Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Marie Kondo says something to the effect of: If you read this book and feel as though it is you, then it is meant to be. Not a direct quote, but something that resignates with me as I read some of the negative reviews. This book spoke to me, it was truly magic. When I moved 9 months ago, I took approx 3 car loads of belongings to goodwill, thinking that I had done a darn good job of getting rid of unnecessary items. Yet still, my home continued to be rather cluttered and storage spaces felt messy no matter how much I tried to organize. I have read a multitude of books and articles, searched on Pinterest and other sites about organization. Read things on minimalism that were just unrealistic to me. I wanted to be more minimalist, but just couldn't get myself to only own 12 items in my kitchen. Nothing was quite right. Marie addresses all of these problems in her book and why they may or may not work. When I started reading I thought that I might be able to find a few things to discard and some new ways to organize the clutter I currently have. This was definitely, not the case. I purchased this book on Friday and have only tackled the category of clothing and 1 "catch all " bedroom I had because I had a guest coming to stay. I'm not even finished with those 2 places in my home and I have 2 large sized black garbage bags full, 4 smaller trash bags full, 1 medium sized box, and 3 of those reusable sized shopping bags and a pile of clothes still on the floor, all ready to leave my house. If you had asked me yesterday how many pairs of shoes I owned, I would have answered "maybe 20-25". When I took EVERY SINGLE shoe in my house and laid it out on the floor - not missing a single pair - it was eye opening, this is the magic of it. Taking a single category of item and laying it all out for you to truly see it. 59 pairs of shoes in all laid in front of me when I did this, some that I don't even remember purchasing or owning. Which is sad because I organized them all 9 months ago... I am happy to say I am down to 26 pairs right now. I even put 2 pairs that I had chosen to keep in the discard pile this morning after thinking "they are still new and cute" and then remembering why I never wore them after attempting to wear them to work (we didn't even make it out of the house before they were discarded). This book is definitely life changing magic. It helped me get past a ton of my emotions and just basic thoughts about my things and why I "needed" them or should just "keep" them whether I needed them or not, and gave me the permission I needed to discard them. If it speaks to you, enjoy it. If it does not speak to you, return it or donate it to someone it will speak to.