A review of “The life changing magic of tidying up”
Summary: All physical or psychological problems originate from belongings or organization of those belongings. Aspire to a superficial lifestyle created by ads and focus your whole being around that. Obsess over organizing, selecting, and reorganizing you possessions. Distract or deflect from issues in your life by focusing on this process. Do this religiously; rather, do this as a religion.
The title implies an arrogance, like a motivational speaker is about to tell me with certainty how I’ve been living my life all wrong. At first sight, the book looks way too thick for what the title betrays as the topic under consideration. The title length is likely foreshadowing the endless equivocation within, I appreciate the title to the extent that it serves as a warning sign. If American capitalism and advertising haven’t already immersed me in distracting trivialities enough, this book surely will. Before I crack the spine of a book surely entrenched in idolizing belongings, I reflect on how many terrible tragedies are probably occurring in the world.
Each section taken individually warrants almost the same list of criticisms as the others, so this should be a terse review. The author heavily uses “my clients” phraseology as a mechanism for corroborating and legitimizing the content. Rather than constructing logical, convincing assertions, she simply leverages ethos persuasion listing innumerable unnamed affirming past clients. This in combination with the deterministic section titles, “Storage Experts Are Hoarders” cultivate an air of arrogant certitude of which is sustained throughout the book.
The undertone of many sentences speak blatantly as if to say, “I already have all this worked out; I know this; my clients know it. Why don’t you?”. The style is akin to infomercials, inundated with oversimplifications, unverifiable testimonies, and romanticized results. It is in the style of a deluded, self-declared prophet of trivialities, here to speak contemptuously and profoundly to the laymen that have not yet been enlightened. This becomes clear once you parse the vague idiomatic language, anecdote, and endless contradictions. “My clients often want me to teach them what to put where. Believe me, I can relate, but unfortunately, this is not the real issue”. And just you wait, the source and resolution of all your pain will soon be revealed.
The section continues with a criticism of apparently sinister and subversive storage product ad campaigns with their catchy simple phrases, promising you salvation from your mess. This is of course revealed to be a lie. The author unknowingly described a perfect analogy for this book. A cursory search reveals the author’s company simply named KonMari- rather ConMari- as it literally sells storage boxes. How can such egregious contradiction be sustained and permitted. Put plainly, she vehemently denounces storage container companies, then starts a storage container company. Rest assured, they’re only $89. The nice site has a humanizing mission statement that ham-fistedly attempts to obscure the underlying motive. A perfect testament to the contradiction and arrogance embraced by the author.
Certain sections that betray a particularly dogmatic tone are bolded, although none have a hint of profundity and are the literary equivalent of taking a distasteful family vacation photo: self-important, abundant, imposing, useless, and the outcome of which is really just paper garbage except to the individuals involved.
The author makes heavy use of personal anecdote, chronicling the journey from folly to… different folly. She asks the reader to stop obsessing over abundant or redundant belongings, which, initially, sounds admirable. However, this is immediately followed by a deep fetishization of few belongings, a plan for enshrining your things. This so portrays the deeply rooted nefarious facets of capitalism underlying much of the book. The stories successfully humanize her and appeal to an imagined audience, what a dark imagination she must have. These stories attempt to add authenticity and act as stand-ins for genuine deduction, secretly leading the reader down the same fallacious, inductive path as the author. One sentence could have really replaced all the equivocation: “I remember when I was dumb, depressed, and disorganized like you, but I figured it out and so can you if you follow me”. Such anecdotes need not necessarily be true to serve the purpose, which is to provide a seemingly innocuous mechanism to bully the reader into believing the profundity and validity of her statements. It really is one long infomercial; see if these statements sound familiar:
- “Once you experienced the powerful impact of a perfectly ordered space, you, too, will never return to clutter. Yes, I mean you!”
- “Wouldn’t you like to live this way, too?”
It becomes clear early that the book’s basis, the proselytized personal lessons learned and respective repercussions if not learned, originate from a conflation of personal preference and objective physical laws. The author generalizes subjective lessons to everyone and declares them self-evident laws. Something of an attempted pseudo-psychological brainwash. If I find chewing a straw to be stress relieving, should I be so sure of the inherent efficacy of this behavior that I should fill up 200+ pages with descriptions of my straw chewing endeavors. Nope.
I was going to do a full review, but the book turned out to be cyclic and unsubstantial. If it wasn’t for the 6 million copies sold, I might have even felt immediate pity. However, the burden of responsibility of criticizing such a nonsensical, self-important, and arrogant work falls on us. And anyway, I feel more pity for our society that it allowed such contrived, misleading garbage to rise to such ubiquity. Are we so lost that we are desperate enough to look for answers in vague, equivocating quibbling about the ordering and organization of our trinkets? This book is such a high-order artifact of the current state of capitalism in America. It is a bible for the church of Things and owned things. Listen, and you will be saved from your manic-depression, alienation, failure, and all other psychological stresses; I promise. This sort of pseudo psychological diagnosis is dangerous and misleading; it is implied throughout the book:
- “Putting their house in order positively affects all other aspects of their lives, including work and family”
- “… the relief won’t last because you haven’t addressed the true cause of your anxiety.”
- “Visible mess helps distract us from the true source of the disorder”
- “… I read books on psychology”
- “This deeply affects your mind…”
- “I too once lacked confidence. What saved me was tidying”
Thesis: Do not enshrine belongings. Face personal problems with clarity, honesty, and vigilance not distraction. Find your way to psychological contentment through valid avenues, not by following a cult that tells you to clean your room. If you reach contentment by chewing a straw, understand it is not for everyone.