Marie Kondo’s new Netflix show, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, has everyone talking. Photo: Getty via AFP
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https://scmp.com/culture/books/article/2184986/why-even-decluttering-guru-marie-kondo-lets-some-mess-pile-now-she-has Books
Why even Netflix’s decluttering guru Marie Kondo lets some mess pile up now that she has two kids
- Japanese decluttering queen says that if books bring you joy, don’t throw them away
- She has accepted that, with two young children, she can no longer keep her home perfectly tidy
Japanese decluttering queen Marie Kondo’s Netflix show has sparked a fresh wave of global interest in the tidying concepts she outlined in her bestselling books.
Kondo’s books – including the original The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – are about to be reissued in Japan and her next venture is an online salon aimed at building a community to help relieve the loneliness and stress of tidying up.
In an interview, Kondo was asked about what the patented KonMari Method really means.
Making the Netflix show in California, what surprised you about the way people live and shop, compared with Japan?
What surprised me is that the houses themselves are very big. And the fact that everyone has a garage. A lot of people use it as storage space, rather than as a place to keep their car.
That’s something I didn’t see in Japan. And because you have that storage space you probably just keep accumulating things.
What do you make of the social media controversy about whether you should throw away your books?
I’d never gotten that reaction about books in Japan, so it was something new to me. But there were a lot of misunderstandings. To start with, in my method it is extremely important to keep things that spark joy. So if books bring you joy, it’s absolutely right to hold on to them.
The impression seems to have gone around that you need to throw them away. Somebody has been saying that I tell people to keep only 30 books. I have certainly never said that. I have never given a figure. But when I was tidying up my own house, I wrote that I kept about 30 books.
You have a network of tidying consultants around the world, who are almost all women. Shouldn’t men help out more with housework?
In general, I think there are more women who are deeply interested in creating a nice environment in the home. But there are a lot of men around the world who read my book, and in the Netflix show families work together, of course including men. They do seem to feel how much joy they can bring to their lives by having a tidy home.
Rather than looking at it from the point of view of a man or woman, if you live as a family, it’s good to talk about how you want to organise your home as a person who lives there.
Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, has earned a cult following since its publication in the US in 2014.
You have two children, ages two and three. How can you still maintain a tidy home?
Before I had kids, my principle was always to have my home perfectly tidy, so that anyone could visit at any time. Now I can’t do that at all, but I think I should accept that. I want to teach my kids about tidying up, but it’s not good to get too stressed when you can’t do it. So I want to strike a balance. I do a lot of tidying after they are in bed.
Are you attached to any particular objects yourself?
I feel a strong connection with all my things. It’s really all of my possessions. When people ask me what brings most joy, I feel it very strongly from a saucepan or a piece of crystal or a chair. If anything, it’s too strong.
On the Netflix set with Marie Kondo. Photo: Denise Crew via Netflix
Looking at the Netflix show, people seem to feel you have a spiritual dimension. What do you make of that?
I’ve never tried to present myself in that way. I keep my appearance and clothing exactly the same as in Japan. The habit of “greeting the home” is something I did from the start. When I appeared on Japanese television regularly, they always cut that part. They felt they didn’t need that on a show about tidying up.