Book Review: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Many anesthesiologists are obsessive-compulsive. We get territorial over our workspace; we have our syringes aligned in a certain order, our drips plugged into the central line a particular way, and our clutter minimized. There's good reason for it; when a crisis happens, we want to know exactly where our emergency medications are, how many blood products were given, which IVs go where. I almost have a ritual in setting up my room, organizing it as the case is underway, and cleaning up at the end. And it's been life-saving, allowing me to maintain control under stress and pressure.

Perhaps this is why I so thoroughly enjoyed Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Filed away in perhaps the most boring section of the library, this book lays out a method to simplifying, cleaning, and organizing one's life. She's very particular in her demands, insisting on a certain attitude, conviction, method, and order to tidying one's possessions. And somehow, with this, she has created an international bestseller. I know a few people who have used her method, and they all swear by it. The goal is to surround oneself only with possessions one loves.

It's a very short book and an easy read. I think it's probably appealing both to the obsessively clean and the hopelessly messy. Even if you don't follow through with the whole process, it's somewhat enlightening in showing what a clean and organized life could be and how to get there. I really enjoyed reading it.

Image shown under Fair Use, from npr.org.