“Does it spark joy?” Marie Kondo gave us on the way. “Does it make you happy?” And if clothes, books or souvenirs no longer made us happy, then they set off – out of their own four walls. With bestsellers and a docu-soap on Netflix, Kondo has inspired people around the world to declutter in recent years. When an item becomes unhappy, Kondo advises thanking it for its services and then letting it go. The apartments and houses that Marie Kondo visited for “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” on Netflix were more spacious, airy, emptier afterwards.
Now, however, it looks like Marie Kondo has cleaned up something too. Namely with the idea of a perfectly tidy home. Her own is chaotic, said the 38-year-old recently in a webinar quoted by the Washington Post. But the way she spends her time is right for her at this stage in her life. Kondo welcomed her third child in 2021. Priorities have shifted since then. Even the tidying queen doesn’t have the superpowers that would make a home with three kids an Olympus of order.
The bestselling author published a new book a few months ago. “Marie Kondo’s Kurashi at Home: How to Organize Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life,” reads it. The concept of kurashi means something like “way of life; the way of passing the day until the sun goes down”. Kondo explores how the little things can bring calm and happiness to everyday life. And that doesn’t necessarily have to be just order. It’s about developing your own rhythm and routines – based on what makes you happy, summarizes the “Washington Post”.
At a time when things have gotten a bit messier even for tidy-up queen Kondo — although her Instagram account is still a haven of order — things are changing in terms of minimalism, too. For years, this was a popular furnishing style among millennials, who liked it beige and subdued and preferred to have less than too much hanging around in their old apartments.
This breaks the cluttercore trend. Young people are celebrating it at Tiktok. They love odds and ends and show their apartments packed with furniture, pictures and all sorts of objects. Preferably everything as colorful as possible (there are some examples and more about them here). If all of these objects bring joy to their owners in the spirit of Marie Kondo, then they must be very lucky people.
Source: Washington Post, Rowohlt, Instagram
