The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story by Marie Kondō, Yuko Uramoto

The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story by Marie Kondō, Yuko Uramoto

My Rating: ★★★★

Marie Kondō became a household name in the states after her TV show hit Netflix. I’ve had her show in my Netflix queue, so I haven’t seen it yet, but I saw this book and knew I had to pick it up right away. It’s a cute story that follows a fictional character, Chiaki, who struggles with living in her messy apartment. Overwhelmed by the mess, she hires Kondō to help her declutter and learns the KonMari Method of tidying up that applies to more than just physical spaces. Through these lessons, Chiaki gains control over her apartment and it breathes happiness into her life.

I absolutely love this book. It introduces the KonMari method using a dramatized fictional example in a way that is not scary. Cleaning, or tidying, can be overwhelming and I learned some things from this book. There’s quite a few great tips and cleaning methods here. Of course, there are some things that are a little out there and don’t apply to me, but I think there’s a lot to learn from this book and I can see how her methods work.

I feel inspired to get cleaning using her methods. From experience, I know that cleaning by category is a lot less stressful than cleaning a space. Now I know why that is and I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together because it can get overwhelming to clean a messy space over, say, going through all my clothes and separating everything in my closet and home by category to go through and tidy up. I can see how this can work very well in the long run.