Kondo Your Condo and Keep the Things That Spark Joy

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis described Marie Kondo as a modern-day “Marie Poppins” in TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015. Kondo “has turned decluttering . . . into shelf help, an art form with a legion of newly neat devotees,” Curtis wrote. The popularity of Kondo’s organizing techniques has caused her name to become a verb. If you have kondoed your house, you’ve removed the unnecessary belongings. Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant and her most recent book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, has been published in 16 countries. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Marie Kondo about her career.

TJ: Can you tell us about what you do?
KONDO: I work as an organizing consult- ant. I gave individual lessons at my clients’ homes for over 10 years. But since I released my newest book, I’ve been busy visiting many di erent countries for promotion or training organizing consultants rather than working as a consultant myself.

TJ: What makes your service unique?
KONDO: My cleaning or tidying methods consist of many different techniques. One technique is to tidy everything all at once. For example, when you organize your clothes, you gather all the clothes you have, put them in one place and from there you choose the ones you need. My organizing method focuses on how you choose things that are necessary for you – if it makes your heart sparkle or not. You choose things to keep instead of choosing things to throw away, which people conventionally do.

TJ: So you throw things away that don’t make your heart sparkle. Do companies use a different approach?
KONDO: First of all, I recommend that you clean your house before starting your office. If the expression “makes your heart sparkle” isn’t suitable at your workplace, then you can choose depending on whether it improves the company’s operations, brings benefits or not, and so on. In any case, the important thing is to have a clear standard for choosing.

The complete article is available in Issue #277. Click here to order from Amazon.