Why Americans have a spiritual need for KonMari
Marie Kondo works to restore right relationships between humans and objects.
Since her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up was published in the United States in 2014, Marie Kondo has ignited controversy and delight with her rigorous system of decluttering and organizing. But Kondo doesn’t want merely to reorganize your closets. She wants to transform your soul. Watching her new Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo brings into full relief the missionary edge to her work. And it makes a strong case that most of us need saving.
About halfway through the series, a man on the cusp of fatherhood sits in his garage surrounded by piles of stuff. He is supposed to be discerning between items that spark joy and those that don’t. He reaches for a dented, metal mailbox, the kind that hangs next to a front door, explaining that it was originally on the first house he and his wife bought. He connects it to what it meant to him to buy the house, and to what the house meant to his parents, who are first-generation immigrants. It turns out he has a complicated attachment to an object he has never used and has no intention of using. He turns to Kondo and says, “What do you do with an object like this?”
Kondo gently asks, “So you have decided that this is an object you want to bring into your future?” Immediately the man relaxes. “No,” he says. “When you put it that way, I definitely don’t need this in my future.” He thanks the mailbox for its place in his life (a key part of the KonMari method of tidying) and sets it aside. In a series of monologues, he proceeds to work through a host of feelings related to impending parenthood, his parents, and his immigrant past.
