Relatable: Marie Kondo Gives Up

It was 2019 and the world was packed a need to clean up. The premiere of Tidy up with Marie Kondo on Netflix sparked a wave of organizing and decluttering at home that was so rabid Thrift stores have been overwhelmed by the number of donations people have made.

In the uber-soothing Netflix series and his similar successor, the organizational consultant of the same name went into people’s homes and taught them to let go of clutter and only embrace what “brings joy.” And as the heart and center of Clean up and Sparkling joyMarie Kondo became so recognizable that her name converted into a verb. memes were made from her Tags. Her message of clearing the physical space to clear the mind resonated across cultures and languages. Through her trademarked KonMari method, Kondo has become a global icon of cleanliness and order – the patron saint of well-folded laundry.

But now it is 2023. A lot has happened in the world since the days before the Covid-19 pandemic. And if your once perfectly cataloged dresser drawers aren’t that neat anymore, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in good company with this Gizmodo author and with the queen of cleanliness, Kondo herself.

“Until now I’ve been a professional tidy-up, so I’ve done my best to keep my home clean at all times,” she said via interpreter at a recent media webinar. as reported by The Washington Post. More recently, “I kind of gave that up,” she noted. And declared unequivocally: “My home is messy”.

Kondo gave birth to her third child in 2021 and has seemingly reevaluated her priorities since then. She said she gave up the umbrella organization “in a good way”. Instead of spending endless hours perfecting her home, “I now realize that spending time at home with my kids is important to me.” For her, focusing on family over giving up is a time that “too at this time, in this phase of my life, is right for me”.

To which Gizmodo says: Good for them! She may have built an organizational empire of bookstv shows, brand partnershipsand housewares, all of which essentially carry the message that you’re getting your act together, but everyone deserves a break from the endless work of categorizing life’s clutter.

Plus, if Marie Kondo isn’t even KonMari-ing, maybe that means the rest of us are free to stew in our slop. Does the ever-growing pile of documents and unopened mail on my desk make me “joy?” No comment. But with Kondo’s blessing, I’ll leave it there another day.