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    Spark Joy: A Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
    Unavailable
    Spark Joy: A Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
    Unavailable
    Spark Joy: A Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
    Audiobook5 hours

    Spark Joy: A Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

    Written by Marie Kondo

    Narrated by Sumalee Montano

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has revolutionized homes-and lives-across the world. Now, Kondo presents a guide to her acclaimed KonMari Method for everything from shirts to socks, to perfectly organized drawers and closets. She also provides advice on frequently asked questions, such as whether to keep "necessary" items that may not bring you joy. With guidance on specific categories including kitchen tools, cleaning supplies, hobby goods, and digital photos, this comprehensive companion is sure to spark joy in anyone who wants to simplify their life.

    Editor's Note

    Magical tidying…

    Fans of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” will love Kondo’s follow-up, where she dives deeper into the “KonMari” method and adds even more expert advice.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 5, 2016
    ISBN9780451486547
    Unavailable
    Spark Joy: A Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
    Author

    Marie Kondo

    Marie Kondo is a tidying expert, bestselling author, star of Netflix’s hit show, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, and founder of KonMari Media, Inc. Enchanted with organizing since her childhood, Marie began her tidying consultant business as a nineteen-year-old university student in Tokyo. Today, Marie is a renowned tidying expert helping people around the world to transform their cluttered homes into spaces of serenity and inspiration. In her #1 New York Times bestselling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, Marie took tidying to a whole new level, teaching that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Marie has been featured in Time magazine, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Times, Vogue, The Ellen Show as well as on more than fifty major Japanese television and radio programs. She has also been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.

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    Reviews for Spark Joy

    4/5

    359 ratings44 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      what can I say? i love animism and I love object curation.
    • 2/5
      This book was ok, but mostly weird.

      I am a messy person, so when I saw this at the library I picked it up, thinking there might be some life-changing strategy. I'd heard of KonMari before, albeit through Ali Wong's comedy (and it is oddly similar to my twitter handle).

      Broadly speaking, the KonMari method is to keep only those things that inspire feelings of joy and discard the rest. There's a weird bit of personification in thanking things before discarding, but I recognize that acknowledging that things had a use before letting them go is useful (though I won't be sprinkling purification salt on things from exes or stuffed animals before donating/discarding). Given librarian tendencies, I shudder at the idea of discarding books I haven't read or felt meh about and keeping only favorites, but that's not for everyone I suppose.

      Folding suggestions are great, take the feng-shui inspired bits with a grain of (purified) salt, and if you find this useful, great! I just found it kind of odd at times.
    • 4/5
      I've heard a lot about this book and Marie Kondo's first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I decided to see what the hype is about since I need to declutter and organize some drawers, closets, etc.I enjoyed this book. I think that the author has a great sense of humor because she can't possibly be serious about some of the things she recommends. She is so passionate about being organized and having nothing in her house that doesn't spark joy. She calls herself a "tidying freak" and seems to get a "high" in helping people tidy up. She also makes lots of money doing it! Among some of her other suggestions, I like her step-by-step, clothes-folding techniques, they will help save some much-needed space.I was so poor growing up that nothing was discarded if there was any possibility it could be used again in some way I now feel less guilty about discarding things I'm not sure about keeping. Ms. Kondo has many ideas on how to part with things more easily, some I won't be using, but some I might. This book helps me feel better (and maybe sparks some joy) about having a tidier home/life. Thanks, Marie!
    • 5/5
      focusing solely on throwing things away can only bring unhappiness. Because we should be choosing what we want to keep not what we want to get rid of.The KonMari method seems as if it might actually work. After finishing the book I watched some YouTube videos of Marie Kondo demonstrating her folding technique and people decluttering and tidying using her methods, and I have decided to KonMari my flat over the summer. I have already noticed a couple of items of clothing that do not spark joy and will definitely be going into the discard pile.My basic principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away. My clients are stunned when I say this, but there is nothing more annoying than papers.
    • 2/5
      After the wild success of her first book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo (AKA KonMari) is back with a second, more in-depth look at the KonMari method. While The Life Changing Magic gave the basic ideas, Spark Joy gives the details. How to fold clothes according to her method, how to proceed through the categories, etc.

      There is something addictive about decluttering, and I have a sneaking suspicion that there have to be studies out there somewhere that prove the relief one gets from having a clean, tidy area to live and work in. If nothing else, simply because you don't have to stress about where something is when you need it now. So in that sense, Kondo certainly convinces me.

      That said, one should read this with the idea that you are not going to do everything in these books. Maybe there are a few die-hards out there who committed, but the average person is going to be content to keep rolling their socks and not thanking their jacket every day for keeping them warm.

      Additionally, I have to question some of her ideas. While it is simple enough - don't hold on to things that don't make you happy - there are some parts where she seems to go off-track a bit. One of the biggest, for me, is her feeling toward books. Now don't get me wrong: I know fully well that I am only a few pages away from turning into a full-blown book hoarder. But her approach takes minimalist to the extreme. She explains, "The most common reason people can't bring themselves to discard a book is because they might want to read it again. But if a book doesn't spark joy for you now, it's almost guaranteed that you'll never read it again some other day. We read books because we seek the experience of reading. Once read, a book has already been 'experienced' " (125).

      Well, no.

      The majority of people do tend to read a book once and then never pick it up again. I can't imagine this. I have several series that I read every year. I have one series that I read as a preteen that I picked up again two years ago and reread just for the pleasure of it. I have other books that I bought, put on my shelf, and passed by every day and thought, "I should read that," but decided I wasn't in the mood for [insert genre here]. But years later, I finally decided to give it a try, picked it up, and loved it. If I had gotten rid of it because it didn't "spark joy" immediately, then I would probably never have run across it again, and so never known the pleasure a good book can bring someone.

      The other thing I balked at was her treatment of kitchens. She went to a restaurant kitchen and, after watching the chefs cook, realized that restaurant kitchens were designed for ease of cleaning, not ease of cooking. This was a revelation to her, and she includes it in her book. Her idea is to have the countertops completely clean by putting everything in cupboards.

      Now, there are three salient points here:

      1. She herself acknowledges - before she has the epiphany - that restaurant kitchens and home kitchens are not the same thing. This point is apparently lost, however, and she sticks to the "ease of cleaning" idea.

      2. Completely clean countertops do look uncluttered and nice, I will admit, but it's also a pain. Can you imagine pulling your coffee pot out, plugging it in, making coffee, washing it, then putting it away every single morning?

      3. By putting everything in the cupboards - even if that is workable, which I assure you, as the inhabitant of a very small apartment with a very small kitchen with very small cupboard space, is not a guarantee - you needlessly set yourself up for an avalanche anytime you have to pull something out.

      She notes, "To get a frying pan, you have to slide it out from under a pile of other pots and pans, but when I ask my clients if this bothers them, they almost always respond, 'Actually, no. Doing this hasn't struck me as a bother even once' " (170).

      Who are these magical people?

      My cupboards, because they were clearly designed by someone either criminally diabolical or appallingly idiotic, are very deep and very narrow. This leads to the scenario where I have to choose what to put in the back of the cupboard (hopefully things I won't use very often), and what goes at the front. Because there's not much space, one cupboard has frying pans at the back and oatmeal and such in the front. Any time I want to use a pan, I have to slide the oatmeal and sundry over, pull the frying pan out halfway, twist it sideways to clear the shelving, and pull it out all the way.

      This has, in fact, struck me as a bother more than once.

      In any case, my advice would be to pick up Marie Kondo's first book and read that first. If you feel pretty confident in it, then you won't get anything new out of this one. The first one was wonderful, but this one is just a rehash with illustrations. If you really want detailed diagrams on how to fold every single piece of clothing in your wardrobe, help yourself.

      I'll just go make myself a cup of coffee and fry up an egg.

      Popsugar 2016: A self-improvement book
    • 3/5
      Remember last year, when everyone you know – and everyone they know – was reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up? I was one of those people. My husband and I really pared down out belongings at a serendipitous time; not a month later we received notice that we had to move, so it was much easier to pack our two-bedroom apartment up with 11 days’ notice after having taken over two carloads of belongings to Goodwill.

      We continue to tidy following this method, for the most part, but we’ve moved into a new house, which came with many more places for stuff to accumulate. When I saw this sort-of-sequel was being released, I figured I’d want to read it. And I *think* I’m glad I did. But I’m not sure.

      My hesitation is that I’m not entirely sure this book is necessary. It does have some good tips, and some cute illustrations (the little bunny in the pictures is adorable). But I think that a lot of this could have been worked into the original book. I totally get it; she struck gold, and her publishers likely wanted to capitalize on that. They got me, and as we go for another round of making sure we’re really sticking with only keeping things that ‘spark joy,’ this will probably come in handy.
    • 4/5
      Let me qualify this reading by saying that I only read the parts I needed, and I recommend Spark Joy over the original book by Marie Kondo, as it has illustrations. Listening to the By The Book podcast, I realized that I skipped over parts of the method I find unreasonable. I am not keeping my dish soap and soap in a cupboard. My dishes are already in a cupboard because we have a Finnish style dish drying cabinet (and it is awesome).

      What I like about the message is that she says two things: Don't force it on other people, and Maximize joy. The first is simple, don't throw away other people's belongings or move them around. The second is actualized by placing things where you can appreciate them. Reducing to have only the things you really like so you're wearing clothes every day that you love, that when you open a closet you see your favorite things. I have a plastic my little pony that is now on my nightstand. I've had it since I was 4.

      I also apply this to buying new things. I think of what would increase joy before shopping.
    • 3/5
      Illustrations are nice, but nothing really new has been show.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this more than the Live-changing magic of tidying up, I found it more down-to-earth and less didactic. Still she is convinced that she's right in how she does things and really doesn't allow for individuality. Still her methods of folding are interesting and I may have to try them to tidy my presses. I do want to reduce the clutter and stuff but I think the two principles I need to employ are, "stop buying crap" and "stop tolerating crap".Appealed to me more than the original book, makes me want to try some methods to help reduce the clutter.
    • 5/5
      I recently re-read my review of Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and all of the places where her prequel may have lacked, Spark Joy makes up for. These should be read together in the order they were published. While The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up encompasses more of the big picture and overall mindset, Spark Joy becomes almost a reference guide to the details of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. For anyone that cannot find the right way of incorporating Marie Kondo's concept into their lives that works for them and needs detailed explanations of how to begin this process, this book will work as a great companion for you. Filled with great tips and tricks on how to execute her ideas in your own space, I find it hard to think I might never actually purchase these two books simply to "save space" but boy do they bring me joy. In response to my own review of her earlier work, I have by now (a year later) almost completely incorporated Marie Kondo's tidying philosophy into my life (with the exception of Miscellaneous items I'm still working on) and since I have tidied I can see no other way of living. I've been less stressed, more productive, able to sleep better in my room at night, and overall a lighter and more confident person. Again, I'm sure these books and this method are not for everyone, but I certainly have enjoyed what Marie Kondo has shared with her books.
    • 3/5
      The key to taking this book seriously is the promise of joy. You are to believe that you will actually spark joy in your life and "change it forever" by being tidy. There are six fundamental rules of Tidying: 1) commit, 2) imagine a new lifestyle, 3) discard first, 4) tidy by location, 5) follow the right order to tidying. Sounds pretty simple, right? I don't know how this is different from the adage "love it or lose it."
    • 3/5
      Followup to her book on organizing/tidying, with illustrations about how to fold things and more specific instructions for organizing different kinds of things. Probably only for people who are seriously into the method already.
    • 4/5
      This is the second book that Marie Kondo has written and it is fun. It is a guidance book for household tidying and organizing and mostly ELIMINATING! How do we all end up with SO MUCH STUFF? This book is written is such a quirky manner that it really is quite delightful. She talks about how a house is "born", that in it's natural state, probably doesn't need any further storage units. Okay I should get busy! Ditch, ditch, ditch.She talks about storing bras like ROYALTY and finding a special and wonderful place for them all cuddled up together. She calls these bra declarations!"My worn out bras have finally left home.""My bras which were long past their best-before date, have gone traveling.""Senior members of my bra collection have retired.."Okay....ditch, ditch, ditch.She further adds "I would have to say that the way people treat their undergarments reveals much about their personality." So we get a little psychoanalysis too! How fun it this writing! She says things that stay should bring you JOY and this that go should be greatly complimented and admired ,then released. She is now famous internationally and consistently on the best seller lists. A new verb has been developed "TO KONDO" i.e. to ditch!
    • 1/5
      Robot voice. No joke. Seriously. Disaster. Help. Read properly.
    • 5/5
      An amazing life lesson.Very useful indeed.konmari method is easy to follow and brings great benefit to one’s soul and home.
    • 5/5
      An eye opener! The essence of living a joyful life. This is we all need.
    • 5/5
      Love the detailed advice for specific storing and organizing of different spaces and items. My favorite pieces of advice in the book were 1) children have a hard time putting away their toys as it’s a very complicated thing for them as each item has a different function and purpose in their mind. Don’t be frustrated that they have a hard time with that. Instead, teach them to fold their clothes. Clothes fit in specific categories and it is much easier for a child to learn to fold and put away their clothing. This is the best place to start teaching a child to tidy.
      2) Try it the way that feels right to you. Don’t be afraid, your house won’t explode if it’s not perfect. If it feels wrong, you can redo it. You don’t have to follow exactly what the book says, if something works for you, do it that way. You will be happier and finish tidying more quickly.
      Loved the book.
    • 5/5
      this book was so helpful has taught me many ways and many methods to work on improving my house my life I am inspired to share it with others and have seen a difference in other people's lives as well just by them watching what I have learned she makes it easy to read or to listen to her words and keeps it interesting and it sinks in for the Long Haul
    • 5/5
      Inspiring. Easy to follow. I look forward to my results
    • 5/5
      I am a huge Marie Kondo fan. And while there are those who may find her way of tidying up too much work, or that her asking her “students” or clients to thank those items that they may dispose is ridiculous or silly, my take is that we must be grateful for what we have and that translates into an organized and positive outlook. That leads to a happier existence.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed the book, but I was annoyed with the audiobook reader's pronunciation of the Japanese word "manga" (it was pronounced "manya").
    • 3/5
      This was just a rehash of the first book
    • 3/5
      Met my need for an inspiring audiobook to listen to while I puttered around my house, just like the original book. I missed the illustrations because audio, so I probably didn't get as much out of it as I could have. I'm not going to take a stand on Konmari here, because the hell do I know? I like the emphasis on caring for our objects, and the reader's voice is soothing.
    • 5/5
      Better written and more fleshed out than her first book, very helpful.
    • 5/5
      A great follow up to her more popular book and a terrific way to keep motivated and deepen your connection to organizing.
    • 4/5
      It's impressive Marie kondo sees the process of tidying up as a form of creativity through which she can express herself and help others. moreover Marie sends an important message that by bringing your house in order you actually make a serious impact on your life as a whole . Although you may not believe it in the beginning but certain changes will inevitably happen that will transform your reality into a more meaningful and less confusing one.
    • 3/5
      I love the little gems hidden in the book, for example:
      "The things you have chosen [to keep in your home] support your life." A simple truth that reminds us to review our possessions as 'supporting actors' in our life. A simple but effective perspective shift while clearing your home.
      My motto with any non-fiction book is to get inspired (and use) by what speaks to you and ignore what doesn't ;)

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This is a great practical guide that answers nearly all the necessary questions to create a beautiful inviting home.
    • 5/5
      This book is truly inspirational for me. I listened to this on audiobook at work and I want to leave early to clean. The language used isn't at all demeaning but is calm and encouraging. I highly recommend this. I think it's the kick in the ass that I need.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Picked this up out of curiosity, now two years since the early pandemic tidying trend. There’s a lot of practical wisdom about getting organized. Most notable is the guidance to let go of much of what causes the clutter, and doing so with an attitude of thankfulness. I can imagine how someone struggling with clutter would really get a lot out of the approach in this book.