'Spark Joy,' New Book from Bestselling 'Tidying Up' Author Kondo, Coming in January

With 46 weeks (and counting) on PW’s adult hardcover nonfiction bestseller list, Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (Ten Speed, 2014) has been unstoppable in its quest to neaten up North American households. The U.S. edition is now in its 28th printing and has sold more than 1.5 million copies. Back in Japan, where tight living spaces are tidy and orderly, original publisher Sunmark Publishing has gone back to the press 72 times, for a total of 1.5 million copies. Translation rights have been licensed to 34 countries, including China, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, and Turkey. So with more than three million copies in print worldwide, it is no wonder that Kondo was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world in 2015.

Kondo, who is currently serving as a spokesperson for a major back-to-school campaign on eBay, has continued to spread her gospel of “joy sparking,” the process of keeping only those items that make one happy and throwing out the rest. Actress and children’s author Jamie Lee Curtis, who wrote about Kondo for Time magazine, has said that should she ever get a tattoo, it would read spark joy.

With the phrase already gaining traction, it is no surprise that the follow-up to Kondo’s bestseller is titled Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up. Set for release in January by Ten Speed, the new book is an illustrated manual on how to declutter and organize specific areas throughout the house, from kitchen and bathroom items to work-related papers and hobby collections.

“User-friendly line drawings illustrate Kondo’s patented folding method as it applies to shirts, pants, socks, and jackets, while images of properly organized drawers, closets, and cabinets highlight the desired end results,” said Lisa Westmoreland, senior editor at Ten Speed Press. The follow-up title, which Westmoreland said answers all the questions Kondo has received since her first book came out, also includes advice from Kondo on moving, packing, and dealing with necessary objects that may not “spark joy.”

Just prior to releasing Spark Joy, Ten Speed will publish Life-Changing Magic: A Journal on December 29. In this daily journal, Kondo invites followers of the KonMari method (which is what Kondo calls her process for deciding whether to discard items) to apply the principle of sparking joy not only to objects in the home but also to all other areas of life. “This journal is a place to jot down what things bring you joy each day, what passions inspire you, what activities you love, and what relationships bring you happiness,” Westmoreland said.

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