Top 10 Facts about Marie Kondo

Marie Kondo, speaking at the 2016 RISE conference in Hong Kong. photo by RISE – Wikimedia commons

Top 10 Facts about Marie Kondo

If you haven’t lived under a rock, you’ve probably heard much about Marie Kondo. She is a Japanese lifestyle specialist, bestselling author, TV personality, and businesswoman. She is famous in Japan and  best known internationally for her superb organizing and tidying abilities, sharing this mantra with readers in several of her books and social media videos.

Kondo comes from a middle-class family in Tokyo; her mother is a housewife and her father is a doctor. She has an older brother and one younger sister. She also had a natural desire to clean. Here are the top ten facts you need to know about the world’s most organized person.

1. She’s been obsessed with tidying her entire life

Marie Kondo acknowledged that she has always been incredibly organized. Kondo has always been obsessed with organization and was eager to learn everything she could about it as a young child. She devoted a significant portion of her teenage years to cleaning. Her mother’s homemaking magazines served as one of her earliest organizational tools.

Friends began offering to pay Kondo to tidy their homes and rooms while she was still in school, which is what inspired her to start her first tidying business.

2. Kondo stands 4’7″ tall

Marie Kondo, Author and Organising Consultant, Marie Kondo photo by Diarmuid Greene – Wikimedia commons

Marie Kondo is only 4 feet and 7 inches tall, or 140cm, despite her large personality. She’s quite small, given that the average height of a Japanese woman is 158.8cm. Despite her diminutive stature, she is not short on tidying advice.

3. She wrote her college thesis about tidying

InStyle was present to record Marie Kondo’s speech in 2016 when she spoke at the Japan Society in New York. She mentioned a few things, including that her college thesis was about tidying! In that conversation, she admitted that she’s always been a crazy tidying fanatic. And we have no trouble accepting her word for it given her decorated reputation. 

4. Kondo stayed in a Shinto shrine for five years

Ebisu Main Shinto Shrine photo by Kozaemon Yamamoto – Wikimedia commons

Kondo started a five-year job as an “attendant maiden” at a Shinto shrine when she was 18 years old. Her duties included selling lucky charms at a kiosk and other tasks. Although she doesn’t identify as particularly religious, she claims that the purpose of decluttering is to make your home into “a sacred space, a power spot filled with pure energy,” which is consistent with Shinto doctrine, in her 2014 best-selling book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.”

She has explained that she incorporates many tenets of the Shinto religion into her practices, such as how she greets clients’ homes before beginning work. She has also urged her clients to assemble a display of what they view as their sacred objects, similar to a miniature shrine.

Here are some interesting facts about Yasukuni Shrine in Japan.

5. She started her own business as an organizing consultant at 19

Marie has always been passionate about organizing. Kondo began her own organizational consulting company when she was still a teenager, using her skill set well. She was a sociology student at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University at the time, but her business quickly became successful. With her reputation, it’s simple to see why people wanted her assistance she’s an expert in what she does.

6. Kondo was 26 years old when she published her first book

Marie Kondo, in 2016. photo by RISE – Wikimedia commons

At one point, Marie Kondo’s organizing company was so popular that there was a long waiting list for her services—no repeat customers, mind you. One of her potential customers suggested that she write a book so that her advice would be accessible to those who missed out on the highly sought-after appointments.

When she was 26 years old, she released her first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, in 2010. To spread her approach to as many people as possible, she has now written four books that have been translated into a wide range of languages. She also gives conference talks.

7. She was featured on Netflix’s Tidying Up with Marie Kondo series

Photo by Thibault Penin on Unsplash

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, a Netflix original series, premiered on January 1, 2019. In the series, Kondo visits various American families’ cluttered homes and guides them through her KonMari method of cleaning. Kondo became the subject of numerous Internet memes following the release of her Netflix series.

Time magazine’s list of the ten best memes of 2019 includes a clip of her saying “I love mess.” Tidying Up with Marie Kondo was followed in August 2021 by Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo, a similar Netflix series.

8. Kondo received two Emmy nominations

Two Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for Kondo and her Netflix show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” were confirmed in 2019. While her show was nominated for the Outstanding Structured Reality Program award, Kondo was nominated for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program. It was unusual for nominations to come after her show had only been on the air for a season, which is good news for her chances of winning future Emmys.

9. Kondo founded the KonMari Method

Marie Kondo, Author and Organising Consultant, Marie Kondo photo by Diarmuid Greene – Wikimedia commons

When Marie was a 19-year-old university student in Tokyo, she started her tidying consultant business and started honing her tidying skills. After many years of study and working with hundreds of clients, she developed a special method of organizing called The KonMari Method. Marie’s teachings are centred on the unique selection criterion of the Method, which is intended to help you never revert to clutter again.

It promotes organizing by category rather than by location, starting with clothes and working your way up to sentimental items, books, and papers. Discard anything that no longer makes you happy, and only keep things that speak to your heart.

10. She was named TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2015

This organizing expert is so impactful that TIME magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2015. Jamie Lee Curtis praised her in a piece for a literary list that also includes the brilliant Japanese author Haruki Murakami. She works with a long list of clients for her business to make their spaces into havens of inspiration and peace.