This Sparks Joy: The 5 Books To Read If You Want To Organize Your Life
If you’ve got a cluttered home, you’re not alone. The average American spends 2.5 days a year looking for lost items. And collectively, we spend $2.7 billion — yes, billion — each year replacing what we’ve lost.
Things aren’t much better across the pond. A 2022 survey found 56% of US adults have a room in their house they can’t use because of clutter. This mess is a source of stress and discomfort, so why don’t people do something about it? Reasons range from not knowing where to start to not knowing how to get rid of everything.
Learn the Secrets to a Clutter-Free Home — and Life
If not knowing where to start is stopping you from transforming your home and life, Blinkist, and leading organization experts, can help.
Blinkist is an app that shares key insights from nonfiction books. The team gathers the most important ideas from a book and shares them as a bite-sized explainer you can read or listen to in just 15 minutes. There are 6,500 titles to choose from across 27 categories including personal development, psychology, and mindfulness.
To inspire your journey to a calmer, more clutter-free life, the Blinkist team has created a collection of books recommended by Marie Kondo, the bestselling author and organization expert.
The collection — called the Marie Kondo Tidy Up Crash Course — will not only inspire you to lead a more minimalist life, but it’ll also teach you how to get organized, and stay that way, both in and out of your home.
Here is a selection of books you can find in the collection, and what you can learn from each.
1. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
- 14 min reading time
- audio version available
Marie Kondo’s bestselling book took the world by storm, and millions started learning how to clear their cutter and “spark joy” with the KonMari method.
In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Kondo explains how you can visualize your dream space, organize your items, and — perhaps hardest of all — let go of the things you no longer need or want.
“But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.”
2. Let It Go by Peter Walsh
Let It Go
- 18 min reading time
- audio version available
Whether you’re moving home and need to downsize, or you simply want to own less stuff — a lot less stuff — Let it Go teaches you how.
It’s written by organization specialist Peter Walsh, who was inspired by his own experience downsizing his childhood home after his parents passed away.
As well as actionable advice, Walsh shares ways to think about your items in a new light. He explains how hoarding a loved one’s possessions isn’t the best way to honor their memory, and how downsizing can help you figure out who you want to be.
3. Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Digital Minimalism
- 20 min reading time
- audio version available
It’s not just your home that can feel cluttered and messy, our digital lives may be in need of a spring clean, too.
Cal Newport’s book Digital Minimalism covers how you stop tech from taking over your life and live more meaningfully.
Advice includes going for phone-free walks and scheduling time for what Newport calls “high-quality leisure,” like playing guitar or learning carpentry, over “low-quality leisure” like scrolling social media.
4. The Joy of Less by Francine Jay
The Joy of Less
- 16 min reading time
- audio version available
Ever wanted to give minimalism a try? The Joy of Less is for you. Author Francine Jay explains how you can declutter your home, room by room.
Jay says to approach each room — or even just one section like your wardrobe — and divide all of your belongings into three categories: useful, beautiful, and sentimental. From here, you can work through what’s needed and what you can, and should, let go of.
“We are not what we own; we are what we do, what we think and who we love.”
5. Joy at Work by FMarie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein
Joy at Work
- 15 min reading time
- audio version available
If Kondo’s advice helped you declutter your home, it’s time to apply it to your work life, too.
In Joy at Work, you’ll learn how to apply the famous KonMari method to everything from your desk and inbox, your to-do list to your meetings.
Along the way, you’ll be asking yourself what sparks joy, and finding what’s really important in your working life.
Transform Your Home — and Life — in 15 Minutes
Whether you want to clear out your home or make big changes in your career, health, and relationships, the knowledge found in bestselling books can help. But most of us don’t have time to sit down and read.
Blinkist shares the most important information from a book in a bite-sized explainer to help even the busiest of people learn.
It takes about 15 minutes to read or listen to these explainers, so you fit learning into pockets of time throughout your day.
–Holger Seim, CEO of Blinkist
Get Actionable Advice While Cleaning Up Your Life
Blinkist’s explainers are available in audio form, so you can listen and learn on the go.
Learn about Marie Kondo’s decluttering method while sorting through your wardrobe, or find the best way to organize your digital files while commuting to work.
Working out, walking the dog, doing chores? You can be learning how to transform your life while you’re living it.
28 Million Users Are Already Making Positive Changes
Blinkist users don’t just read more with the app, they use it to improve their lives — 91% have created better habits and 87% have made positive changes based on what they’ve learned. And millions are using the app to make changes — 28 million to be exact.
Blinkist users have given the app 104,000 5-star ratings on app stores.
–5-star review.
Beyond users, Blinkist is loved by The New York Times and Forbes, it’s won awards from Google and the United Nations, and Apple named it one of the top 20 apps for lifelong learning.
One of the World’s Best Apps for Making a Change
Decluttering your home is hard, and changing your life is even harder. But Blinkist makes it easier.
Beyond the five books mentioned here, you can explore others in the collection including Mind Over Clutter and Minimalism. You can also explore thousands of titles in a range of categories to help you upgrade every area of your life including entrepreneurship, nutrition, and investments.
What’s more, the Blinkist team adds 70 new books each month, so you can stay on top of the latest bestsellers and trending titles on any topic that’s important to you.
Want to tackle your clutter once and for all? Download the Blinkist app to learn more from the Marie Kondo Tidy Up Crash Course collection.
