A.C.E.
November 18, 2019
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 13
Marie Kondo’s doing what she can to make your kids tidy
By Leanne Italie
The Associated Press
N
EW YORK — Not even Marie Kondo can follow
all her rules for tidying all the time.
“Of course, when things get very busy, I need to
let go of some of my standards and methods, and I think
that’s a completely natural thing,” the decluttering guru,
Netflix reality star, and mother of two told The Associated
Press.
The soft-spoken Kondo was tight-lipped on exactly what
she lets slide, besides leaving her house slippers in the
middle of the floor occasionally, but one thing’s for sure:
When it comes to Kondo, the emphasis is on busy these
days.
Kondo has amassed an empire by urging the world to
decide if their belongings “spark joy” and has expanded
her reach yet again with her debut children’s picture book,
Kiki & Jax: The Life-Changing Magic of Friendship,
co-written and illustrated by Salina Yoon.
For grownups who fight chaos on the job, she has
partnered with organizational psychologist Scott
Sonenshein on a new book due out in April, Joy at Work:
Organizing Your Professional Life, aimed at sorting out
desks, schedules, and inboxes.
Kondo and the first season of her Netflix series,
“Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” were nominated for two
Emmys this year, with no wins. While discussions are
underway for a second season, she has slowly gone about
dispensing advice on a broader range of lifestyle topics,
from knowing when a relationship no longer sparks joy to
making the perfect bento box for kids.
Later this month on her website, Konmari.com, she’ll
start selling some of the things that spark her own joy at
home but are made by others, such as her favorite incense
and rice cooker. And in the last year, she has expanded her
network of KonMari-certified consultants to about 300 in
more than 30 countries.
With Kondo’s Netflix show came a move to Los Angeles
with her husband and daughters, ages four and three. It
was her second time living in the United States — the first
was a stint in San Francisco. The families she helped on
Netflix were all in the Los Angeles area, including Wendy
and Ron Akiyama.
She said the empty nesters posed the greatest challenge
during the eight-episode season with their mountain of
clothes, out-of-control Christmas decorations, and boxes
stuffed with thousands of baseball cards.
“There was so much stuff,” Kondo said through a
translator during a recent interview. “I’ve tidied up a lot of
messy homes in Japan, but they tended to be quite small.
On this American scale, and especially the amount of
things in the garage, it was quite shocking.”
For now, Kondo is promoting her picture book. The story
of Kiki, a squirrel with a hoarding problem, and Jax, a
KONDO FOR KIDS. Author and television personality Marie Kondo
poses for a portrait to promote her children’s book, Kiki & Jax: The Life-
Changing Magic of Friendship, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/
Invision/AP)
meticulous owl who loves to sort, is a sweet extension of
the bestseller that led to her global influence, The
Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Kiki’s inability to find anything at home gets in the way
of their friendship. Jax presents Kiki with a scrapbook of
their bond and helps her disorganized friend put his home
in order. They sort piles of stuff to donate, recycle, or
throw away, using Kondo’s method of folding clothes and
stacking them upright in his drawers.
“After I became a mother, I wanted to teach my children
how to tidy,” the 35-year-old Kondo said. “I was wondering
how could I make that process more fun? The picture book
seemed like the perfect idea.”
She credits Yoon for the idea of the characters. Kondo
had Yoon draw in some of her daughters’ favorite toys — a
pink ukulele painted with flowers and a stuffed donkey.
Is it easier to follow the KonMari method of tidying if
one was raised in a tidy household?
“Of course, it’s important to have a tidy home, but
there’s no need for it to be completely perfect or absolutely
organized,” Kondo said. “What’s more important is that
the children get to see their parents tidying.”
Kondo had no children when she first set out to conquer
the world of tidying. That triggered some parents who
chided her for having no real idea just how big a mess kids
can make and how disorganized harried parents can
become.
“I think my standard for tidying definitely changed
after I had children,” she said. “Before, I think my ideal
was a perfectly organized home, but naturally children do
tend to make a mess, and I’m also limited in time as well.
It can be quite exhausting as all mothers know. I think I’ve
become much more forgiving of myself.”
ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat” series finale set
Continued from page 7
emotional
reaction
to
having to pass on a passion
project because it conflicted
with “Fresh Off the Boat.”
The comedy that airs at
8:30pm Friday is averaging
3.1 million weekly viewers
for the season to date,
For more information, please call 1-800-860-8747 or visit www.ndep.nih.gov.
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making it No. 69 out of
about 80 network pro-
grams. Its direct compe-
tition includes “Hawaii
Five-0” on CBS, which is
drawing nearly triple the
audience and ranks 26th
for the season so far,
according to Nielsen.