- The base of this book, this shelf,
is pretty much the only thing left in my house.
(lively music)
Hey there, welcome back to AmyTV.
It's time for another episode of #AmyTVbookclub.
Yes, we love to read around here, do we not?
Oh, we do.
If you don't know what AmyTV Book Club is,
every six weeks or so, we read a book together.
I announce what it's going to be on my Instagram,
usually in stories,
but you can always find out in one of my highlights
what the latest book is so that we can read it together
so that when I upload my thoughts on it,
like this video today,
we can actually feel like it's a real book club
and we have engaged in the reading process together.
Last time we read, Perfect Is Boring, by Tyra Banks,
which was so much fun to see
what you guys all thought of that.
If you want to watch that recap video,
click the link in the description below.
Today we're going to be reviewing a book
that is not terribly old,
but I would still call it something
that I totally missed the boat on.
It came out in 2014.
It's all about decluttering that life of yours.
We can all relate to that.
And that is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,
by Marie Kondo.
So, grab a coffee, take a seat, get ready,
'cause you're about to wanna throw everything out
that is in your house currently.
Before we get started,
make sure you're following me on Instagram so you don't miss
every single book announcement for AmyTV Book Club.
Like I said, it's gonna be in in my stories,
and then you wanna make sure you're subscribed
to this channel so you don't miss the reviews,
like this one.
When it comes to reading a book,
I have a procedure for everything.
I'm sure that's not surprise
if you've been around here for awhile.
I actually made a video about this called How I Read A Book,
and it breaks out into three stages:
the reading stage, the download stage,
and the execution stage.
Now the reading stage might be a little bit obvious
at this point.
I basically open up a book, open up my Kindle,
turn on an audio book, open up an app and I start reading.
But of those of you who are thinking, okay,
I just wanna hear Amy's recap
'cause I never have time to read, well,
if you wanna be a better reader but you wanna start
with the least amount of time possible,
I wanna introduce you to today's sponsor of AmyTV Book Club,
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When I found out about this app, I was so excited,
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You can see on Goodreads.com how many books I want to read.
But there's nowhere near enough time
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I would never get anything done.
Well, Blinkist is an app that condenses all
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So audiobook lovers, you're gonna like this too.
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In this particular case,
I read this book while on my honeymoon in Aruba
on my Kindle and then I just had to buy a hard copy
because I knew I was gonna talk about it
and I was gonna share it with you and obviously
it needed to look Instagram beautiful.
So, Kindle doesn't really look that great.
Had to buy a hard copy.
So we're gonna pick this review up from the download phase,
which is essentially me reviewing all
of the most highlighted things in the book.
The biggest points that I took away
from the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
To start, this is obviously a decluttering
and organizing book,
mostly pulled from an art of the Japanese culture.
The biggest thing here is that
you're gonna throw a lot of things away.
Okay, if you're really tidying up,
there's not gonna be that many things in the first place
that you're gonna need to tidy up,
at the end of this whole process because ideally,
you've gotten rid of all the stuff
that doesn't really matter any more.
One thing I found really interesting
is sort of a big piece of advice,
tidying up in one shot rather than little by little.
We often hear very different advice in different areas,
especially in 2018.
Sometimes little by little is a lot
more approachable to people.
They can't spend all their time doing
one big project in one full swoop,
and so they try to do bit sized pieces in order
to get it done efficiently.
This book is suggesting, no.
You need to pretty much take a weekend, a week, a month,
who knows, to completely tidy up your house,
meaning find all the crap and get rid of it.
Depending on your situation,
I could totally see this to be valuable,
mostly for the purpose that they're advising being,
you need a change of mindset.
If you are tidying up,
if you have this issue where there's
a whole lot of things going on,
things surrounding you and it's consuming you,
it's changing your mindset to be cluttered rather
than to be clear.
So in order to fix your mindset,
you have to have a really big difference in real life.
Often times, when you do something in a big way, quickly,
or somewhat quickly, reasonably or relatively quickly,
you're more likely to see that change so fast
that your mindset changes much faster,
rather that what we're all used to,
going to the gym every single day for six,
seven, eight weeks and still not seeing
any results because it takes time, (sighing).
You don't have to do that in this case.
You can do everything at once,
you can see a big difference and your mindset will change
which makes you stay tidy in the long run.
The main points of this process are pretty much two things,
discarding stuff and then deciding
where everything else goes.
I think the reason this book made a big splash
is because we're used to hearing okay,
just get the right compartment for things,
put them all in said compartment thing
and you've tidied up your stuff.
This is saying, okay,
stop buying more things to put things in
and just get rid of more things and you won't have
as much that you need to clean.
I don't know why that's been such an ah-ha moment for me.
I'm like, oh, yeah,
I guess I do have more stuff than I actually need.
You know, Amazon Prime.
And then from there, once you have paired everything down,
you just decide where it goes,
which in theory is a lot easier because you have
so much more space to decide where it's gonna go
and make sure that it is in the right place
and the most efficient place for your every day.
I really liked the piece,
because you know how I like detail, I like specifics,
I like to know exactly how to go in on something.
I really liked how Marie talked about you organize
or you discard or you decide where things
go by category,
not by location.
So it could be really easy to just go, okay,
I'm gonna clean the bedroom today.
And so you go underneath the bed and you go into
all the drawers and into the closet and all the places
and you organize all that stuff.
But there's so many different types of things
you've probably accumulated in all of those places.
I know for one that, in theory,
the camera gear is in my office, mm-mm.
I got plenty of extra tripods
and things I don't use underneath my bed.
That is so sad to say out loud.
So it doesn't really help me to organize just the bedroom
if I'm still gonna have to deal
with camera gear down the road.
So I definitely think that that was a huge moment for me,
was like, oh, get all of the socks in one place
no matter who they belong to or if they are matching
and then get rid of the crappy ones, keep the good ones,
and then put them where they go.
That makes so much sense to me.
I honestly think that if nothing else,
that was probably one of the biggest things I took away.
It's so simple, but that was one of the biggest things.
Another big part of this book is the idea of how
you decide to keep something.
What this book is known for is picking something up
in your hand and saying, does this bring me joy.
I can honestly say that this does bring me joy.
It has motivational quotes from famous and fabulous people.
Every single day of the year,
I look forward to ripping off the page every single day
and even maybe Tweeting one of them if I like them well
enough and then going back to what the rest of my day is.
Going through that thought process makes me now look
at that calendar on my desk and go, I'm so glad you're here.
And so, if that's not weird,
going through that process with all of your things
like an old pair of jeans that you're trying
to convince yourself you're gonna wear at some point
or something that's been in the corner of a room
for some reason 'cause you don't know where
to put it and you've been trying to figure
out if it's worth throwing away
'cause you paid money for it.
When you look at something and go does
this thing bring me joy,
it is such an eye opener.
Now, if you actually follow her order of events and
what you should be vetting per category at a time,
start to finish, it is a lot easier,
especially when that first thing that she wants you
to start with is your clothes.
I know you could go into your closet right now
and look at something and be like, okay, look jacket,
I've been keeping you because fall is coming.
But I recall strongly that I didn't wear you
one time last year and in fact,
I took one great Instagram photo with you four years ago
and that is the reason you're still here.
But when I look at you, you do not make me happy,
you don't bring me joy.
You give me a sense of obligation and look
at how much space you're taking up.
Honestly, get it together.
Hopefully, you're not having that long-winded
of a conversation with every item
of clothing in your closet,
but you know what I'm talking about
and you know how relatable that is and you need
to just get rid of it.
I have pretty much been wearing the same exact outfit
on every single video for the last few weeks
because I've done such a good job of this. (laughing)
I did buy a new sweater 'cause I knew
that I was gonna say that out loud.
So those were some of my biggest take-aways from the book.
Now we're moving into sort of the execution stage
of how I read and my rule is that every time I read a book
and it's at least one that I mildly enjoy,
so let's say it's four stars or more.
I'm going to do something.
I'm gonna take action in my life in at least one way
in order to make it better as a result of reading this book.
By far and away, the biggest thing for me was
if I am choosing to keep things in my space,
things around me, things that are affecting my mindset,
things that are accepting my ability to walk
around my apartment,
I need to treat them like they are extremely valuable.
One of the things that actually are pretty valuable
and I want them to be treated better are my handbags.
What I realized reading this book,
and I was like so excited to do this when I read it,
was that we often just leave everything in our purse, right?
My wallet's in there, every shade of lipstick is in there,
liners, everything.
We got mirrors, business cards, tissues, everything.
Everything is in your handbag and you just come home
and you put it down and all that stuff
and every time you pick it up and put it down
and all of this is beating down your handbag over time.
Well, she gave this great advice in the book
to empty out your handbag every single time.
And I thought, God, that would solve a lot of problems,
'cause every time I go to grab a new purse,
I wouldn't be wondering if I remembered to pack something
because i likely left it in another purse
if I never left anything in my purses.
So, what I've done, is I bought a fancy pair of shoes.
Fancy pairs of shoes come with nice boxes. (laughing)
So I took the fancy box and instead of breaking it down
and getting rid of it as I usually do,
I'm using one nice, solid shoe box as my handbag box.
Every time I come home,
as long as I'm not taking multiple trips out
of the house with the same bag in one day.
I typically only do this once a day.
At the end of the day of using my purse,
I take it, I dump everything out of it into my handbag box,
which now sits in my closet, which now has plenty of space
'cause I've gotten rid of so much clothes now.
And now everything I usually keep in my handbag
is in this box and then I put my handbag nice and neat
on the shelf where it sits to rehabilitate itself
after a long day.
Game changer, okay.
I feel like I actually am treating these things
I spend so much money on with the respect
that I feel that they deserve and all of my junk,
all of my junk is in a box,
as it should be.
That was my game changing action.
I would love to hear what yours was.
If you read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,
what was your ah-ha moment?
Share that in the comments below.
And if you haven't read the book yet,
I would love to hear what is something that you think
would be a big change in your life, in your mindset,
in your every day as a result of decluttering your home?
Share that below.
That's all for today.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I appreciate it.
As always, make sure you subscribe for good vibes
and remember to continue to go after the life that you want.
Cheers!
(lively music)