Book Review (sort of): the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

This is only sort of a book review because I only skimmed this book, which has taken the decluttering/organizing world by storm here in this country. I waited for weeks and weeks to borrow the digital version from the local library.

The author is Japanese and I'm guessing this was originally aimed at a Japanese audience.  It therefore has an interesting flavor, because she throws in matter of fact comments about life that don't correlate well with American life.  The most...interesting, I will even say disturbing to me, was the section about household gods and talismans and family alters.  Japan is a largely non-Christian country, so the spiritual outlook is very different from my own.

So...basically this book wasn't amazingly helpful to me. The author has an interesting way of looking at possessions -- specifically, she recommends only keeping items that "bring you joy."  That is to say, she seems to be encouraging people to tap into the "feeling" side of their brains, maybe the right side, and items that "spark joy" are kept. Everything else is discarded.  She thinks of possessions as being animate, to the point that she verbally thanks her purse and wallet each evening for their hard work for her.  Which is weird to me.

The basic THOUGHT has value to me.  Why hang onto items that are still "useful" but I don't really enjoy anymore? But her whole LIFE and personality (and worldview and religious view) are very different from mine. I know some Christian Americans have read her book, took what was useful, and really ran with what she had to say.  Her method has transformed many lives, and provided they aren't being pulled astray spiritually, I think that is totally cool

And I am writing from the perspective that Christianity is true and ancestor worship is a false religion, just to be clear.

The thing that blew me away the most made some sense but not to me.  She recommends that people literally pull out every item of clothing they have and pile it on a bed and go through each garment one by one.  Every garment that "brings joy" is kept.  Every garment that does not bring joy, is discarded.

I like the idea of an "go for broke" analysis of clothing, but WHO has TIME for that kind of thing?  She is a single woman.  I am a mother going bonkers chasing 3 preschoolers and teaching 6 older kids. I do not have 6 hours, or even 3, to devote to a job like that.

Her book section was even scarier. She recommended pulling every single book off the shelves of every bookshelf.  All of them. And then touching each one (the touching part is important for some reason) and deciding if a book "sparks joy." Her recommendation is that most people get rid of almost all their books. She says a really great reader might have 30 or 40 books that they might read again, and everything else should be discarded.

But of course, she's not homeschooling a passel of kids. I do adore books and have quite a few favorites I keep, but the vast majority of books in our home are for homeschooling, for the kids.  She says not to declutter "other people's stuff" but really the books ARE "my stuff" since I am the one assigning them to the children.  But while I do go through and discard books on occasion, I'm certainly not getting rid of most of them!

So again, there are some thoughts in this book that are useful, but we are worlds apart in terms of lifestyle and mostly her method just doesn't correlate well with my personality, my religious beliefs, my lifestyle, and my family situation.