Kondo Krass – When will it end?????????

“Spark joy” is becoming the “Where’s the beef?” of the organizing world. WHEN WILL IT END???? Old Navy is now running a radio ad in which a woman laments that the clothes in her closet don’t “ignite delight” – oh wise corporate lawyer, tell us how to avoid potential copyright infringement. A large local church offered…

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No escaping. No escaping.

Today has not been a great day for many of us in the Seattle area: snow, cold, resulting accidents, power outages. My professional society had to cancel tonight’s meeting, which is achingly disappointing because the speaker, Marilyn Paul, was one of our most-anticipated of the year. And now, as I try to chase away the…

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I’m going to call it…

“The Kondo Konsequence.” I’m quoting an email I just got, leaving out the name of the shop to protect the innocent. “At Capacity Wow! Everyone sure has been cleaning house! Due to an overwhelming amount of consignments coming in this week, and being short-staffed we won’t be accepting consignments the rest of this week. Next…

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Marie Kondo, a peer-reviewed compendium

I make no secret of disliking Marie Kondo. I’m gonna link to proof here and here. And I watch very little television these days, follow the news through secondary sources (Facebook, the Weather Channel) and trace it back to primary sources (The New York Times, Washington Post, reputable websites, etc.) as needed. It’s not ignorance,…

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Lazy

Boy and his dog

I’ve decided “lazy” is one of the most vindictive words in the world. Whether it’s Marie Kondo calling her clients “lazy” I-lost-count-of-how-many-times in “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” which to this day I desperately hope is a translation problem and a reflection of deep cultural differences between American Organizers and Ms. Kondo, or Newsweek’s…

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Spark joy by Marie Kondo

Overflowing mail sorter

I disliked Ms. Kondo’s first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I’m warmer to Spark Joy: an illustrated master class on the art of organizing and tidying up. It’s significantly gentler: Ms. Kondo has softened her “my way or else” invocations, acknowledging that people can use other approaches  to their…

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