Do you have a lot of stuff? Do you feel stressed by the mess in your home? Do these questions ring a bell within you? Then, you might either make a really good use of this review and the manga or you might have watched Tidying up with Marie Kondo on Netflix. Either way, you might discover one or two new things in this review, which could be very useful to you.
__Main topics of this manga
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In short, it's about tidying up and about Marie Kondo’s mission to spark joy in the world through cleaning (and through the lovable short story of Chiaki, who wants to change her life).
__My perspective
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My first contact with Marie Kondo or her tidying up cult as I’d like to say, was indeed through the Netflix series which has in my opinion a more entertaining focus than actually being helpful to people who’d like to clean up or to declutter their stuff. For sure, you might learn a few things from the Netflix series by watching, but most of the parts could easily be skipped to only focus on the useful parts. In contrast, the manga (which I’m reviewing here) made actually the impression on me of being more helpful as some techniques were shown more in detail, but it also made me laugh at times as it was quite hilarious at looking at the mess of the main character. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t feel the like I was drowning in stuff or that at our home wasn’t tidy enough or anything like that, but it indeed helped to declutter a bit and to organize some things in a more useful way.
I might have adapted some techniques - others not - but overall, I think this manga might be able to help others to get started. I picked up this manga by chance, while visiting a local bookstore after watching the series on Netflix and thought to me: Why not? I could at least look/read into the manga and get some useful information out of it – which I’m quite glad I did.
__Reading experience
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The Konmari method
Quite a promising title the manga starts off with… lol ;)
While reading this manga for the first time, I had to laugh quite often at the characters in the manga or about specific scenes as I could either relate to them or because they seemed so extraordinary and unrealistic. Either way, I was a fun read for sure. The book is divided into 10 manga chapters, which are followed by a little summary of the important points for tidying up according to the Marie Kondo method aka the Konmari Method. The story follows the fictional character Chiaki, who lives in a quite messy home and decides that she needs to change something in her life. So, she books Marie Kondo to help her with cleaning up. Little did she know… Now, I just reread the manga in purpose to write this review as I was already thinking during my first read, that this might be fun to review. (And helpful to others, too!)
The story itself is not the best ever made, but it’s for sure enjoyable enough to stick to it and it serves it’s purpose for sure to help others and possibly to show them how to tidy up their belongings.
Sidenote: I read the German translation of the book, while reviewing it here in English. As I don’t know the Japanese version there might be subtle differences in the language, but the overall message/content is the same.
__Characters
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Chiaki Suzuki
Marie Kondo
Here is a short list of the books which have been published by her:
As of today, her books have been translated and published in 42 regions/countries with over 10 million copies sold worldwide. The Netflix series Tidying up with Marie Kondo helped her to get even more popular and helped her success story even furthermore. So much, that the well-known Time’s magazine listed her in 2015 as one of the 100 most influential people in 2015. (Source 1 / Source 2)
__The Konmari method
__(as far as in the manga explained)
You want to tidy up your home, but you’re not sure how or if you’re able to make it? Don’t worry Marie can help you with that for sure. Well, possibly. ;)
Step 1:
Be determined
Step 3:
Declutter the things that don’t make you happy
Pile all the things of one category up at one place and search your home for everything which belongs to this category. Otherwise you might not be able to know what you actually own or if you’ve got more than once the same things. Don’t clean up room by room as there might be various places for items of the same category. Like that you wouldn’t ever be able to finish cleaning as it would be way to easy to shuffle it in another room or from place to place.
With piling up all the things of one category, it’s possible that you discover at how much stuff you actually own and to be honest: Do you really need all of that? Don’t think that one day you might possibly be able to use this or that. Think about the value it brings right now to your life. Does it spark joy in you? If not, you shouldn’t keep it. Also, in thanking the things, which you don’t want to keep you can make it easier to let go of it.
Step 5:
Make the most of your space
Step 7
Papers and Komono (various little things)
Think about the importance to keep certain things:
Step 8
Memorabilia at the end
Don’t forget it might take quite some time to get through all categories and you totally don’t have to do everything at once, but it might help to do one category (or subcategory) at a time.
It’s difficult to let go of things, especially if they made us sometime in the past really happy. Not the things matter to remember good things which happened to you, your person is what really matters. All the things were part of making you who you are. Also, don’t cling to things which remember you too much of bad happenings. After all, they don’t make you happy. Right?
Imagine the person who you want to be in the future. You want to be happy, right?
Step 9
Everything at its (fixed) place
After all, these things are meant to support you in daily life. If something is used more often and has its own place you might even take better car of it, which again might give you back more happiness.
Step 10
After tidying up follows your life
Get trust in your future.
Trust that things will develop in a positive way.
Meet new people.
Positive things can happen without further notice.
Chance happens and it’s nothing to be feared of
You can do it! Don't give up!
__Target audience
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As by following these steps or even after already watching the Netflix series, you might have encountered that by actually doing it (starting to tidy up), not everything is explained into the last bit of detail. It's a helpful starter guide for sure, but you might have to research a bit more about what she recommends for the specific categories or even to buy her book(s) to completely follow through.
After all, she also want to make money and does this not only to spark more joy in the world. What is also quite understandable.
Nonetheless, her teachings can indeed be really helpful and help to spark more joy in daily life. ;)
The target audience is for sure people who like manga or casually read it as it does pick up some typical tropes known in anime/manga.
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