Staying Fit
Did Marie Kondo just give us permission to be messy?
The Japanese organizational guru who has built an empire around paring down objects and putting everything in its place recently admitted that her house isn’t as tidy as it used to be. She’s now a mother of three and has a new book out which focuses on the idea of kurashi or the Japanese version of “way of life.”

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That means that her focus is on finding happiness in everyday actions or routines, she said through an interpreter at a recent media webinar and virtual tea ceremony, as reported by The Washington Post. Kondo’s no longer intent on making sure every single room in her house is organized. In fact, she admitted her home is “messy.”
Wow.
Almost a decade after convincing millions, me included, they needed to purge their homes to spark joy, she’s having a change of heart? Thanks, I guess.
When I retired in 2017, I was full Team Kondo. At the time, I’d spent 30 years in my large, three-story house, and it was crammed with enough stuff to fill a warehouse.
The attic was overflowing with old Christmas decorations, toys long forgotten and clothes I hadn’t worn in years. The basement was littered with dozens of cans of dried-out old paint, rusted tools from my grandfather and spare parts to appliances I no longer owned. There were boxes of old linens, pots and pans, and kitchen utensils I’d inherited from my mom, and dozens of large, cut-glass bowls and serving pieces, along with more kitchen utensils, I’d inherited from my aunt.
In retrospect, I should have contested their wills.