I’m so here for Marie Kondo on all the shows. Marie was on The Late Show with her translator, Marie Iiada, who goes by Iiada which is less confusing than having the same first name as her employer. I last reported on Marie’s interview on Access Live, where she was asked about her method and demonstrated her folding technique. On The Late Show, Colbert tried to be funny but he just ended up highlighting how awesome Marie and her method are. You could tell he really admired her too.
Why do you think Americans love your philosophy and your cleaning up so much?
I think it’s that we all have problems tidying in our homes. We all have clutter in our hearts and that’s what needs tidying.Colbert asked her if she could help him thank his desk like she thanks homes
I usually do this in my heart. We can verbalize just for today. Just express the gratitude for this desk and this studio [allowing] you to do this amazing show.Colbert: Thank you Ed Sullivan. I don’t understand anything you’re saying, but even if you had no translator, I would follow you to a cult compound and never leave.
After that Colbert took random things out of his desk like hand sanitizer, a Cinnabon, bourbon and a fitted sheet. Marie taught him the method and he kissed the bourbon. (My mom watches his show every night and she thinks he’s an alcoholic.) Then Marie showed him how to fold the sheet.
Yes it was cheesy and Colbert was going for laughs but I am starting to get it! I’m not a spiritual person but I can try to do this, to be grateful for things and to let them go. This is making more sense to me. Plus Colbert is right I want to do whatever Marie tells me to do.
Here’s the video!
Look at Iiada looking at Marie when she gave the “we all have clutter in our hearts” line!
She is so pretty and dresses soooooo well!
I love her dress!
And wonderful posture. I girl crush her.
She’s lovely. But as skilled as she is I think the current condition of my home might break her.😂 I’ll be moving in a few months and it’s dire. I doubt even Marie could save me! 😁
Same here, Mia. Also my brain feels cluttered. Headache from hell..
Marie really does seem like a bright light though.
I moved in 2016 and man, I never realized how much stuff I had until I had to start packing! I mean it was mind-boggling, and I am single and was living in a 1 bedroom apartment, with no kids. LOL. I actually really enjoyed getting rid of a lot of my junk, it felt quite cleansing / refreshing.
I might not agree with all of Marie’s methods – I prefer tackling cleaning up by doing one room at a time, for example – but overall I think she’s great.
OMG, same!! We moved this summer (four people total, two kids) from the home we’d lived in since 2004 and SO MUCH STUFF. It took a month to sort through all of the stuff and donate or otherwise dispose of much of it. My goal in our new home is to review quarterly and keep the stuff from piling up like it tends to do.
I’m slowly working my way through her show and enjoy the layers to her method, which sounds simple-to-simplistic on top but has great layers underneath & seems a good fit for our messy, materialistic zeitgeist. She seems to have reasonable solutions for many different categories of ‘stuff,’ the only place I find her weak is on the papers – the “miscellaneous” (third, reference) category is wide open. But that could be me.
I cannot remember if this is Marie Kondo or not, but I’m working on a paper method that’s two fold (I’m going through DECADES of paperwork (all mine) because after learning about Marie, I learned out the Swedish Death Clean. Thx to Marie, my drawers, closet and shoes are cleared, my kitchen is cleared, so it was time to work on paperwork. So: 1. is it hard to replace or irreplaceable? (keep). 2. Is it medium hard to replace (would take a few minutes, but you could find the info online if needed) and 3. Is the item easy to replace (toss). 4. Emotional stuff: Well, I will have another birthday, and/or Christmas, so do I need to keep the cards. Eg: Owners Manuals keep the warranty if still current, toss the manual, it’s easy to find online. Conference Notes: if it’s older than 2 years….have to referred to the notes at all? If yes, keep, if no, toss (I just tossed a whole slew of recipes I’d saved but never used cause I’m not really much of a cook….cleared one whole shelf in my kitchen doing this one thing). I do find Ms Marie’s last category is too big and I need to break it down, so I saw this method on YouTube and am using it with relative success. Good luck to you ‘Who ARE These People’ cause decluttering is a good thing, a very good thing and I’m pulling myself out of a depressive episode by accomplishing something.
Awesome…
I think I loved your comment even more than Marie’s program… I really like your method, discerning which rhings are really easier to replace…. I do keep a binder with receipts and user guides for every household appliance, because you never know…
I sooooo have clutter in my heart. And also by my bed, stashed in my luggage, on my dining room table and in the trunk of my car. I don’t have the energy to do what she suggests, but I could use her methods for sure.
I feel like I have more clutter in my brain than my heart. I realized a long time ago that by keeping my house tidy, I could eliminate one stressor. It’s about the only thing I seem to have control over!
She looks so cute and fragile. She would literally die just walking through my hoarder Grandma’s house.
I looked it up-she’s 4’ 7”. So tiny and pretty.
Was decluttering the kids playroom the other day which makes me die a little inside and always cry…. And had an awesome realization. I use basic pencils, and save souvenir ones, which I inadvertently end up moving around for years so I can have them and remember. Why not USE the souvenir ones, which means they will eventually be nubs and then garbage, but remember the vacation, let it go at the end, and have everything mean something while having less stuff? Then hit me this is Marie’s whole thing, and it really sunk in for me.
I can only do ten minutes of a donate sweep at a time, or a single tiny area because breakdowns lol, but I want to implement this principle more. Have everything I need, need everything I have. Love it.
I like that idea.
I finally took out some pretty little decorative dishes I’d not been able to figure out how to handle for *decades* and found what now seems to be an obvious place for them. I am enjoying them at last. This must have something to do with the Marie Kondo vibe. Why did it take so long?
@Wilady This is my FAVORITE COMMENT EVER.
What you’ve struck on is what I call the “fine china dilemma”: we’re taught not to touch or handle what’s “special,” but in a sense, that’s what makes it so worthless! Either use the fine china (!!!!!), or use simple dishes you’re more comfortable using. THOSE dishes are now your dishes. (Incidentally, in Japan, even “special” meals are served in all-mismatched dishware — I learned that from celebrity cook Harumi Kurihara!)
And you’re right: This is what Konmari is all about! I pointed out to my husband that we should give away any furniture we aren’t using, no matter how “nice” or how much we like it, because “a table that isn’t allowed to serve its one purpose on Earth — being a table — is an unhappy table.”
Marie Kondo actually worked at a Shinto shrine for a time, so her belief in animism — that every inanimate object contains a “soul” — is actually quite literal…!
P.S. If I am remembering the book correctly, I think Kondo says that “tidying” — her way, that is — will take a full year! So no rush!
Oops double post
This woman changed my life. She’s admirable. I love the idea of being grateful instead of feeling guilty. I donated like half my stuff and I don’t know how, but tidying both my home and my office allowed me to make so much time for myself while doing everything that needs to be done, which I never managed to do since my son was born. Magical. Thank you Marie.
It was Martha Stewart who taught me how to fold a fitted sheet many many years ago.
My mother could have used Marie Kondo when she was alive. I think in reaction to her lack of order and piles of stuff, I’ve gone the opposite way. I emotionally purge the stuff in my house frequently and end up with twinges of I wish I still had that picture/sweater.
I started incorporating some of her tips to get my apartment de-cluttered and organized ahead of a move to a new place next month. I didn’t expect it to have such an effect on me mentally but it really has. It’s satisfying knowing that my new place will really be a fresh start free of all the things I no longer need that were really just a burden. And I really did find myself feeling deeper appreciation for what I have.
I’ve started doing areas of my place after watching Marie Kondo. I have to say, I love these little areas I’ve managed to “KonMari” so much. Even though I’m only half-way through my closet (OY!), the parts I have managed to KonMari–make getting ready in the morning a snap. I used to dig through drawers looking for matching socks or an undershirt (It’s cold in LA!) and waste so much time, and now — open the drawer and there are my socks all folded and color coordinated, and same with my jeans and underclothes. And for me, once I saw how less stressed I was in the morning, how easy it was to just fold stuff back up and keep it nice–I was hooked. I’ve been asking people for any little boxes they have that they were going to toss out–can I have them for my drawers? So next is my desk, and with the several other little boxes I’ve collected, I can see my pens (I have ALOT of colored pens), and other supplies all nicely lined up in their proper “homes.” I am actually excited!