Why You Should Watch Netflix’s 'Tidying Up with Marie Kondo'

Many of us are victims of consumerism. We seek happiness in the vicious, unforgiving cycle of buy-consume-store-repeat. From current TV shows like Clean House or Hoarding: Buried Alive, we’ve seen how pathological this kind of happiness can be. While not quite as bad as the hoarders of reality television fame, many of us will admit we have rooms full of junk we hold on to like they’re part of us—representations of a memory or of who we used to be. Yet oftentimes, we must also admit, a lot of it is really… just junk. That’s why Marie Kondo, an organizing expert, and author of the New York Times bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, is bringing a different kind happiness to people  by helping them to tackle their clutter issues in her new 2019 Netflix show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.

In each episode, Kondo and her translator enter a different Los Angeles household that needs help decluttering. Kondo’s clients are people just like us, living in  the consequences of dollar stores, Black Fridays, and years of impulsive online shopping. What makes the show relatable, however, is that these people are regular, everyday people. They are not hoarder-level disasters, but average folks trying to deal with excess stuff. They are people dealing with real-life situations—people with messy closets. They are just like us. In Tidying Up, Kondo’s organizational tricks help a new widow organize her late husband’s belongings, and a stressed couple who needs more room for a new baby—you know, feel-good, motivational, get-your-life-in-order, entertaining television.

Kondo teaches her clients to organize their homes with her KonMari method. Instead of tidying each room separately, KonMari focuses on organizing homes by categories of items. Everything is sorted in a specific order: clothing, books, paper documents, komono (“miscellaneous”) and sentimental items. Although this method can be time-consuming, it appears to be effective. In each episode, Kondo has each client take out all of their clothing and create a pile on their bed before sorting through it. The visual of a ceiling-high mountain of clothing leads many people to realize just how much clothing they really own, and how many of the items they have worn only once and then forgotten. This simple, visual approach to understanding  excessiveness can do wonders for disorganized people.

One recurring problem Kondo’s clients have to solve  is which items to keep and which to throw away. She teaches them a singular, powerful technique to help them over this monumental hurdle: if the item doesn’t spark joy, thank it for its service and show it the door. In one scene, she watches patiently as a man debates whether to throw out a mailbox found in his garage. (When I saw this, I just wanted to yell, “This is garbage! Throw it out!” Guess I wouldn’t make a very good TV host.) At this juncture, Kondo calmly states in Japanese, “Is this something that you would like to keep as part of your life going forward?” Upon hearing the English translation, the man pauses, reflects, and finally tosses the useless item.

The mindfulness brought by Kondo to the process of organization is also therapeutic. Each time Kondo meets a new client, she asks to “greet” their home—a process she values very much. After carefully choosing a spot in the house, she kneels, closes her eyes and “connects” with the house’s organizational energy. This is the most poignant scene in each episode: Kondo and her clients sit in silence and think about the home. With some light emotional music underscoring each scene, and close-ups of people with their eyes closed, the moment is a moving meditation on how important order and space are to a healthy life.

Kondo stresses her KonMari method can be applied to other aspects of life. “We can say [thank you]  and goodbye to the people and jobs that don’t spark joy for us, either.” Kondo helps people to realize that happiness isn’t about materialistic pursuits. Happiness is not about having a lot of things; it’s about having the right things; those which spark joy in your life.

What I love about Kondo the most is that she is does not judge or shame people for letting things get out of control. She demonstrates and explains what seem like simple strategies, even if the execution might require a lot of off-camera work. She just accepts the situation for what it is: things to be sorted through.