Marie Kondo changes approach and reveals: «My house is messy»

A certainty that collapses and perhaps even better this way. Marie Kondo, the Japanese tidying guru, has abandoned order and extreme cleanliness. She revealed it a few days ago during a webinar to promote her latest book, Marie Kondo’s Kurashi at Home: How to Organize Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life.

“My house is messy, but the way I spend my time right now is right at this stage of life,” said Marie, according to reports The Washington Post. The change of course came after the birth of her third child, in 2021: “Up to now I have been a professional in the order and I have always done my best to keep the house impeccable”, continued Kondo, 38 years old. “Giving up this makes me feel good. Now I realize that what matters to me is having fun and spending more time with my children.

Kondo, who together with her husband Takumi Kawahara, married in 2012, also has two daughters, became famous thanks to her KonMari method, with which she has helped her many followers to free their homes from clutter and, according to her, also to transform their lives. Her bestselling book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up as of 2011, it has sold more than 10 million copies and has been translated into 40 languages. His 2019 Netflix series Tidying Up it was a viral hit.

In his latest book, published last November 2022, Kondo addresses the Japanese concept of kurashiunderstood as a “lifestyle”. “Tidying up means taking care of all the things in your life,” writes the author. “What do you really want to tidy up?”

Kondo further revealed that sticking so rigidly to her principles made her feel exhausted or often overcome with anxiety. Not for nothing, in a previous interview with People she had spoken of the negative impact on her mental health of certain perfectionist tendencies: ‘There was a time when my schedule was so busy that I felt physically and mentally exhausted. It also happened to me when I was pregnant with my first daughter and the pressure was so strong that sometimes I couldn’t control my emotions and at the end of the day I would start crying,” she said. “I was a perfectionist, but it became difficult to maintain certain standards after having children. I hope my openness on the subject helps others loosen their grip. I gave up on perfectionism a while ago!”