I was reading this profile of Marie Kondo, the “spark joy and tidy up” guru from Japan, in Fast Company and learned that Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce giant had bought a controlling interest in Kondo’s company, KonMari, in August 2019. Somehow the news slipped my attention. All I remember that there were some rumors that she … Continue reading Wait! Rakuten bought Marie Kondo?
The ultimate objective of all influence is to sell us something. This is true even if the influencer is someone who has made a career out of telling the rest of us to get rid of things, eschew to excessive consumerism, and to own only things that spark joy. Yup, you guessed it right: Marie … Continue reading The Kon Job
Our homes are filled with essentials (aka things we can’t live without), non-essentials (aka things that add comfort and enhance our daily life) and junk. In fact, most of our life is full of junk.
These are the artifacts we like—or, more accurately, think we like—but they don’t serve a purpose or bring us joy. The average American home contains more than 300,000 items, and most of it is junk. While this junk often masquerades as indispensable, it actually gets in the way of a more meaningful life.
It is just not things. We have junk relationships, junk food, junk news and junk information. We also have too much junk. Over past three years, I have been slowly and slowly shedding stuff and finally as the clutter is starting to go away, I realize I have been crowding myself out of my own life.
It all started with a gift from Helena Price: Marie Kondo’s best selling book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up. Perhaps, Helena saw the clutter in my apartment when she came to visit (to take photos that were to accompany my interview with Offscreen Magazine) that convinced her that I needed help. I think … Continue reading Marie Kondo is right. Clean up is good for the soul.
