I recently found myself drawn towards this book:
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
by Marie Kondo
I have watched a couple of episodes of her show on Netflix and knew I was included in her target audience…
“Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?”
from the back cover of the book
Reading about Kondo’s process motivated me to start cleaning out my house. The first phase is clothing. That took me about a week, and I dropped off a huge load at a local charity, and it felt good! But then the second category for tidying is…
Books…
There were memes going around social media a while back that showed her saying to keep no more than 30 books. I don’t think she actually recommends a specific number but rather she says to take each book in your hands and ask yourself, “Does this book spark joy for me?”
I found that books spark joy for different reasons, and sometimes I didn’t realize it until I opened the cover and flipped through it! And sometimes a book I though I needed once in my hands didn’t seem so special after all. Which is why she says you CAN NOT do this process leaving the books in the shelf. And now I agree.
Some examples from my own bookshelves:
– An inscription or signature inside a cover from a grandparent or parent sparks joy for me.
– My grandma in law left several nicely bound collections that even though I may never read through still bring me/us joy!
– I kept several (but not all) of the books I hope to read “someday” because what if there is another pandemic where the library is closed again for several months…
– Classic reads from the High School my dad taught with lists of names inside – I love those!
– For one book I loved, I had the actual copy I read and then an antique copy, so both copies stayed!
Working through her process, which took me more than a week because I have soooo many books, I cleared two shelves for my kids’ books so they aren’t all over the house, have five boxes of books ready to drop of somewhere, and now my bookcases look tidier. Plus now they are full of books that actually spark joy for me, which makes my bookcases even more special. Plus this almost gives me room for more books! Now I’ll be moving on to Phase 3 of cleaning out, “papers” and this should take awhile…