In her new, most personal book to date, bestselling author Marie Kondo shows us central values and traditions of Japanese culture that give her own life support and orientation and that she wants to convey to subsequent generations:**** Preserve & Appreciate: Through the worship of the cherry blossom and the influence of the seasons, we learn how to recognize and appreciate the beauty in small things. Perfection & Perfection: Using the example of the meditative art of the tea ceremony and the precision of manga, we learn to strive for mastery in what we do. Consideration & Fairness: Through the concept of onsen (care for public places), she shows us how taking care of our surroundings and fellow human beings can guide our actions. Harmony & Balance: Japanese garden art and the Japanese art of negotiation teach us to live a life in balance and to resolve conflicts elegantly. Cleansing & Purification: Meditation and a conscious tidying culture help us to clear not only our home, but also our mind. Enjoyment & Joy: We learn ways to integrate conscious enjoyment into our lives as an integral and nourishing component. Using personal anecdotes, Marie Kondo makes the timeless wisdom of her Japanese homeland tangible and shows how we can find and cultivate harmony within ourselves in the midst of modern chaos. Biography (Marie Kondo) Even as a teenager, Marie Kondo had a soft spot for magazines about household, living, lifestyle and furnishing. In her free time, she enthusiastically devoted herself to domestic activities such as cooking, vacuuming, cleaning, sewing and tidying up. In the years that followed, she increasingly made the theory and practice of tidying up her topic. She read all about it, talked to experts and tried out all the ordering strategies. In her sophomore year of college, she founded her own company and developed what would become known as the "KonMari Method" in Japan. As a professional tidying and tidying consultant, she organized seminars and courses that soon became an insider tip.