Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

"Keep what you love and use most". There. That's the book. You're welcome. Nothing revelatory there. Ms. Kondo's life revolves, both by temperament and profession, around culling and putting away, so it's not by accident that she makes it seem so straightforward and satisfying. However, this book offers no useful advice to the person trying to deal with clutterous possessions of roommates, housemates, family members, or other arrangements that make throwing away unsuitable. God forbid you live with other adults who have their own property--Ms. Kondo implies in a few places that tidiness takes precedence over ethics. For stuff like someone else's old mail or dead houseplants presuming to purge isn't really a problem, but books? Clothes? Hobby supplies, furniture, and so on and so forth? No. This is a guide for a single person with sole domain over their space. It's also useless regarding the tricky issues of feeling sincere joy for more possessions than you have room for, of having limited or no storage space, and of home-based projects or work other than tidying. Ms. Kondo is not burdened with those. She cleans; that's what she does. Advice from a life shaped to facilitate cleaning makes for a book whose scope is uselessly broad and uselessly narrow at the same time. Not worth the money or the paper.