speak, you will find that it becomes surprisingly easy for you to determine whether they touch your heart.

By dealing with just one category within one period of time, you speed up the cleaning process. So try to really collect every single item in the category you're working on. Let nothing slip away unnoticed.

Start off right

You start your day with a burning desire to get things in order, but before you know it, the sun is already setting and you've barely even gotten to your things. Glancing shakily at your watch, you feel yourself beginning to drown in remorse and despair. What is this you are holding in your hands now? Most often it turns out to be one of your favorite comics, a photo album or some other item that awakens pleasant memories.

My advice to start cleaning not by room, but by category, collecting all the items in one place and at the same time, does not mean that you can start with any category of your choice. The degree of difficulty in choosing what to keep and what to get rid of varies greatly depending on the category itself. People who get stuck in the middle usually do so because they start with the things that are the hardest to make decisions about. Things that evoke memories, such as photographs, are not the best place to start if you're new to cleaning. And the point is not only that the sheer volume of objects in this category is usually larger than in any other; we have a much harder time deciding whether to keep them.

In addition to the physical value of items, there are three other factors that add additional value to your items: functionality, information, and emotional attachment. And when an element of rarity or uniqueness is added to all this, the difficulty of choosing increases many times over. People have a hard time throwing away things that they can still use (functional value), contain useful information (informational value), and have sentimental ties to (emotional value). When such items are difficult to acquire or replace (the rarity factor), they become even more difficult to throw away.

The process of deciding what to keep and what to get rid of will go much smoother if you start with items that are easier to decide on. As you gradually work through more complex categories, you will hone your decision-making skills. Clothing is easiest because in this category the rarity factor is extremely insignificant. Photographs and letters, on the other hand, not only have high sentimental value, but are also one of a kind and should therefore be saved for dessert. This especially applies to photographs, since they usually unexpectedly and accidentally come to hand when we are sorting out other categories of things, moreover, ending up in the most unexpected places, for example, between the pages of books and among documents. The best sequence of actions is as follows: first clothes, then books, documents, category “miscellaneous” ( komono) and finally “sentimental” items and keepsakes.

Before you start cleaning, have a clear idea of ​​the lifestyle you want.

This order has also proven to be the most effective in terms of difficulty levels when solving the subsequent task - storage. Finally, if we stick to this sequence, it sharpens our intuitive sense of which items bring us joy. If you can significantly speed up your decision-making process simply by changing the order in which you throw things away, isn't it worth at least trying?

Don't let your family peek

The cleaning marathon produces a mountain of garbage. At this stage, the only disaster that can create more chaos than an earthquake is the arrival of a recycling expert, who is also popularly known as “Mom.”

One of my clients, whom I will call M., lived with her parents and sister. They moved to their current home 15 years ago, when M was still in primary school. Not only did she love buying new clothes, but she also kept those items that had sentimental value to her, such as school uniforms and T-shirts made for various events. M. kept them in boxes, which she placed on the floor until the floorboards were completely out of sight. It took five hours to sort and put away all these things. By the end of the day, she had 15 bags filled with discarded items, including 8 bags of clothes, 200 books, and many stuffed animals and crafts she made at school. We carefully stacked all these bags near the door on the floor (which was now finally visible), and I was just about to explain to M. one very important point.

“There is one secret to getting rid of all this garbage that you should know...” I began, and then the door swung open and the client’s mother entered the room, holding a tray of iced tea in her hands. "Oh no!"– I mentally groaned.

The woman placed the tray on the table.

“Thank you very much for helping my daughter,” she said and turned to leave. And at that moment her gaze fell on the pile of things by the door. - Oh, are you really going to throw this away? she asked, pointing to a pink yoga mat lying on top of a pile of bags.

– I haven’t used it for two years.

- Is it true? Well, maybe then I'll use it. “And she started rummaging through the bags. - Wow, maybe this too...

When the woman finally walked out the door, she took with her not only her yoga mat, but also three skirts, two blouses, two jackets and some office supplies.

When the room became quiet again, I took a sip of iced tea and asked M.:

– How often does your mother do yoga?

“I’ve never seen her do it.”

Before her mother came into M's room, this is what I was going to say: “Don't let your family see what's going on here. If possible, remove the trash bags yourself. There is no need to let your family know exactly what you are going to throw away.”

I especially advise my clients not to show discarded items to parents or family members. It's not that there's anything to be ashamed of. There is nothing wrong with cleaning. However, seeing what their children throw away is extremely stressful for parents. The sheer size of the trash pile can cause anxiety in parents, making them wonder whether their children can live with what they have left. Additionally, while they should be celebrating their child's independence and maturity, it can be very painful for parents to see clothes, toys, and mementos from the past in the trash heap, especially if they gave these things to their child. Keeping this garbage out of their sight means being tactful. In addition, this way you protect your loved ones from buying more things than they need (and that would bring them joy). Up until this point, your family was happy with what they had. When relatives see what you decide to throw away, they may feel guilty about such blatant waste, but the items they “rescue” from your trash pile will only add to the burden of unnecessary things in your home. And we should be ashamed to make them bear this burden.

In the vast majority of cases, it is mothers who “rescue” items thrown away by their daughters, but they rarely wear the clothes they pick up. My female clients, who are in their fifties and sixties, invariably end up throwing away the items their daughters gave them without ever wearing them. I think we should avoid creating situations like this where a mother's attachment to her daughter becomes a burden. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that if other family members actually use things you don't need. If you live with your family, you can ask your family, “Are there any things you need that you were planning on buying?” – before you start cleaning, and then if you happen to find exactly what they need, give it to them as a gift.

Focus on your room

“Even if I clean, the rest of my family makes a mess again.”

“My husband is a typical hoarder. How can I convince him to throw away unnecessary things?

If your family doesn't cooperate with you in trying to create the "perfect" home, it can be very frustrating. I myself have encountered this problem many times in the past. At one time I was so absorbed in cleaning that cleaning my own room was not enough for me. I just couldn't help but tackle my brother and sister's rooms and every other room in the house. And my messy family constantly upset me. The main reason for the despondency was the common chest of drawers that stood in the middle of the apartment. It seemed to me that at least half of its contents were unused and unnecessary junk. The clothes racks were filled with outfits that I had never seen on my mother and my father's suits that were frankly outdated. Boxes of comic books that belonged to my brother littered the floor.

I waited for the right moment and approached the owner of the things with the question: “You don’t need this anymore, right?” But I always heard the answer: “No, it’s necessary!” or “I’ll throw it away myself later,” but this never happened. Every time I looked into this closet, I sighed and complained: “Why does everyone just accumulate things? Don’t they see how much effort I put into keeping the house in order?”

Well aware that I was a black sheep when it came to cleaning, I was not going to give up. When my frustration reached its limit, I decided to resort to theft tactics. I identified items that had not been used for many years based on their design, the amount of dust that had accumulated on them, and their smell. I moved these items to the farthest part of the closet and watched what would happen next. If no one noticed they were gone, I would get rid of them, one item at a time, just like thinning out plants in a bed. After three months of using this strategy, I managed to get rid of 10 bags of trash.

Notes

This reduces the volume of water drained from the tank. In Europe they recommend brick ( approx. ed.).

Have you ever wondered why there hasn't been a review of Magical Tidying Up and the KonMari method on this blog? Yes, I just had enough, search queries for which still bring 30-50 people a week to this blog. But since Marie’s name began to appear more often in the comments, I want to speak out.

Book marketing makes you read too much

Marie Kondo in Russian was not a discovery for me, because a couple of years ago I watched with curiosity how a wave of enthusiastic, detailed reviews of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up passed through. Then I read it diagonally in electronic form.

And I just smiled knowingly when I saw the 5th review of it on my friends’ blogs one week. And then the publishing house decided that they also needed my authoritative review and tried to give me this book three times from different angles. I didn’t take it, after all, buying a book for 350 rubles (or reading it a year earlier in English, like this time), forming your own opinion about it and having the opportunity not to write anything about it is a pleasant luxury that I can afford.

I don’t understand this phenomenon: why do bloggers love to receive books from publishers as gifts?! What is this? Feeling exclusive? A reason to brag? Saving? Content out of the blue?
But I have long been familiar with another phenomenon: having received any nonsense as a gift, we unconsciously feel obligated, we must give something (usually much more expensive) in return. Here's a positive review, for example. This is a simple manipulation that everyone uses: from our grandparents to Jehovah's Witnesses. And book publishers are no exception. As a result, we have a complete blogosphere of admiring or (a little better) tactfully neutral reviews of books that someone needs to sell.

The term “ letterwashing“(book-washing, similar to) is a form of book marketing that capitalizes on people’s love for books, respect for the printed word, and reviews from opinion leaders. Forgive me, I don’t play this game, I read books on Bookmate (many on the sly) and say what I think. But I think that KonMari undeservedly gained such wide fame and popularity thanks to this very letterwashing.

My opinion is this: the book as a whole is quite harmless, but I fundamentally disagree with two ideas:

1. You need to get rid of everything that doesn't bring you joy.. What the heck? In my opinion, the zombification of positive pseudo-psychology, such as “be happy or die,” has already sickened everyone, thanks to it it turns out that we have a wide range of feelings that we should learn to distinguish and appreciate, even if their experience is associated with pain and discomfort . Joy, yes, is one of these feelings, but it is far from the most frequent, and it arises in a healthy person mainly not from contact with things.

2. Everything should be thrown away without hesitation. I don’t have a problem with throwing away, like, how can I throw away something that could still serve someone?! But I know the healing power of changing habits by gradually putting things back on impulse and looking for places where these “illiquid goods” may be needed. Here .

And so that you have the opportunity to get a more comprehensive impression of the book, I share with you an honest, ironic and beautifully written article by Masha Skatova Marie Kondo’s Magic Tidying Up - the art of hanging noodles on your ears:

Someone goes to a psychotherapist, someone becomes an alcoholic, someone replicates and sells their personal difficulties. I admire those who squeeze lemonade out of their lemons, patent a recipe, and make a fortune, and I sympathize with the little girl who constantly cleaned the house to attract the attention of her parents, who were busy with other children. But I’m not ready to follow her into a world where people talk with shoes and bags. Here are two short quotes to explain what I mean:

“Because I had difficulty forming trusting bonds with other people, I developed an unusually strong attachment to things. I think it was because I didn’t feel comfortable revealing my weaknesses or true feelings to others that my room and the things that filled it became precious to me.”

“I can’t imagine any greater happiness in life than being surrounded by the things I love.”

The Marie Kondo phenomenon

A specialist in putting things in order in your home and life - perhaps every company should have such an employee. And jokes aside, the young Japanese woman Marie Kondo, author of the bestseller “The Magic of Tidying Up. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life,” can easily be called a cleaning consultant. After all, from her personal view of everyday life and human psychology, she created a unique method of organizing space called KonMari, based on minimalism.

#KonMari Method

Marie Kondo is sure: the things we surround ourselves with can influence our lives - both positively and negatively. If there is order in your home, then harmony reigns in your thoughts, if there is chaos, then there is a mess in your head. It is this two-pronged approach that has allowed the KonMari method to become so popular.

This practice is based on seven rules:

• You should clean your house by category: clothes, food, books, etc.
• Get rid of clutter, e.g. from things that you don't use and that don't bring you joy.
• Before you get rid of something, you should give it its due and say “thank you.”
• The storage system should be simple with a small number of things.
• Clothes can be stored vertically, rolled into tubes.
• Clothes can be hung in the closet according to the color principle: from dark to light.
• Throw away papers without regret: old magazines, books you read, bills you paid, etc.

Cleaning is like a reboot

Each item reflects the personality of its owner. Therefore, by leaving only those things that you really need, you can better understand yourself and what is really important to you. The KonMari method helps you let go of the past and look into the future with new eyes.

This practice can be applied not only to objects, but also to other aspects of your life - relationships, work, hobbies. All this may also not bring joy and clog your life. By learning how to get rid of unnecessary clutter, you will become more focused, be able to make decisions more effectively, and stop being distracted by things that don't matter. If you have already become acquainted with the KonMari method and even applied it in your life, leave a review and share your experience.

Tired of endlessly tidying up your home? And it is not necessary! There is a way to clean up once and for all.

Today the Japanese Marie Kondo is known all over the world: her book “Magical cleaning. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life" In a short time it became a bestseller and was published in more than 30 countries.

From the age of 5, Marie enjoyed leafing through women's magazines, looking at photographs of delicious dishes and reading about how to remove grease stains or save money. “Articles about storage methods inspired me to turn cardboard milk cartons into cubbies for my desk drawers,” Marie says in her book. Looking at their daughter’s hobby, her parents thought that she would grow up to be an ideal housewife, but she invented her own method of cleaning, began helping people get rid of junk in their homes and earned millions from it. And all because the “KonMari method” really works.

CLEANING: ONCE AND FOR LIFE

If you are already familiar with the “flylady” system, according to which you don’t need to strive to instantly turn your home into a perfect picture and it’s better to “put out fires” in problem areas every day, forget about it. Marie Kondo says the opposite: “You need to clean once and properly. If you clean a little every day, the cleaning will last forever.” In relation to cleaning, Marie uses the term “special event”, which must be completed once and for all within a single period of time.

“If you organize your home correctly, you can always keep it clean, even if you are lazy or messy by nature,” says Marie. There is nothing complicated in the magical cleaning method itself.

Effective cleaning involves just two essential steps: getting rid of what you don't need and figuring out where to store what you need.

But you shouldn’t even think about where to put the things you need until you get rid of all the unnecessary things. Throwing away should come first.

GET RID OF THE UNNECESSARY IN ONE FOLLOW

Most often, people easily part with things that are no longer functional (for example, broken), old or out of fashion. But there are a lot of unnecessary things in the house for which there is no obvious reason to throw them away. Marie Kondo does not recommend using advice in such cases, like: “throw away everything you haven’t used for a year”, “if you can’t throw it away now, put it in a box and come back to this issue later” - they don’t work.

NOW BY CATEGORIES

Cleaning the house should be done not by room: “today - bedroom, tomorrow - children's room,” but by category, for example, “today - clothes, tomorrow - books.” Before deciding what to keep in the house and what to throw away, collect all the items that fall into one category in one place. “Getting all your items in one place is essential because it gives you an accurate idea of ​​how much stuff you have. Most people are shocked just by the sheer volume of the pile, which is often at least twice the amount they imagined,” Marie explains.

You should start the cleaning process with simple items that are easiest to decide on: clothes, then books, documents, “miscellaneous” (CDs and DVDs, cosmetics, accessories, electrical appliances, writing instruments, household supplies, etc.) and only the very last queue “sentimental” items and memorable gifts.

DON'T LET YOUR FAMILY INTERFER

The cleaning process is akin to meditation, and therefore you should clean in a calm environment. Also, Marie Kondo under no circumstances advises showing thrown away things to parents and other family members: “There is nothing wrong with cleaning. However, seeing what their children throw away is extremely stressful for parents. The sheer size of the rubbish heap can cause anxiety in parents, making them wonder whether their children can live with what they have left.”

In the vast majority of cases, mothers “rescue” items thrown away by their daughters, but they rarely wear the clothes they pick up. My female clients, who are in their fifties and sixties, invariably end up throwing away the items their daughters gave them to them without ever wearing them.

DON'T TURN YOUR UNNEEDED CLOTHING INTO HOME CLOTHING

Many people, when they start sorting things out, instead of throwing out those that they haven’t worn for a long time, leave them “for home.” Do not do that!

It is wrong to keep clothes that we don’t like in order to “relax” in them at home. Our home time is a precious part of life. Its value should not decrease simply because no one sees us at home. So, starting today, stop the habit of demoting clothes you're not thrilled with by relegating them to the home category.

PART UP WITH UNNEEDED SOUVENIRS

Don't you dare throw away gifts that were bought especially for you by someone dear to your heart? The situation is common. “The true purpose of a gift is to be accepted. Gifts are not “things,” but a means of conveying human feelings, reflects Marie. - If you look at it from this point of view, then there is no need to feel guilty when throwing away someone's gift.

Just thank it for the joy it brought to you when you received it. Of course, the ideal situation would be one in which you could use the gift with joy. But surely the person who gave it to you will not want you to use it only out of a sense of duty or put it aside without using it, tormented by remorse every time you look at it.”

HOW TO STORE THINGS CORRECTLY

Once you make the right selection among things, you will only have the quantity that will ideally fit in the currently available space. If your goal is a clutter-free room, then you need to store these things in such a way that you can immediately tell where everything is.
All related items and items of the same type should be stored in one place and as close to each other as possible.

THE MAIN SECRET IS VERTICAL STORAGE

Perhaps Marie Kondo’s revolutionary discovery is the convenience of storing things and objects not in stacks, but vertically. This principle applies not only to books, documents and papers, but also to clothes in dresser drawers.

It is very important to learn how to fold things correctly - into a simple smooth rectangle. And then you can always roll them up and place them vertically in a drawer, like towels in a cabinet under the sink from an IKEA catalog. Such a storage system will give the most complete overview, and you can always easily remove any item without disturbing the rest.

THE BEST STORAGE UNIT IS A SHOES BOX

There is no need for special storage devices - they are only a superficial solution to the problem of clutter. You just need to get rid of unnecessary things. And the rest are most conveniently stored in empty shoe boxes.

The scope of application of shoe boxes is practically unlimited. I often use them to store socks and tights in dresser drawers. The height of the shoe box is ideal for storing rolled up tights. In the bathroom, they can be used to store bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and are ideal for storing detergents and other household cleaning items.

Watch Marie Kondo herself pack a dozen items into a small shoebox:

ORDER IN THE HOUSE = ORDER IN LIFE

In her book, Marie Kondo writes that by putting your house in order, a person puts his affairs and his past in order. As a result of “dealing with” things, he begins to clearly understand what he needs in life and what he doesn’t, and what he wants to do.

The best way to figure out what we really need is to get rid of what we don't need. This no longer requires travel to distant countries or unrestrained shopping. All you need to do is eliminate what is not necessary by properly treating each item that you own. Life truly begins after you get your home in order.
See more motivating photos for cleaning in our gallery.

P.S. The feature film “Life is the Exciting Magic of Cleaning” is dedicated to such a prosaic topic as cleaning the house. Its plot is dramatic, and the folding of clothes - just according to Marie Kondo's method - is filmed as an exciting ritual.

The KonMari method is simple. This is a clever and effective way to beat clutter for good. Start by getting rid of trash. Then organize your space—thoroughly, completely, one at a time. If you adopt this strategy, you will never go back to clutter again.

Although this approach goes against conventional wisdom, anyone who fully implements the KonMari method has had success keeping their home tidy—with unexpected results. Getting your home in order has a positive impact on all other aspects of your life - including work and family. Having devoted more than 80 percent of my life to this topic, I I know that cleaning can transform your life too.

Do you still think it sounds too good to be true? If your idea of ​​tidying up is getting rid of one unnecessary item a day or tidying up your room little by little, then you're right. This is unlikely to have any serious impact on your life. However, if you change your approach, cleaning can have a truly immeasurable impact. In essence, this means getting your house in order.

I've been reading housewife magazines since I was five years old, and that's what inspired me to get serious about finding the perfect way to clean when I was fifteen. Which, in turn, led to the creation of the KonMari Method (KonMari is my pseudonym, made up of the first syllable of my last and first names). Now I've become a consultant and spend most of my time going into homes and offices, giving practical advice to people who find cleaning difficult, who clean but suffer from the rebound effect, or who want to take up cleaning but don't know where to start. .

When you put your house in order, you put your life in order.

The number of items thrown away by my clients - from clothing and lingerie to photographs, pens, magazine clippings and trial cosmetics - has probably already exceeded a million items. This is not an exaggeration. I happened to help individual clients who threw out two hundred 45-liter bags of garbage at a time.

As a result of my research into the art of organization and my extensive experience helping disorganized people want to become cleaners, there is one belief that I can say with absolute certainty: major home reorganization brings about equally significant changes in lifestyle and outlook. She transforms life. I am not kidding. Here are just a few of the testimonies I receive daily from former clients.

“After finishing your course, I quit my job, started my own business, and now I’m doing what I’ve dreamed of doing since I was a child.”

“Your course helped me understand what I really need and what I don’t. So I filed for divorce. Now I feel much happier."

“I was recently contacted by someone I’ve been wanting to meet for a long time.”

“I’m happy to say that after I cleaned out my apartment, I was able to significantly increase my sales.”

“There was a much greater understanding between me and my husband.”

“I was amazed to find that by throwing away some things, I changed in many ways.”

“I finally managed to lose three kilograms.”

My clients are beaming with happiness and the results show that cleaning has changed the way they think and approach life. In essence, she changed their future. Why? A more detailed answer to this question is given throughout the book; but, in a nutshell, by putting his house in order, a person puts his affairs and his past in order. As a result, he quite clearly understands what he needs in life and what he doesn’t need, what he should do and what he shouldn’t.

I currently offer classes to clients in their homes and to business owners in their offices. These are all private lessons, taking place one-on-one with the client, but there is no end to those interested. My waiting list is currently three months long and I receive inquiries daily from people who have been recommended to me by past clients or who have heard about my course from someone else. I travel all over Japan from end to end, and sometimes I go abroad. One of my public lectures for housewives and mothers was completely sold out in one evening. Not only was a waiting list drawn up in case of refusal of classes, but also a list of those who simply wanted to get on the waiting list. However, the number of repeated requests to me is zero. From a business perspective, this may seem like a fatal flaw. But what if the lack of repeat requests is actually the secret to the effectiveness of my approach?

As I said at the very beginning, people who use the KonMari method never clutter their homes or offices again. Since they are able to maintain order in their space, there is no need to return to class. From time to time I contact people who have completed my courses to see how they are doing. In almost all cases, their home or office is still in order; Not only that, they also continue to improve their space. From the photographs they sent you can see that they now have even less stuff than they did when they left my course, and that they have purchased new curtains and furniture. They are surrounded only by the things they truly love.

Why does this course transform people? Because my approach is not just a technical method. The act of cleaning is a series of simple actions in which objects are moved from one place to another. It involves moving things to the places where they belong. It seems that everything is so simple that even a six-year-old child should be able to do it. However, most people fail to cope with the task. Soon after cleaning, their space returns to a chaotic mess. The reason for this is not a lack of skill, but rather a lack of awareness and inability to clean effectively. In other words, the root of the problem is in thinking. Success is 90 percent dependent on our mental attitude. If we exclude from the total number of people the lucky few for whom organizing is a natural process, for everyone else, if we do not deal with this aspect deliberately, the reverse effect is inevitable, and no matter how many things are thrown away or how intelligently the rest are organized.

So how do you get into this right mindset? There is only one way to do this, and, paradoxically, that way is to acquire the right method. Remember: The KonMari method that I describe in this book is not just a set of rules for sorting, organizing and storing. This is a guide to getting into the right mindset to create order and become a tidy person.