Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Marie Kondo: Flipping Reality TV on its Head
Last week, I was invited to the 92nd Street Y to watch the first episode of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo’s new reality show on Netflix. After the show, Kate Rosman of The New York Times interviewed Ms. Kondo. While I’m generally a total snob about reality television, I found the episode to be less fake and dramatic than I expected. I also came away with a few thoughts.
One thing, which clarified Kondo’s “method” for me, was that unlike when I work with clients, Kondo pulled everything out, and then left. Wow. I would never do that to you! My first thought was, “How can she do that to this poor mother with two toddlers? Her bed is covered in clothes! How is she going to sort through them all before bedtime?” At one point the woman says to Kondo, “Oh, I see, you seem all sweet, but really you are tough.” Right. Well, I wouldn’t have a business if I did that—no one would ever hire me back. But then I found myself wondering: Maybe the commitment, the suffering that they have to go through, helps Kondo’s method stick. Maybe if I made it more miserable, my clients would be better at maintaining. The episode elapses over a month during which the couple are living in various stages of chaos, with Kondo dropping in once a week to set them on their next step. That’s a long time to be living in chaos.
I was also surprised by the realism of the “after” shots. I’ve done a few TV shows, and the directors weren’t worried about truth in television, they wanted dramatic before-and-after shots. By contrast, Kondo’s were so un-dramatic that I found myself wishing they could have at least erased the chalkboard in the kids’ room and I was itching to get my hands on the mom’s shoe rack because I know I could have made them look better in five minutes. Ms. Rosman made an interesting point when she observed that in most reality TV makeover shows, the homeowners go away while the experts transform the space and then bring the couple back for the big reveal. In Tidying Up, Kondo arrives, gets the couple started and the big reveal is when they show her what they have done.
As with all things KonMarie (and there are so many!), I feel she is a kindred spirit, but I also passionately disagree with some of her methods. However, I found the show to be better than I had anticipated, and it could be inspiring to anyone who is trying to combat clutter in their life. In the end it doesn’t really matter if you are Kondo-ing, or Swedish death cleaning or just getting “organized enough,” if you’re letting go of clutter, it’s a good thing.