When Tips for Tidying Up Get Messy

Marie Kondō has been getting lots of press lately for her interesting methods of tidying up in her 2014 book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (2014), and her 2016 follow up Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up. She even has an eight-episode Netflix Show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.

In her book, Kondo exhorts readers to organize, and January is the perfect month to be exhorted. It’s a New Year—time to break old, bad habits. Kondō’s method is to hold objects and if they don’t bring you joy, part with them. As I looked around my home and office, I realized it would take me years to hold every object, and frankly, I’d rather not; some are rather disgusting. One of my finest hours after the New Year was when I tidied my kitchen pantry. As I held a jar of tomato paste—stamped “best used before December 2013”—I realized it could bring not-so-joyful Botulism so out it went. No joy there.

Further inspired to declutter and organize, I bought four bins—one for each of my son’s remembrances. Before I could even begin to declutter, we needed an ice chest for a party. Thankfully, we had Bin #1 to hold the ice, beer, and wine. When the squirrels were attracted to the bag of dog food in the garage, Bin #2 was repurposed to secure kibbles and bits. Bin #3 was needed for a fishing trip and was deep-sixed because of the lingering smell of smelt. That left one bin. Because I didn’t have time to hold every object that brought me enough joy to keep, I emptied one entire drawer filled with papers, old report cards, crayoned pictures, and team rosters into Bin #4. Problem solved—or shelved?

Which brings me to the controversy of Marie Kondo’s advice to book lovers. She considers books clutter and suggests that only ones that “spark joy” should be kept. Then—and this is the controversial part—she suggests that less than 30 is the ideal threshold. That advice sparked a not-so-joyful Twitter war with comments and pictures of chaotically cluttered bookshelves. All were salvoes to the great tidier: Take that, Marie Kondo!

As I read the comments, I realized that Kondo’s advice is actually a boon to libraries everywhere. For those who would declutter books, Friends of Libraries can help by shelving them and reselling them to others to make money to benefit their libraries! Libraries also benefit as they are in the business of circulating books. Borrow as many as you want and declutter by returning them to be appreciated by other tidy people. So as you’re tidying up, remember your library.

Now if you’ll pardon me, I’m going to read my book. It’s here somewhere!