The runaway success of Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up—almost 916,000 print units sold since its October 2014 release, according to Nielsen BookScan—has revealed a tremendous appetite among the book-buying public for streamlining and simplifying. Self-published variations on the theme followed almost immediately; below, we sample the next wave of decluttering books from mainstream houses, with more surely to follow.
Spark Joy
Marie Kondo
Ten Speed, Jan. 2016
The mother of modern decluttering self-help, Kondo
further illuminates her ideas with illustrated instructions. Line drawings walk readers through Kondo’s renowned folding method and show exactly what well-organized closets, drawers, and rooms should look like.
New Order
Fay Wolf
Ballantine, March 2016
Named for the decluttering business the author launched in 2006, this book turns a tidy eye on those in artistic professions, making the case that creative does not have to mean messy. Wolf, a singer-songwriter and actor, also creates one-minute tip videos for Apartment Therapy.
Unstuffed
Ruth Soukup
Zondervan, April 2016
The author of 2014’s Living Well, Spending Less (Zondervan; more than 42,000 print units sold per BookScan) outlines how readers can clear the unnecessary and unhealthy from their homes and work spaces, as well as their to-do lists and personal relationships. —A.P.