If you’ve heard of Marie Kondo, you’ve probably heard of the phrase “Does it spark joy?”. For those who don’t know Marie Kondo, below is a quick introduction. After the introduction, I’ll share how to use Marie Kondo’s Spark Joy philosophy to declutter and organise your home, and I’ll reveal why it works.

But first, I’ll quickly explain the link between Tidylicious and Marie Kondo. A few years ago, I decided to change careers and I trained with Marie Kondo’s company to become a Professional Organiser, also known as a Home Decluttering and Organising Consultant. Since becoming a certified KonMari Consultant, I’ve helped many people in London to transform their homes (and lives!), using the KonMari Method.

If you’d like to transform your London home using Marie Kondo’s Spark Joy philosophy, l’d love to have a chat with you. You can book in a Free Consultation with me to talk about your home decluttering needs, and how I can help you, via the button below.

Marie Kondo’s books

Marie Kondo is a home decluttering and organising expert from Japan. She used to work 1:1 with clients to help them transform their spaces into calm, clutter-free havens. Whilst doing this, she developed a strategy to tackle cluttered homes. She wrote a book about it and called her approach the KonMari Method®. The KonMari Method® is gentle yet effective, and is suitable for many homes, personalities, and lifestyles.

Marie Kondo’s first book is called “The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying” and her second book is called “Spark Joy”. More books followed:

• A manga (Japanese style cartoon book) called “The Life Changing Manga Of Tidying Up”. I think this book is great for slightly older children (8+ up to teens), to get them interested in home decluttering and organising.

• A book specifically for smaller children (3-6 years of age): “Kiki & Jax – the life-changing magic of friendship”. I think home decluttering and organising is a life skill that everyone can benefit from, and it’s a good idea to start teaching children about it from as young as possible.

• “Joy at Work”, co-authored by Scott Sonenshein, which is all about decluttering and organising at work. Not just the physical stuff, but also digital items, meetings, decisions, your network and your teams.

• Her most recent book is called “Kurashi at Home”, which shows how organising your home can help you achieve your ideal life.

• In October this year, Marie Kondo will publish yet another book: “Letter From Japan”. In this book she writes about her life in Japan and Japanese customs and daily practices. She reflects on elements of Japanese tradition which have influenced her.

Which Marie Kondo book to read first?

To get you started on decluttering and organising your home, I’d recommend to start with reading Marie Kondo’s first book “The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying”. It explains everything about her method of home decluttering, and contains lots of her own personal stories and stories from her clients. It’s a very easy and inspiring read. By the time you’ve finished reading, you probably want to start decluttering straight away.

Her second book “Spark Joy” explains even more about the KonMari Method® and it contains drawings to show you the KonMari clothes folding technique. I would start decluttering and organising your home straight after reading the first book, and read the second book when you need a new boost of inspiration and motivation.

Reading Joy at Work, a book written by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein, on my sofa in my London home

Marie Kondo on Netflix

Whilst writing books, Marie Kondo also made time to create two Netflix series, both about decluttering and organising:

• Tidying Up With Marie Kondo

• Spark Joy With Marie Kondo

What I love about both series is that they show some fantastic home transformations, in real life homes and real life, realistic situations. They’re not spectacular transformations that you will never be able to achieve by yourself in your own home. Instead, the series will make you feel that you can accomplish this too.

KonMari Inc

Together with husband Takumi Kawahara, Marie Kondo set up KonMari Inc, a company with as its mission to “Organise The World”. My mission with Tidylicious is to “Organise South East London” by providing home decluttering and organising services in Lewisham, Greenwich, Blackheath and surrounding areas. Having said this, I’m happy to travel further afield and have clients all over London, and some outside of London and also online (yes, home decluttering and organising support can be provided via video call!).

Even though KonMari Inc is based in the US and Marie Kondo splits her time between the US and Japan, you can get professional support to declutter and organise your London home using the KonMari Method by booking in a local KonMari Consultant.

What does KonMari Inc do?

• KonMari Inc offer courses to become a KonMari® Consultant. Certified KonMari® Consultants help people to declutter and organise their homes using the KonMari Method®. I did this training and then set up Tidylicious. It’s been life-changing and I absolutely love my career as a Professional Organiser in south east London.

• KonMari Inc shares lots of tips and advice on how to declutter and organise your home. And you can purchase an online 10-lesson course called “Tidy Up”. If you’d like to get professional help to get it done, then you can find a list of certified KonMari® Consultants on their website. KonMari® Consultants are in many different parts of the world, including Lewisham/Greenwich (that’s me!).

• Launched in 2025, KonMari Inc now also offers the KonMari Club. This is a new 12-month programme to help people to not only find and cultivate joy in their homes, but also in other parts of their lives. As part of this programme, there are self-reflection exercises, inspiring talks, and small group coaching, amongst other things. I’m one of the Small Group coaches, and meet up online every other week with my small group to reflect on that month’s theme and to encourage and inspire each other to cultivate a spark-joy life.

• There’s also an online shop where you can purchase storage solutions and other items for your home, all in Marie Kondo’s signature style, which is almost Japandi-like – a fusion of Japanese and Scandinavian interior design styles.

Spark Joy = focus on the positive

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that “Does it spark joy?” the catch phrase is of Marie Kondo. After a bit of background information on Marie Kondo, I’ll now share how to use her spark joy philosophy when you’re decluttering your home, and I’ll reveal why this method works.

Marie Kondo suggests that when you declutter and organise your home, to approach it by sorting through all your items and asking yourself for each item “Does it spark joy?”. If an item sparks joy, you keep it. If it doesn’t spark joy, you let the item go.

What I love about using this approach, is that you focus on what you’d like to keep. You don’t go through your items and pick out the ones that you no longer want or need. Instead, you focus on the positive, on what sparks joy.

Although deciding what to keep and deciding what to discard may sound like different sides of the same coin, from the perspepctive of psychology they are worlds apart. To choose what sparks joy is to focus on the postive aspects of the things we own, while to choose what to discard is to focus on the negative.

Scott Sonenshein – co-author of Joy at Work

Focusing on what you want to keep often makes the decluttering process a lot easier. You don’t focus on the negative, and you don’t need to decide what you don’t like. Rather, the process almost decides this for you. After looking at your belongings in this way, you will end up with two piles. One with items to keep (these are the items that you have actively chosen to keep), the other with items to let go of (this pile almost forms by itself). 

But how does this Spark Joy philosophy work? How do I use the spark joy philosophy in practical terms?

But how does it actually work, I hear you ask. Shouldn’t I consider whether I’ve ever used the item, or ask myself when the last time was that I used it. In the case of wardrobe decluttering, perhaps I should also consider if it’s still in fashion, and whether it still fits me? Isn’t it easier to use a hard and fast rule, such as “if you haven’t used an item for the past 12 months, it should go”?

No. Although there is (sometimes) a time and a place for these kind of considerations.

Marie Kondo’s advice? Don’t (over) think; instead, listen to your inner voice.

How to learn to listen to your inner voice

At first, “listening to your inner voice” might take some getting used to. But there is a simple trick, or hack if you like, to get you started. If you’re decluttering and organising your home using the KonMari Method, you start with your wardrobe. Choose a category of clothing that you’re not too attached to. If you love wearing dresses, but are not so fussed about your jeans, I’d start with dresses. As a warm up.

Take all your dresses out of your wardrobe – and from anywhere else in your home that you might have clothes stored – and put them in a pile. On your bed, on the floor or on a table. Pick your favourite dresses and hold them one by one and notice what you feel when you’re holding them. It can help to close your eyes at this point, so that you can really focus.

What you’re feeling right there, is what you should experience for every dress – and any other item in your home – that you choose to keep. Remember that feeling, and aim for it with all the belongings that will remain in your home.

Why does this Spark Joy approach work?

Once we start thinking, rather than feeling, all kinds of reasons why we should perhaps not let go of an item tend to pop up.

It was expensive.

It was a gift.

I’ve hardly used it.

I don’t want to add to landfill.

In an ideal world, we would love every item that we buy and every gift that we receive. In that same perfect world, we use each and every item until there’s no use left in it. However, it doesn’t always work like this in the real world. And that’s ok. Why hold onto items, and to the guilt attached to these items, rather than giving yourself permission to simply let go and feel lighter?

Yes, you might be adding a little more to landfill when you’re going through the process of home decluttering, but if an item can still be used by other people, it’s often easy enough to pass it on. Those things that are going to landfill will go to landfill anyway at some point, so you might as well get rid of these items now and treat yourself to a clutter-free home.

Marie Kondo’s KonMari / Spark Joy Method works, because it focuses on joy. Simply ignore all those thoughts listed above and instead choose joy. You deserve it. You deserve a joyful home. A home where you can relax and feel calm.

If we focus on the negative when we discard, the best we can hope for is to eliminate what we don’t like. Not being sick isn’t the same as being healthy, not being poor isn’t the same as being rich, and not being sad isn’t the same as being happy. Likewise, getting rid of things we don’t like isn’t the same as choosing things that spark joy.

Scott Sonenshein – co-author of Joy at Work

You are worthy of a home that makes you smile the moment you walk in. And you have the power (or work with me to get some of my power!) to create that space — one that truly supports and uplifts you every day.

Author: Hester Van Hien from Tidylicious is a KonMari Consultant and Home Decluttering & Organising Expert based in south east London. Using Marie Kondo’s method, she helps clients in and around London to transform their homes so that they can live with more joy in an organised, clutter-free home.