Marie Kondo Returns to Netflix

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo was released on Netflix in January 2019. Now, Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (2011), returns to Netflix on August 31st to work with deserving businesses and their owners and employees to teach them how to organize in a 3-part series called Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo.

Does it spark joy?

That's the question organization expert Marie Kondo wants us to ask when we are tidying. It's a phrase that some people deride for its quaintness. But, don't knock it until you try it.

I was that person- I read Kondo's book and thought "what strange nonsense! Touching the things I own and seeing if they spark joy?" And then there's that part where you thank the items before letting them go. Odd, right? However, I decided to try it out, this 'Konmarie' method of tidying. I started with my closet. I thought it would take a couple hours. It took a day and a half. And let me tell you: that "spark joy" thing works. It really works. As I touched every piece of clothes, I could tell which ones I really liked and which ones I held on to because I felt I had to. Into the donate bag went a shirt I had worn just two days earlier.

But that's not all

Here's the thing with the Konmarie method: As you go through your things and get rid of the clutter that doesn't "spark joy", you become very aware of what you own and what you really love to have around you. I have found that, since Konmarie-ing my closet, I've purchased fewer clothes. I'm more intentional when I do buy clothes. That's why the method isn't just "Throw out anything you haven't used in [aribitrary time frame]. When you are intentional in your tidying, you become intentional in what you bring into your home afterward. 

Books

Kondo became the object of incredulous internet chatter when people started posting about how she tidies her own books. Kondo only keeps 30 books in her house and will sometimes take pages out of books that she finds useful before recycling the rest. Booklovers blew up with derision. But the tidying expert clarified he position with IndieWire saying, "It’s not so much what I personally think about books. The question you should be asking is what do you think about books. If the image of someone getting rid of books or having only a few books makes you angry, that should tell you how passionate you are about books, what’s clearly so important in your life. If that riles you up, that tells you something you about that. That in itself is a very important benefit of this process."

When I finally tackled my book shelves, I was able to pass along a lot of books that I was holding onto for no good reason. It felt good to take books off my shelf that I never read but felt I should read which is the only reason I kept them.

All that to say, try the "spark joy" thing. And, enjoy more of Marie Kondo helping people tidy up on Netflix.