Subtitled: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

This is a follow-up to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which I read and loved last summer. I spent six months last year doing a giant tidy-festival, and learned a lot in the process. I was really excited about this companion book, because I knew it had a lot of extras and continuations.

In the end, though, I wish I’d gotten it from the library instead of buying it. There was very little in here that was new, and what was new contradicted my own already-established ways of following the KonMari method. Maybe if I’d read it right away, that could have helped me. As it is, I just passed over sections that taught me new ways of what I’d already learned differently through the first book, and in places where I differed, the end of the book approved anyway:

“As long as you acquire a firm grasp of the basics, then go ahead and make your own decisions, guided by what brings you joy.”

On the other hand, there was one part of the whole process last time that I kinda skipped over, and that was the whole “imagining your ideal lifestyle” bit. I did try to do that, but the thing is, my ideal lifestyle is somewhat fluid. I’ve long had in me two contrasting ideas of a perfect lifestyle, and they’ve been in conflict since I reached adulthood. I only recently realized the source of that conflict, and now have a clearer idea of which direction to go, and so I plan to revisit this section more firmly before I do my mini-tidy marathon this fall.

I wish I’d enjoyed this book more. It might have partly been my mood, but I suspect that it was the book itself. A lot of the information, and even stories, were repeats, and I didn’t find the illustrations to be particularly instructive. Ah well.