7 Books You Should Read After “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”

If you aren’t already hip to the value of a good cleaning book, now’s the time to listen up. Along with offering useful housekeeping tips, these books often provide eye-opening philosophical insight about organizing your life. Case in point: Mary Kondo’s bestselling book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.” Not only were readers’ homes transformed by Kondo’s zen approach to simplifying their spaces, their attitudes were too.

So to celebrate all of the cool cleaning and organizing books on the market, we’ve rounded up our favorites for your convenience. While some advocate an eco-friendly lifestyle and others a systemized housekeeping schedule, all agree that the first step to a tidy home involves clearing your mind of the clutter. Read ahead for seven books that might change the way you think and clean.

Arguably the antidote to Kondo’s tidying book, Jennifer McCartney’s The Joy of Leaving Your Sh*t All Over the Place: The Art of Being Messy is all about embracing your sloppiness. Instead of supporting what she calls the “Anti-Clutter Movement” of housekeeping, the book is designed to help the reader distinguish the fine line between being a consumer and being a hoarder. This way you can hold on to all of your random home accents and accessories, while learning to “clutter your home more mindfully.”

If you’re a disorganized person simply looking for simple ways to keep clutter at bay, then Amanda Sullivan’s Organized Enough: The Anti-Perfectionist’s Guide to Getting—and Staying—Organized was written for you. In addition to schooling us on the lifelong habits of super organized people, Sullivan offers advice on how to reframe the way you think about cleaning, in hopes that’ll you’ll streamline your home (and maybe your life, too).

Known internationally for her foolproof approach to quick cleaning, Melissa Maker’s debut book, Clean My Space: The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster, and Loving Your Home Every Day is all about improving your home and more importantly, your mindset. Along with outlining her 3-step solution to power cleaning, the book is filled with eco-conscious housekeeping tips and DIY-style aromatherapy recipes to cheer up both your home and headspace.

Written for all the blissfully messy people in the world, Rachel Hoffman’s Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess reads more like a manifesto than a traditional cleaning book. Filled with helpful cleaning lists and organizing challenges, the book introduces the 20/10 system (20 minutes of cleaning followed by a 10-minute break; no marathon cleaning allowed) to help you develop lifelong good housekeeping skills.

According to author Stephanie Bennett Vogt: “Clutter is not just the junk spilling out of the closet. It is any thing, or thought, that prevents us from experiencing our true nature and best life.” So it’s no surprise that in her book Your Spacious Self: Clear the Clutter and Discover Who You Are she offers useful advice not just for cleaning, but for slowing down and simplifying your life.

An advocate of simple living, Francine Joy’s self-published bestseller The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify is a minimalist’s dream guide. Rather than offer a systemic approach to marathon cleaning, Joy shares easy-to-follow steps to educate readers on forming better cleaning habits as well as a more minimalist mindset. Not only can her “Streamline” method improve your housekeeping skills, it’ll teach you how to properly de-stress and simplify your life.

Written especially for creative types, Fay Wolf’s New Order: A Decluttering Handbook for Creative Folks operates under the belief that a tidy space is key to fueling creativity. Along with introducing some basic rules for keeping your clutter under control at home, Wolf shares a few of her favorite productivity apps—including resources for donating your soon-to-be obsolete stuff—so you can focus on being the best artist you can be. (P.S. Want to see what a pro organizer’s home looks like? We toured Fay Wolf’s space last year.)

By weaving housekeeping tips and worksheets with inspirational stories and meditations, she reminds readers that letting go of stuff (and sometimes people) is necessary in order to live our best lives.

Have you read any of these books?