What is the Marie Kondo Effect, And Why Is Everybody Talking About It

Tidying your home and choosing to keep only things that, “spark joy” may seem like a simple concept but it’s one that can be extended to tackle your new year’s resolutions head-on. Organisation mastermind Marie Kondo has taken the world by storm and now visits real people in their homes to show how it's done.

If, like many of us, you’ve resolved to declutter and streamline your life this year by getting rid of unwanted clothes, food, homewares, gadgets and excess stuff in your life, we think you need to sit down… and start your new year with a Netflix binge.

If, like the rest of the interiors-loving world, you’ve already fallen in love with Marie Kondo and her joy-sparking, sweet-smiling ways, you can now share an evening in your own living room with the author of "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up": The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.

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Everybody is already obsessed with Ms Kondo and have embraced her methods of carefully folded, vertically stacked t-shirts and smalls. You too may have already binged on the eight-episode series and are now knee-deep in piles of soon-to-be-chucked clothing, books and boxes.

“I watched the whole series in a day,” says Men’s Health digital content editor Alex Pierotti, who then proceeded to clean out his jam-packed wardrobe. “It simply teaches you to be tidy in under 45 minutes, but it’s about the end journey – what I liked most is that it’s not about finding stuff to get rid of, it’s about finding what to keep.”

Despite having already done a huge declutter before Christmas, digital content manager for health homes and food at Home Beautiful, Charlotte Dalziel - who has just completed a self-imposed year of not buying clothes – decluttered her entire home after watching just two episodes. “I revisited my cupboards with the question of whether the remaining items sparked joy and removed even more!” she beams.

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Assistant digital content manager for health homes and food at Women's Health, Lauren Williamson was inspired by the stories of personal growth in the series – watching Kondo work with families, couples, even grieving widows, to resolve larger life issues by getting rid of clutter and collected belongings that had been weighing them down. “Everyone in the home is encouraged to take responsibility for storing their own things,” says Lauren, who loved watching Kondo involve children in particular in the tidying process and enjoyed seeing the Japanese-born organisation guru baffled by the habits and Americanisms of her clients. “One couple genuinely seemed to like each other more after tidying their house together,” Lauren marvels.

Bookmark it on Netflix now and we dare you to watch just one episode. In the meantime, here’s a sneaky taste:

Introducing KonMari

This article originally appeared on Home Beautiful.