Marie Kondo is offering an eight-week home tidying challenge to help people improve their emotional well-being.
Kondo, who created the “KonMari Method” for tidying up, announced the challenge on Instagram in July.
The eight-week challenge starts not with tidying, but with a week of planning and preparing. Then, starting in the second week, homes are tidied not by room, but by category: first clothing, then books, then papers, then small items around the house — and even computer data.
Each week, the process begins by gathering all the items together and deciding which ones “spark joy” for the owner. Those that do not spark joy are to be thrown out or given away.
Kondo’s website says the challenge is for people who want to tidy their home but don’t know where to start. People are encouraged to take photos as they tidy, sharing them with the hashtag #mykonmari.
Research has found that a tidy home can actually have various health benefits.
In 2016, researchers from the University of New Mexico and DePaul University found that a cluttered home can have a negative effect on people’s mental well-being. A 2015 study from St. Lawrence University even found that people with cluttered homes tend not to sleep as well as those who keep their homes tidy.
Kondo’s books, beginning with The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, have sold more than 10 million copies around the world. She also had a Netflix show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, in 2019.
