Marie Kondo Popular Books

Marie Kondo Biography & Facts

Marie Kondo (近藤 麻理恵, Kondō Marie, pronounced [kondoː maɾie], born 9 October 1984), also known as Konmari (こんまり), is a Japanese organizing consultant, author, and TV presenter.Kondo has written four books on organizing, which have collectively sold millions of copies around the world. Her books have been translated from Japanese into several languages, and her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (2011) has been published in more than 30 countries. It was a best-seller in Japan and in Europe, and was published in the United States in 2014.In 2015 she was named to the TIME 100 list of the world's most influential people.In the United States and the United Kingdom, the profile of Kondo and her methods were greatly promoted by the success of the Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, released in 2019, which gained Kondo a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program. Kondo opened an online store called KonMari the same year. In August 2021, Netflix released a follow-up show, Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo. Life Early life Kondo was born on 9 October 1984 in Osaka, Japan. She has an older brother and a younger sister. Kondo claims her study of neatness began at age 5, when feng shui became trendy in Tokyo, Japan; its Japanese equivalent was called fusui. Her mother "was applying the method, but to [Kondo's] eye, the house was not tidy enough to have the feng shui effect". As a result, Kondo began implementing the "tidying up" process at this age to help her mother's efforts. Education and early career Kondo attended the Chūō Ward Hisamatsu Elementary School.Afterwards, she attended private Quaker school Friends Girls Junior & Senior High School in Mita, Minato, Tokyo.In junior school, Kondo ran into the classroom to tidy up bookshelves while her classmates were playing in physical education class. Whenever there were nominations for class roles, she did not seek to be the class representative or the pet feeder. Instead, she yearned to be the bookshelf manager to continue tidying up books. She said she experienced a breakthrough in organizing one day: "I was obsessed with what I could throw away. One day, I had a kind of nervous breakdown and fainted. I was unconscious for two hours. When I came to, I heard a mysterious voice, like some god of tidying telling me to look at my things more closely. And I realized my mistake: I was only looking for things to throw out. What I should be doing is finding the things I want to keep. Identifying the things that make you happy: that is the work of tidying."She founded her organising consulting business when she was 19 and a sociology student at Tokyo Woman's Christian University. In her senior year, she wrote her capstone thesis, titled "Tidying up as seen from the perspective of gender".She spent five years as an attendant maiden at a Shinto shrine. KonMari method Kondo's method of organizing is known as the KonMari method, and consists of gathering together all of one's belongings, one category at a time, and then keeping only those things that "spark joy" (Japanese language ときめく tokimeku, translated as equivalent to English "flutter, throb, palpitate"), and choosing a place for everything from then on. Kondo advises to start the process of tidying up by "quickly and completely" discarding whatever it is in the house that doesn't spark joy. Following this philosophy will acknowledge the usefulness of each belonging and help owners learn more about themselves, which will help them be able to more easily decide what to keep or discard. She advises to do this by category of items and not their location in the house. For example, all the clothes in the house should be piled up first, assessed for tokimeku, and discarded if not needed, followed by other categories such as books, papers, miscellany, and mementos. Another crucial aspect of the KonMari method is to find a designated place for each item in the house and making sure it stays there. Kondo says that her method is partly inspired by the Shinto religion. Cleaning and organizing things properly can be a spiritual practice in Shintoism, which is concerned with the energy or divine spirit of things (kami) and the right way to live (kannagara): Treasuring what you have; treating the objects you own as not disposable, but valuable, no matter their actual monetary worth; and creating displays so you can value each individual object are all essentially Shinto ways of living. Media appearances A two-part TV dramatisation was filmed in 2013 based on Kondo and her work, titled 人生がときめく片づけの魔法 (Jinsei ga Tokimeku Katazuke no Mahō). She has lectured and made television appearances. She released a series of videos teaching "the best way to fold for perfect appearance".On 1 January 2019, Netflix released a series called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. In the series, Kondo visits various American family homes full of clutter and guides the families in tidying up their houses through her KonMari method. Following the release of her Netflix series, Kondo was the subject of various Internet memes. A clip of her saying "I love mess" included on Time's list of the ten best memes of 2019.In August 2021, Kondo followed up Tidying Up with Marie Kondo with a similar series for Netflix titled Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo. Personal life Kondo married Kawahara Takumi in 2012. At the time they met, Kawahara was working in sales-support and marketing at a corporation in Osaka. Once Kondo's career was established, he left his job to become her manager and, eventually, CEO of Konmari-Media, LLC.The couple has two daughters and a son. After getting married, they lived in Tokyo; the couple later moved to San Francisco and then Los Angeles.After the birth of her third child, Kondo's rigorous attitude towards tidying her home relaxed in order to make room for more personal priorities at this stage of her life. Publications Jinsei ga Tokimeku Katazuke no Mahō (人生がときめく片づけの魔法). Tokyo: Sunmark Shuppan, 2011; ISBN 978-4-7631-3120-1 (in Japanese) English translation. The life-changing Magic of Tidying up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2014; ISBN 978-1607747307. Jinsei ga Tokimeku Katazuke no Mahō 2 (人生がときめく片づけの魔法2). Tokyo: Sunmark Shuppan, 2012; ISBN 978-4-7631-3241-3. Mainichi ga Tokimeku Katazuke no Mahō (毎日がときめく片付けの魔法), Tokyo: Sunmark Shuppan, 2014; ISBN 978-4-7631-3352-6. Irasuto de Tokimeku Katazuke no Mahō = The Illustrated Guide to the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (イラストでときめく片付けの魔法). Tokyo: Sunmark Shuppan, 2015; ISBN 978-4-7631-3427-1. Manga de Yomu Jinsei ga Tokimeku Katazuke no Mahō. Tokyo: Sunmark Publishing, 2017; English translation. The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: a magical story. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2017; ISBN 978-0-399-58053-6.References External links Official website Marie Kondo at IMDb Marie Kondo (2015). "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Talks at Google. on Y.... Discover the Marie Kondo popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Marie Kondo books.

Best Seller Marie Kondo Books of 2024

  • Unclutter Your Life in One Week synopsis, comments

    Unclutter Your Life in One Week

    Erin Rooney Doland

    Organization expert and founder of Unclutterer.com Erin Rooney Doland shows you how to declutter and simplify your surroundings, and create the stressfree life you deservein just o...

  • Everything in Its Place synopsis, comments

    Everything in Its Place

    Dan Charnas

    An organizational book inspired by the culinary world: how to take the principles of miseenplace out of your kitchen and into your life.Every day, chefs across the globe churn out ...

  • Simplify Your Life synopsis, comments

    Simplify Your Life

    Elaine St. James

    More than 1,000,000 copies in print! The more complex life becomes, the more people crave simplicity. Whether it's in your work, relationships, health, finances, or leisure time, N...

  • The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober synopsis, comments

    The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober

    Catherine Gray

    THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Not remotely preachy' The Times 'Jaunty, shrewd and convincing' Sunday Telegraph 'Admirably honest, light, bubbly and remarkably rarely annoying.'...

  • Simpler Living Handbook synopsis, comments

    Simpler Living Handbook

    Jeff Davidson

    The ultimate guide to streamlining your life.Life moves too quickly these days, as technology, work, and personal commitments make it almost impossible to relax and enjoy life. Fin...

  • Sunshine Warm Sober synopsis, comments

    Sunshine Warm Sober

    Catherine Gray

    The longawaited sequel to THE UNEXPECTED JOY OF BEING SOBER the Sunday Times bestseller 'Exquisite' Fearne Cotton, Happy Place'A paean to the longerterm pleasures of staying boo...

  • The Queen of Clean Conquers Clutter synopsis, comments

    The Queen of Clean Conquers Clutter

    Linda Cobb

    When it comes to freeing your home of clutter (let's face it we all have it), The Queen of Clean really spells things out for you: Question Unpack Evaluate Eliminate Neaten up! It...

  • The Chemistry of Joy synopsis, comments

    The Chemistry of Joy

    Henry Emmons, M.D.

    The classic book that New York Times bestselling author Dr. Larry Dossey called “a valuable guide for anyone wishing to find greater exuberance and fulfillment in their life,” The ...

  • Simply Clean synopsis, comments

    Simply Clean

    Becky Rapinchuk

    From the cleaning and homekeeping expert and creator of the wildly popular Clean Mama blog comes a simple and accessible cleaning guide with a proven stepbystep schedule for tidyin...

  • The Art of Discarding synopsis, comments

    The Art of Discarding

    Nagisa Tatsumi

    The book that inspired Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Nagisa Tatsumi's international bestseller offers a practical plan to figure out what to keep and what to...

  • The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up synopsis, comments

    The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

    Marie Kondo

    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The book that sparked a revolution and inspired the hit Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo: the original guide to decluttering ...

  • Organization Hacks synopsis, comments

    Organization Hacks

    Carrie Higgins

    Fix your cluttered cabinets, overflowing drawers, and messy living areas with these tips, tricks, and project ideas from Carrie Higgins, the organization expert of the Making Lemon...

  • The Capsule Wardrobe synopsis, comments

    The Capsule Wardrobe

    Wendy Mak

    Declutter your closet, maximize your fashion choices, and reinvent your own personal style.Cluttered closets create cluttered lives. Too often we are left rummaging around an overf...

  • Make Space synopsis, comments

    Make Space

    Regina Wong

    We simply have too much stuff in our lives. Burdened by our heavy consumerist culture to continually own and consume without purpose, we lose ourselves to debt, dissatisfaction, an...

  • The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan synopsis, comments

    The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan

    Liesl Clark & Rebecca Rockefeller

    In the spirit of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and The Joy of Less, experience the benefits of buying less and sharing more with this accessible 7step guide to declutter...

  • Throw Out Fifty Things synopsis, comments

    Throw Out Fifty Things

    Gail Blanke

    "A perfect guide to getting the nonessentials out of the way, so that simple joys can make their way into our lives." Marianne Williamson, author of A Return to Love "If you want...

  • 20 Ways to Make Every Day Better synopsis, comments

    20 Ways to Make Every Day Better

    Joyce Meyer

    #1 New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer shares powerful, practical ways to experience a new level of joy and excitement about life every day.The traffic is backed up, the ...

  • Pretty Iconic synopsis, comments

    Pretty Iconic

    Sali Hughes

    Over 200 iconic products that are among the best and most influential in the beauty world – past, present and future.‘Sali Hughes has created a universe filled with galaxies of bea...

  • Less synopsis, comments

    Less

    Rachel Aust

    Simplify life and amplify living by mastering the fundamentals of minimalism through this visual guide to embracing a minimalist lifestyle.How can living with less contribute to a ...

  • The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning synopsis, comments

    The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

    Margareta Magnusson

    The basis for the wonderfully funny and moving TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout ProductionsA charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order ...

  • How to Keep House While Drowning synopsis, comments

    How to Keep House While Drowning

    KC Davis

    An NPR Best Book of 2022 USA TODAY BestsellerThis revolutionary approach to cleaning and organizing helps free you from feeling ashamed or overwhelmed by a messy home.If you’re str...

  • Inner Simplicity synopsis, comments

    Inner Simplicity

    Elaine St. James

    The author of Simplify Your Life offers a path to the simpler life of mind and spirit through meditation, solitude, making spirituality a regular part of the day, and getting in to...

  • Living the Simple Life synopsis, comments

    Living the Simple Life

    Elaine St. James

    If you've thought about simplifying, but don't know where to begin, Living the Simple Life is the blueprint you need. And if you've already started to simplify, it will give y...

  • My Morning Routine synopsis, comments

    My Morning Routine

    Benjamin Spall & Michael Xander

    ONE OF AMAZON’S BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF 2018 ONE OF THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOKS OF THE MONTH ON RELEASE ONE OF BUSINESS INSIDER’S BEST BUSINESS BOOKS TO READ THIS SUMMERA gui...

  • Spark Joy synopsis, comments

    Spark Joy

    Marie Kondo

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER  The star of the hit Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and author of The LifeChanging Magic of Tidying Up help...

  • The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up synopsis, comments

    The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up

    Marie Kondo & Yûko Uramoto

    From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and star of Netflix’s Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, this graphic novelization brings Kondo's lifechanging tidying method to l...

  • My Creative Space synopsis, comments

    My Creative Space

    Donald M. Rattner

    48 Techniques to Boost Your Creativity at Home, According to ScienceGold Award, Nonfiction Authors Association; First Place, Chanticleer Instruction & Insight Awards; ...

  • The Courage to Be Disliked synopsis, comments

    The Courage to Be Disliked

    Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga

    “Marie Kondo, but for your brain.” HelloGiggles “Compelling from front to back. Highly recommend.” Marc AndreessenReading this book could change your life.The Courage to Be Dislike...

  • The Little Book of Tidying synopsis, comments

    The Little Book of Tidying

    Beth Penn

    In this age of mass consumerism, we are "stuffocating"; becoming slaves to our possessions. By freeing ourselves from physical and mental clutter, and better managing our schedules...

  • Declutter synopsis, comments

    Declutter

    Debora Robertson

    'I need this book.' Nigella Lawson 'A chummy guide to clearing your home and head.' Jack Monroe Bursting with practical and relatable advice, this book injects enthusiasm, ener...

  • The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love synopsis, comments

    The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love

    Eve Devon

    The only romcom you need to read!Everything in Ashleigh’s life is completely fine. Sure, she avoids conversations with her mother at all costs, but doesn’t everyone? And yes, she d...

  • Skinnygirl Solutions synopsis, comments

    Skinnygirl Solutions

    Bethenny Frankel

    Bethenny Frankel, fourtime New York Times bestselling author, onthego working mom, selfmade businesswoman, and daytime’s newest talk show host, shares her Skinnygirl guide to life:...

  • Happy Money synopsis, comments

    Happy Money

    Ken Honda

    Ken HondaJapan’s #1 bestselling personal development guruteaches you how to achieve peace of mind when it comes to money with this instant national bestseller. Too often, money is ...

  • Effortless synopsis, comments

    Effortless

    Greg Mckeown

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Times (UK) Best Book of the Year From the author of the millioncopyselling Essentialism comes an empowering guide to achieving your goals. It all star...

  • The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly synopsis, comments

    The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly

    Margareta Magnusson

    From New York Times bestselling author of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaningnow a TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout Productionsa book of humorous and charming advi...

  • Beyond Tidy synopsis, comments

    Beyond Tidy

    Annmarie Brogan & Marie Limpert

    The Top Ways to Declutter, Organize, and Get your Life Back in Place!   Are you overwhelmed by clutter and disorganization, or are you already organized but want to take it to...

  • Banish Clutter Forever synopsis, comments

    Banish Clutter Forever

    Sheila Chandra

    Why is it that even the most disorganised person never seems to lose their toothbrush? How can this simple fact solve all our clutter problems?The Toothbrush Principle is a simple ...

  • Nobu synopsis, comments

    Nobu

    Nobu Matsuhisa

    “In this outstanding memoir, chef and restaurateur Matsuhisa...shares lessons in humility, gratitude, and empathy that will stick with readers long after they’ve finished the final...