Have you wondered why there was no review of Magical Cleaning and the KonMari Method in this blog? Yes, I just had enough, search queries for which still lead 30-50 people a week to this blog. But since Marie's name has become more frequent in the comments, I want to speak out.

Book marketing forces you to read too much

Marie Kondo in Russian was not a discovery for me, because a couple of years ago I watched with curiosity how a wave of enthusiastic detailed reviews of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up passed through. Then I read it diagonally in electronic form.

And I only smiled knowingly when I saw the 5th review of it in the blogs of my friends one week. And then the publishing house decided that they also needed my authoritative review and tried to give me this book three times from different angles. I didn’t take it, still buy a book for 350 rubles (or read it a year earlier in English, as this time), form my own opinion about it and be able not to write anything about it - a pleasant luxury that I can afford.

I don’t understand this phenomenon: why are bloggers so fond of receiving books from publishers as a gift?! What is this? Feeling unique? Reason to brag? Saving? Content out of the blue?
But I have long been familiar with another phenomenon: having received any nonsense as a gift, we unconsciously feel obligated, we must give something (most often much more expensive) in return. Here is a positive review, for example. This is a simple manipulation that everyone uses, from our grandparents to Jehovah's Witnesses. And book publishers are no exception. As a result, we have a full blogosphere of admiring or (slightly better) tactfully neutral book reviews that someone needs to sell.

Now I even came up with the term " bukwashing"(book-washing, by analogy with) - a form of book marketing that speculates on people's love for books, respect for the printed word and reviews from opinion leaders. Forgive me, I don’t play this game, I read books in Bookmate (many furtively) and say what I think. And I think that KonMari undeservedly received such wide fame and popularity, thanks to this very lettering.

My opinion is that the book as a whole is quite harmless, but I fundamentally disagree with two ideas:

1. Get rid of everything that does not bring joy. What the heck? In my opinion, the zombie positive pseudo-psychology, such as "be happy or die", has already bothered everyone, thanks to it turns out that we have a wide range of feelings that we should learn to distinguish and appreciate, even if their experience is associated with pain and discomfort . Joy, yes, is one of these feelings, but by no means the most frequent, and arising in a healthy person is mainly not from contact with things.

2. Everything needs to be thrown away without hesitation. I don’t have a problem with throwing away, they say, how can I throw away something that can still serve someone ?! But I do know the habit-changing healing power of gradually adding impulsively bought things and finding places where this “illiquid” might be needed. Here .

And so that you have the opportunity to get a more voluminous impression of the book, I share with you an honest, ironic and beautifully written article by Masha Skatova Marie Kondo's magical cleaning - the art of hanging noodles on your ears:

Someone goes to a psychotherapist, someone gets drunk, someone replicates and sells their personal difficulties. I admire those who squeeze lemonade out of their lemons, patent a recipe and make a fortune, and I sympathize with the little girl who constantly cleaned the house to attract the attention of parents busy with other children. But I'm not ready to follow her into a world where they talk about shoes and bags. Here are two short quotes to explain what I mean:

“Because it was difficult for me to form bonds of trust with other people, I developed an unusually strong attachment to things. I think it was precisely because I didn't feel comfortable revealing my weaknesses or true feelings to others that my room and the things that filled it became precious to me."

"I can't imagine a greater happiness in life than being surrounded by the things I love."

Tired of endlessly putting things in order in the house? And it is not necessary! There is a way to clean up once and for all.

Today Japanese Marie Kondo is known all over the world: her book "Magical cleaning. Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life quickly became a bestseller and was published in more than 30 countries.

From the age of 5, Marie liked to leaf through women's magazines, look at photos of delicious dishes, read about how to remove grease stains or save money. “The articles on storage methods inspired me to turn milk cartons into drawers for my desk,” Marie says in her book. Looking at her daughter's passion, her parents thought that she would grow into an ideal housewife, but she invented her own cleaning method, began to help people get rid of trash in their homes and earned millions from it. And all because the "KonMari method" really works.

CLEANING: ONCE FOR A LIFETIME

If you are already familiar with the “flylady” system, according to which you do not need to strive to instantly turn your house into a perfect picture and it is better to “put out fires” in problem areas every day, forget about it. Marie Kondo argues the opposite: “You need to get out once and properly. If you clean a little every day, cleaning will last forever.” In relation to cleaning, Marie uses the term "special event", which must be completed once and for all within a single period of time.

“If you get your house in order properly, you can keep it clean at all times, even if you are lazy or messy by nature,” says Marie. There is nothing complicated in the method of magical cleaning itself.

Effective tidying involves only two critical steps: getting rid of what you don't need and figuring out where to store what you need.

But you should not even think about where to put the necessary things until you get rid of all the unnecessary ones. Ejection should come first.

GET RID OF UNNECESSARY IN ONE STROKE

Most often, people easily part with things that are no longer functional (for example, broken), aged or out of fashion. But after all, there are many unnecessary things in the house for which there is no obvious reason for throwing away. Marie Kondo does not recommend using advice in such cases, such as: “throw away everything that you have not used for a year”, “you cannot throw it away now - put it in a box and return to this issue later” - they do not work.

CLEAN BY CATEGORIES

Cleaning in the house should be carried out not by room: “today - the bedroom, tomorrow - the nursery”, but by category, for example, “today - clothes, tomorrow - books”. Before deciding what to leave in the house and what to throw away, collect all the things that fall into one category in one place. “Getting all the items in one place is extremely important as it gives you an accurate idea of ​​how many items you have in total. Most people are already shocked at the sheer volume of a pile of things, which is often at least twice as much as they imagined,” explains Marie.

You should start the cleaning process with simple items that are easiest to decide on: clothes, then books, documents, “miscellaneous” (CDs and DVDs, cosmetics, accessories, electrical appliances, stationery, household supplies, etc.) and only at the very last turn "sentimental" items and memorable gifts.

DON'T LET YOUR FAMILY INTERFERE

The process of cleaning is akin to meditation, and therefore you should clean up in a calm environment. Also, Marie Kondo in no case advises showing thrown things to parents and other family members: “There is nothing wrong with cleaning. However, the sight of what their children throw away is the strongest stress for parents. The sheer volume of the trash can cause parents to wonder if their children can live with what they have left.”

In the vast majority of cases, mothers “rescue” things thrown away by their daughters, but they rarely wear clothes that are taken away. My female clients, who are in their fifties or sixties, invariably end up throwing away things given by their daughters, never even wearing them.

DO NOT TURN UNUSED CLOTHING INTO HOME

A lot of people, starting to sort things out, instead of throwing out those that have not been worn for a long time, leave them “for home”. Do not do that!

It is not right to leave clothes that we do not like in order to “relax” in them at home. Our home time is a precious part of life. Its value should not be reduced simply because no one sees us at home. So starting today, break the habit of degrading clothes you don't like by making them homemade.

PARTS WITH UNNEEDED SOUVENIRS

Doesn't your hand rise to throw away gifts that were bought especially for you by a person dear to your heart? The situation is widespread. “The true purpose of a gift is to be accepted. Gifts are not “things”, but a means of conveying human feelings, Marie reflects. “Looking at it this way, there's no need to feel guilty about throwing someone's gift away.

Just thank him for the joy he brought to you when you received him. Of course, the ideal would be a situation in which you could use the gift with joy. But surely the person who gave it to you will not want you to use it only out of a sense of duty or put it aside without using it, tormented by remorse every time you look at it.

HOW TO STORE THINGS CORRECTLY

As soon as you make the right selection among things, you will only have the amount of them that will ideally fit in the space available at the moment. If your goal is a clean room, then you need to store these things so that you can immediately tell where everything is.
Keep all related things and items of the same type in one place and as close to each other as possible.

MAIN SECRET - VERTICAL STORAGE

Perhaps the revolutionary discovery of Marie Kondo is the convenience of storing things and objects not in piles, but vertically. This principle applies not only to books, documents and papers, but also to clothes in dresser drawers.

It is very important to learn how to fold things correctly - into a simple, smooth rectangle. And then you can always roll them up and put them upright in a drawer, like towels in a nightstand under the sink from the IKEA catalog. Such a storage system will give the most complete overview, and you can always easily take out any thing without disturbing the rest.

BEST STORAGE DEVICE - SHOE BOX

There is no need for special storage devices - they are only a superficial solution to the problem of clutter. You just need to get rid of unnecessary things. And the remaining ones are most conveniently stored in empty shoe boxes.

The scope of shoe boxes is practically unlimited. I often use them to store socks and tights in dresser drawers. The height of the shoebox is ideal for storing rolled up tights. In the bathroom, they can be used to store bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and they are also ideal for storing detergents and other household cleaning items.

See how Marie Kondo herself packs a dozen items into a small shoe box:

ORDER IN THE HOUSE = ORDER IN LIFE

Marie Kondo writes in her book that by putting one's house in order one puts one's affairs and one's past in order. As a result of "dealing" with things, he begins to clearly understand what he needs in life and what is not, and what he wants to do.

The best way to figure out what we really need is to get rid of what we don't need. This no longer requires trips to distant lands or rampant shopping. All that needs to be done is to eliminate what is not necessary by properly approaching each item that belongs to you. Life really begins after you put your house in order.
See our gallery for more inspirational photos.

P.S. Such a prosaic topic as cleaning the house is devoted to the feature film "Life is the exciting magic of cleaning." The plot is dramatic, and the folding of clothes - just according to the method of Marie Kondo - is filmed as an exciting ritual.

Instruction

Marie Kondo recommends getting rid of those things that do not please you. Each item in the house, according to the famous Japanese woman, has its own purpose - to please or perform useful functions. The rest of the things can be safely thrown away or given to good hands. Thus, you can get rid of entire mountains of unnecessary. Marie Kondo's magical cleaning involves the process of saying goodbye to old or inappropriate items. Be sure to thank the items for serving you before parting with them.

The tidying guru is convinced that too much space is allocated under the apartment. Marie Kondo argues that instead of acquiring another closet, you can reorganize the space in the existing ones. After getting rid of unnecessary things according to the Japanese system, much less space is required to store them. Kondo recommends folding clothes into rolls and stacking vertically in boxes. As you hang items in your closet, group them by color and seasonality. Marie says to hang up dark and warm clothes first, and then light and light ones.

Marie Kondo, in her book "Magical Cleaning. The Japanese Method to Organize Your Home and Life," pays special attention to storage accessories. Some of them she likes, others she, on the contrary, criticizes. The cleaning specialist recommends using different drawer dividers. Such things greatly facilitate the process of storing and using kitchen appliances. But Marie does not recommend purchasing containers and boxes for various items. According to the famous Japanese woman, they only take up extra space.

A clutter professional says it's easier to clean a little bit every day, choosing not an entire room to clean up, but just one area. This makes it easier to maintain cleanliness and order in the living quarters. Marie Kondo writes that it is worth getting rid of trinkets, as their owners gradually lose their individuality. Another useful tip of the famous Japanese woman is to store information mainly on electronic media. So old magazines, books, notebooks, notebooks will not litter your apartment.

Have you ever been stuck in a trap of endless cleanings, after which unnecessary, useless and, not least, things that do not bring you any joy are again scattered throughout the house? And no matter how many hours or even days you spent on putting things in order, the effect of clutter may not leave you - of course, until you get acquainted with the method of conscious cleaning from the recognized Japanese specialist Marie Kondo.

She is one of the most famous Japanese women in the world, whose books on organization of space are sold in millions of copies around the world. This fragile petite woman knows how to furnish a home to meet all your needs (from practical to spiritual) and not make life in it a real marathon with obstacles. The recognition of her merits is so great that Netflix even made a separate show with her participation, in which Marie personally comes to American houses drowned in garbage and puts things in order not only in the rooms, but also in the souls of their owners.

In general, the soul of the house is perhaps the cornerstone of her method, called KonMari. In her opinion, competent cleaning is the same as spiritual practice. Respect for things, gratitude for their service and purposeful parting with them helps to find harmony and peace in the soul, in business and in relationships with other people. How it works - we tell in excerpts from Marie's book “Magic Cleaning. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life.

Every thing has its place

The point of defining specific places for storing things is that each has its own place. You may be thinking right now, “It will take me forever to do this,” but don't be nervous. Although it seems difficult to determine a place for each item, it is actually much easier than deciding what to keep and what to throw away. Since you've already decided which items you want to keep, and since those items all belong to the same category, the only thing left for you to do is store them next to each other.

Why is it so important that everything has its place? Because the existence of a "stray" thing multiplies the chances that your space will become cluttered again. Say, for example, you have a shelf with nothing on it. What happens if someone leaves an item on this shelf for which there is no designated space? This single item will cause your collapse. Before you know it, this space, which created a sense of order, will be littered with things, as if one of them yelled: “Hey hey, everyone run here!”

Its place for each thing needs to be determined only once. Try it! The results will amaze you. You will stop buying more than you need. Items you own will no longer accumulate.

Get rid of unnecessary

In fact, there is enough storage space in your room. I don't remember how many times people complained to me that they didn't have enough space, but I've never seen a house that didn't have enough storage space. The real problem is that we have far more things than we want or need. Once you learn how to properly select among your belongings, you will only have the amount of them that fits perfectly in the space available at the moment. This is the true magic of cleaning. It may seem incredible, but my method of keeping only what makes you happy really works with such precision. That is why it is necessary to start with getting rid of the unnecessary. Once you've done that, it's easy to decide where to put the rest of your things, because after the reduction, you will be left with a third or even a quarter of what you started with. Conversely, no matter how hard you clean, no matter how effective the method of storage, if you start to put away things for storage before you get rid of the excess, you are threatened with a retroactive effect.

Do not let things crawl around the house

The ability to avoid overstocking depends on the ability to simplify storage. I have only two rules: keep all items of the same type in one place, and don't let storage space creep around the house.

There are only two ways to classify personal items: by type of item and by person. This is easy to understand if you mentally compare a person who lives alone and a person who lives with a family. If you live alone or have your own room, storage is no problem - just set aside one specific place for each specific type of item. Categories can be kept to a minimum by following the order I suggested for sorting things. Start with clothes, then move on to books, documents, komonos (small things - ed.) and, finally, to souvenirs or items of sentimental value. If you sort things in this order, you will be able to store each category in its designated place as soon as you choose what you want to keep.

If you live with a family, first clearly define separate storage areas for each family member. This is extremely important. For example, you can set aside separate corners for yourself, your partner, and your children, and then store what each person owns in their own corner.

Rules for magical cleaning (according to the method of Marie Kondo)

1. Clean up by category. First - clothes, then - books, documents, and further down the list.
2. The most important thing is to get rid of the unnecessary. To do this, take each thing in your hands and ask yourself if it makes you happy. If not, feel free to throw it away.
3. Cleaning is a dialogue with things. The Japanese have always treated inanimate objects with respect. Marie offers to thank her for the excellent service before throwing away the unnecessary thing.
4. Forget about storage systems. A non-obvious revelation: storage devices are also useless trash. In order not to increase its quantity, you do not need to buy them.
5. Twist everything into tubes. All things that do not need to be hung on a rail, Kondo recommends folded in the form of a sushi and placed vertically in boxes - like towels in a nightstand under the sink from the IKEA catalog.
6. Arrange from dark and warm to light and light. Those clothes that look better on a hanger do not need to be twisted. Other rules must be applied to it: similar things should hang side by side (Mary believes that clothes, like people, rest better in the company of related things), but in general it is recommended to hang them from left to right, starting from dark warm things to light and light.
7. Get rid of papers. Old magazines, study materials from trainings, unused notebooks and countless but completely useless stickers inevitably clutter up your interior. Put an end to this by replacing them with handy notepads in your gadgets.

Photo: Getty Images, press service archive, Instagram

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"Magical Cleaning" by Marie Kondo is a book that has taught millions of people around the world to clean up their homes and lives. Translated into many languages, it helps to get rid of the unnecessary and eventually surround yourself with only those things that "touch" the heart.

website decided to write about the main secrets of this book.

First you need to get rid of unnecessary once and for all

To put things in perfect order in the house, you need to stop shifting things from place to place. First of all, it is worth understanding What of their huge number is worthy of continuing to live in your home. As a result, you will be able to make room for a truly your things and create your space.

1. Does this thing cause joy?

Take each thing in your hands and ask yourself just one question: “Does this thing cause joy?” Leave only what makes you feel bright positive emotions. Surround yourself with a world of things that give you confidence and strength, perfect for you. And this applies to everything: from jackets and skirts to books and photographs.

The mistake of many is that they clean the rooms and endlessly stumble upon the same things, never understanding what their total number is. Marie Kondo advises collect all things of one category together and only then decide what to leave and what not. So you can evaluate the total amount of things and leave only the best.

3. Vertical storage

The basic storage principle that Marie Kondo "invented" is vertical storage. If you arrange things vertically, then it is already impossible to forget about them. They do not stay down under a bunch of other things and continue to "work", as shown. In addition, this is how things hold their shape longer and better.

4. Products

Basic foodstuffs are sold in colorful boxes, jars and bottles. Together, these packages create "information noise" that attacks a person as soon as he enters the kitchen or opens the closet door. But if you tear off the labels or pour the products into a “clean” container, the “noise” will disappear on its own. And the shelves, as shown, look much better.

5. Clothes

The most important thing in storing clothes is to see everything that you wear in any given season. Suitable for wardrobes and hangers. It is better to store things of the same type and color together so as not to constantly buy the same thing. It is better to hang clothes so that long things are on the left, and short things are on the right. This will create the effect of lightness and soaring of the entire wardrobe, as shown.

6. Bags

Empty bags every day. So you can give the bag a "rest" and at the same time understand what things you will not need the next morning. And to keep the bags in shape, store them one in one. It will also save a lot of space. For everyday documents, get a box from where you can easily pick up papers every day. And such organizers will save a lot of space in the wardrobe.

7. Photos