Is Kondo the Queen?

You have probably heard quite a lot lately about the Marie Kondo and some are hailing her the Queen of organizing and I decided to do a review not so much of her books but more her approach. For those of you who don’t know who Marie Kondo is, she is a organizing guru that has become an international sensation. She is from Japan originally and has loved organizing her entire life. Marie’s philosophy is that everything you own should “spark joy” or it should go. For organizing she is a bit extreme in thanking her items constantly to emptying her purse and putting everything away when she comes in the door! I look to her more as a declutter expert because a lot of her organizing just isn’t practical. Her 2 books I’ve read are below and well worth the read to gain insight on her approach to not only organizing but life.

I actually love the heart behind Marie Kondo’s philosophy of everything Sparking Joy in your heart, but I don’t find it very practical in terms of actually organizing. Sparking Joy is not only a relative thing but it also completely depends on your mood! If you are annoyed or depressed that day and decide to see what sparks joy, you may toss everything out the door! Instead I like to ask a few questions, first do I typically like this item when I use it? Is this item useful? If this item was no longer in my life would I search for it or a replacement? If I am going to replace the item or search for a replacement, I put it on my list and when I find a great replacement then I will toss or donate it.

Ms. Kondo loves to thank her items for their usefulness. Again great philosophy and I think in the American culture translates more to appreciating your items and taking care of them nicely. I won’t be thanking my items out loud but it has made me stop and pause to appreciate things working nicely in my life and making things like my business or daily life easier. Her concept for me has become more appreciation for what I am using and have.

The last part of her approach to organizing is how you store things, the practical side of organizing. For this she is great! Her folding techniques are a bit lengthy for my taste and I use others but we end up with the same concept. I just don’t want to spend a minute folding each shirt or pants. Ms. Kondo loves small boxes to help sort out anything from drawers to jewelry to your office and I couldn’t agree more. Small decorative or plain boxes can be wonderful. I like them all to match so more often than not I end up with the concept but purchase items that work better for me.

All in all I would say Marie Kondo brings us all some much needed new viewpoint to our lives of appreciating and respecting our things but is her philosophy totally practical, that I am not quite sure works for me.

Have you read her books or watched her Netflix show? What is your taken on the Marie Kondo phenomenon?