KONMARI METHOD FOR DECLUTTERING BOOKS

konmari marie kondo life-changing magic of tidying book declutter review

This year, I’ve been going through the KonMari Method of organizing and tidying up my home following Marie Kondo’s regimen of decluttering your belongings category by category (not room by room). At no point was this concept of sorting by category more logical than with my latest projects: sorting through books and, next, paper. This is because, let’s face it, we have books and paper in pretty much every room of the house. At least my husband and I do.

PILE ‘EM UP

The real burden of this category was lugging stacks of heavy books from all over our house into one big pile, but I knew I couldn’t skip this step. There is a definite psychological angle to this process, and if I had left all the books were they were- stored neatly on shelves, piled by my bedside, and stacked on side tables- my lazy side would take over and I would think, “You know, there’s really no point in taking that book out. It fits perfectly there and it belongs in my collection.”

That’s a bad yet alluringly logical pathway to travel down. Pretty soon, I’d be talking myself out of this whole tidying thing and returning to a life of disarray and over-abundance. So, just like with all of the other categories in the KonMari Method, I gathered all of my books in our house and put them in a pile to sort through.

WITHOUT READING A SINGLE PAGE, DOES THIS SPARK JOY?

One by one, I held each book, never stopping to read. If the book I was holding made me feel inspired to take action, comforted, or filled with joy, I kept it. If I didn’t feel any of those uplifting feelings, or worse, if I felt a sense of panic or burden when holding a certain book, out it went, into a sturdy box to donate. I mostly felt tense about books I had meant to read but never got around to it (and probably never would’ve) or books I had used in school.

WHY WE HOLD ONTO BOOKS

Honestly, a lot of us hold onto books because we think we will need to reference them at some point, or maybe we will want to reread them someday. Even worse, sometimes we hold onto books for years that we haven’t even read yet, in the belief that we need to know what is written in that book.

The reality is, you will not gain the knowledge just by owning that book. You actually have to read it. And if you haven’t read it yet, chances are that the content wasn’t something that important to you after all. Let that be the lesson you learn from your unread book.

SEPERATION ANXIETY

For me, going through my books wasn’t super difficult because I had already gone through and donated most of my books several years ago and I’ve been pretty realistic with my book purchases since, questioning when I will have time to read it and weather I could get the information just as easily on the internet.

However, that doesn’t mean this book sorting day of mine was without anguish. No, my friends, I experienced plenty of separation anxiety from the book world’s lesser thought of counterpart: the magazine.

See, magazines are my thing. I collect them. I cherish them. I pile up their frail, limp little bodies near every seat in my home, hoping that I will take a minute or two to flip through them from time to time. My Martha Stewart Living magazine collection is unrivaled spanning back to the inaugural issue and I still have a bit of anxiety over losing them because of that one time my mother got rid of her entire collection when I went away to college. I spent my adult life rebuilding Martha’s magazine empire in my house, and, honestly, I’m not ready to part with them yet.

And that’s fine. You know why? Because they spark major joy for me.

I did, however, convince myself to part with my Martha Stewart Weddings magazines, and all other non-MSL mags, after allowing myself a brief time period to go through them and rip out any particularly inspiring pages. I now have a nice “inspiration” binder filled with magazine clippings in clear page-protectors.

OTHER PEOPLE’S STUFF

One thing that I haven’t brought up yet about the KonMari Method that seems particularly relevant to this category is what to do about the stuff that belongs to other people in your home. You see, my husband is the booklover of the house. He has even created his own personal library in our attic and he is never without a book or two by his side.

So, should I dare sort through his books too? No! No, no, no. Let that word resound.

Unless your family member or roommate is going through the KonMari Method with you, do not sort through or discard another person’s belongings. This goes for clothes, books, paper, collectables, etc. Instead, you must step back and hope that you are giving off joy-filled vibes, setting an example of how revolutionary it can be to sort through your life and clear out what doesn’t belong. With any luck, they will be so inspired that they will follow suit and you can guide them along when they are ready.

BECOMING A PERSON WHO MATCHES THE BOOKS YOU’VE KEPT

My last bit of advice is a quote from Marie Kondo that I find to be really motivational.

“The energy of book titles and the words inside them are very powerful. In Japan, we say that “words make our reality.” The words we see and with which we come into contact tend to bring about events of the same nature. In that sense, you will become the person who matches the books you have kept.”

So, what kind of books would you surround yourself with if they truly influence the person you become? Choose which books to keep on that basis and you might just find that the circumstances of your life change dramatically.

As crazy as it sounds, while I was sorting through all of my books, I rediscovered one that I purchased years ago, but hadn’t yet read. After plowing through the pages I was inspired to create something for my business that might indeed have a very dramatic effect on my life. That Marie Kondo is one wise lady!