Vermilion Spark Joy: An Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying

This book has turned my life around! Be prepared to sort out your stuff!! I gave over half my house to charity and felt so good about it. Marie Kondo is sensational and this book will help you let go of the things in your life that you don't need (although I was a little surprised to read that one of her clients decluttered so much, she realised she didn't love her husband and got rid of him!!!!)

I thought that I didn't need to read Marie Kondo's first book. Then I thought I didn't need to read her second. How wrong I was. She's not to everyone's taste, but if tidying gives you a sense of control in a world full of chaos, then I can't recommend these books highly enough.

I'm already minimalist but love decluttering and making my house beautiful, this book taught me to surround myself in items that bring me joy and happiness and I'm finally happy with the way my home flows. Marie teaches you strategies that really work, highly recommend reading her first book before this one if you don't really enjoy tidying up and decluttering though!

I loved the cover and handy bookmark, and sweet illustrations. The author is clearly passionate about her subject. Working through her book enables you to reconnect with your home and belongings. Whilst some ideas didn't work for me (I prefer to hang all my tops as I don't have time to iron a top every morning), my lingerie drawers were a delightful success. What sounds simple actually works on a deeper level. I found myself looking at our home, belongings, wardrobes and drawers and wanting to make everything look more beautiful. I also got rid of another bag of items that have never filled me with joy. If you have been on autopilot and out of touch with the sacredness of your home and things, or have forgotten to be appreciative of them, then this is the book for you.

Having read The Life Changing Art of Tidying Up and started to clear massive amounts of hoarder stuff, and then stalling due to major house work, i needed a boost to get me back in the swing of things, and picked this up when about £5. it really helps as a boost, alothough would not recommend to anyone unless they had read the 1st book.Both books i actually found hard to read. They are a little wishy washy (thank you socks etc) but they do help change the mindset of this hoarder. We live in a small 2 bed semi detatched 1950's box house, little to no storage. Full to teh gunnel with 'very useful' items that where constantly lost in the sea of crap. After reading the 1st book, i started with clothes as suggested, took me a while to get everything, and work through them as didnt really have a 'staging area', i just used my living room and did not invite anyone over (not that i normally did as im a hoarder) but between me and my sons clothes and shoes and books and accessories i donated over 250 black bin bags, recycled 6 wheely bins, and binned 3 skinny wheely bins worth of stuff, 20 plus carrier bags of things sons school could use) i started to collect paper work to work on when kitchen needed renovating , took absolutely forever, then lost my clear out /joy keeping mojo. ive only half read this book but it has gotten me motivated to start agian, and ive just done 2 car loads full to the charity shop, i have noticed that not a lot is coming into the house now as my mindset is changing. I now return things that dont fit etc instead of keeping in case it fits later etcWhat i really like about this concept is the idea that im not decluttering - even though i am, but that i am allowed to keep what we like or find Joy Sparking. It completely turned things around in this hoarders head. It has helped immensly with my depression.The power of The Pile also helps immensly as well. Say you find a pen, you think Oh! I NEED to keep that as im always looking for a pen and cant find one when i need it. With this method, we collect all the pens together then you realise you have Far-Too-Many. Seriously does any one household need 100+ pens (not including colouring/craft pens), so you decide what ones you are keeping, make sure they work and get rid of the rest (i donated to the school all the ones that worked) . this is applied to every thing in your house. collect it all up, see how many of these things you have bought because you dont know where the last one is, keep the ones that yoyu use, get rid of the rest. this works for me. hope it works for you. Spark Joy, helps with the putting away of the things you are keeping because it is needed, or bring you joy. (my ironing board does not bring me joy but it is needed). Shows you how to fold clothes for maximum storage, ease of retrieving and looks good. same goes for other catagories