Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, has been on the U.S. best-seller list since October. I hesitated to even write this article because I assumed that everyone knows of her. I was talked into writing it by her supporters (cult members love to spread the word!) and by those who weren’t sure if they knew who she was or not.
Marie Kondo (“call me KonMari”) is a 30-year-old home-organizing guru. She is as neat and trim as she wants her clients’ homes to be. She brings a mystical approach to decluttering. In the ‘keep’ pile, she wants clients to keep only those items that ‘spark joy’. Clients should thank the items that are getting pitched for their service. Everything that can be folded should be, and she has her own technique for folding. Everyone who has applied her folding techniques to their closets swear that they gained a great deal more space in their drawers. After folding everything set it upright in the drawer.
Marie Kondo
She has an enormous following. Fans have started Kondo clubs, Facebook groups and there are lots of Kondo Tweets. Kondo has become a verb, as in “I Kondoed my underwear drawer this morning.” Over two million copies of her book have been sold worldwide.
In Japan, living a clutter-free life is a philosophy because Japanese apartments are so small. She developed an interest when she was young, and wrote her college thesis on how to declutter one’s apartment.
How to Kondo from the Wall Street Journal:
- Tidy by category: Clothes first, then books, papers, miscellany and sentimental items.
- Don’t foist your unwanted stuff on family members who might take it out of guilt. Give it to charity or sell it.
- “There is nothing more annoying than papers. Throw them all away, unless they are absolutely necessary.”
- Forget fancy storage containers, they will tempt you to keep stuff. Drawers and shoeboxes often suffice.
- Avoid piles. Tip items up on their sides and store them next to each other, rather than stacking them.
You Tube videos:
A Google Talk with Marie Kondo
Marie Kondo folds an underwear drawer
Marie Kondo organizes a bookshelf and an office
Ms. Kondo’s newest guide to organizational bliss, Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up has just come out to make it even easier to get with her program!
