Brighter And some

House cleaning ninja sparks book lover revolt

by Kate Watt, Marketing Manager 31 January 2019

She’s the smiling assassin eliminating clutter in US homes, armed with a Japanese minimalist sensibility and a commitment to cleaning as severe as her bob cut.

Yep, we’re talking about Netflix sensation Marie Kondo who’s divided the social media world with her confession that she keeps just 30 books in her home.

In this age of outrage and short attention spans, some book lovers have misconstrued this as a strict rule, and have waged a war of words worthy of headlines everywhere.

Novelist Anakana Schofield took to Twitter with this heartfelt plea: “Do NOT listen to Marie Kondo or Konmari in relation to books. Fill your apartment & world with them. I don’t give a shite if you throw out your knickers and Tupperware but the woman is very misguided about BOOKS.”

Novelist Deborah Levy proclaimed on The Guardian that “Marie Kondo can’t have my bookshelves.”

Delving more deeply into the psyche of a clean house, psychology lecturer Chris Stiff told The Conversation readers that cleaning house could make you feel better, but if you don’t apply careful consideration, you could feel worse, especially if you don’t finish what you started.

So what to make of this cleaning fad? Is a clean house – book-filled or otherwise – just a dust cloud of hype or a pristine path to enlightenment?

Frankly, we think that’s the wrong question. The real question is, who’s going to do those dishes if you’re sitting there watching Netflix? Happy cleaning people!

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