Marie Kondo says there is an ‘impossible standard’ of having a tidy home
Marie Kondo, the decluttering expert famed for helping people clean up their living spaces, has admitted that there is an “impossible standard” of maintaining a tidy home.
Kondo, 40, who is from Osaka, Japan, rose to fame through her 2010 best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up and on the hit 2019 Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, in which she coached people to organise their homes using her unique tidying technique, the KonMari Method.
Kondo built a brand on her decluttering method while travelling the world promoting her book, which has since sold more than six million copies.
However, in a new interview, Kondo has admitted that having children has changed her outlook on how much tidying she does, and has taught her to accept that messiness is a normal part of daily life.
“My home is messy, but it’s the right way for me at this stage of my life,” she told The Telegraph. “Now I realise what is important to me is enjoying spending time with my children at home. There’s simply not enough time in the day. It’s never worth tidying up at the expense of bringing negative energy to the family.”
“As long as the living room floor is clean, then it’s OK.”
Kondo admitted that her perfectionism has been her worst personal challenge to deal with because she would end up being “physically and emotionally exhausted” by going above and beyond each day.
“There was a time when my schedule was so packed,” she recalled. “I took a lot of pride from tidying up everything I had. It became difficult to maintain that perfectionism after having my children.
“Time became a limiting factor. So much was out of my control. I hope my openness on the subject will help others to ease up on impossible standards.”
She added: “I realised that prioritising the time I spent with my family sparked more.”
Kondo shares a son and two daughters with her husband Takumi Kawahara, whom she married in 2012.
The decluttering expert won over fans with her unique tidying technique called the KonMari Method, which encourages separating personal items into certain categories; starting with clothes, then books, papers, miscellaneous items, and sentimental items.
Then, the next step is to figure out which of these possessions make the owner feel good about themselves, or, as Kondo put it, “sparks joy”.
Asking whether something sparks joy or not should give you an insight into whether you still need that item or not, or whether it’s time to get rid of it.
Kondo wrote on her blog in 2023 that when she welcomed her first child, she struggled with adapting to a new pace of life.
“Just after my older daughter was born, I felt unable to forgive myself for not being able to manage my life as I had before,” she wrote. “But, with time, I eased up on myself; then, after I gave birth to my second daughter, I let go of my need for perfection altogether.”
“I am busier than ever after having my third child, so I have grown to accept that I cannot tidy every day – and that is okay!”
