ABOUT JAPANESE TIDYING
Are you living a joy-full life?
The objective of Japanese-style tidying is to live in harmony with your home and your belongings. Choose what you love and learn to let go of the rest with gratitude. In doing so, you fill your everyday with objects that spark joy, but not only.
Through decluttering you understand what matters to you. By letting go of things that no longer serve you, you clear the path for what is yet to come. By learning to take decisions based on joy, your choices become clearer. By simplifying your environment, you take stress out of your day-to-day.
Simply put, you start to shift your focus to what brings you joy.
You've understood by now, a tidy home is just a benefit.
WHAT IS THE KONMARI METHOD?
The KonMari method is Marie Kondo's approach to tidying up. The guiding principle is to surround yourself with items that spark joy. Put simply, the KonMari method codifies Japanese tidying, makes it easy to put into practice, and gives it a good boost of joy. It is designed to make the process as easy as possible and produce long-lasting results.
Marie Kondo is a Japanese tidying expert who achieved worldwide fame with her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (2011). Her books have been translated into 40 languages and have sold over 10 million copies. She is the star of the hit Netflix series, Tidying up with Marie Kondo. Her name in Japanese is "Kondo Marie", or "KonMari" for short.
As a certified consultant, I guide you step by step to apply this approach to tidying your home.
Photo courtesy of KonMari Media, Inc
BEYOND HOME ORGANISING
While some of the nuances may be lost in translation, the act of 片づけ (katazuke, or tidying in Japanese) goes beyond 整理 (organising), where the focus is on storage solutions. This is why I prefer to speak of "tidying" rather than "organising", and refer to myself as a "tidying consultant" instead of "home organiser" or "professional organiser". My work embraces the sometimes arduous but ultimately rewarding, life-changing journey of 片づけ.
While the physical transformations are often impressive, 片づけ is not about the before & after photos. Learning to take decisions that are true to you leads to a deep and permanent mental shift.
ABOUT ME
斉藤百合
Yuri Saito
I am Japanese and I live in Haute-Savoie, France. Before becoming a tidying consultant, I worked for international organisations in Geneva for 15 years.
I was not born tidy.
While I've always loved the idea of being organised and tested different approaches, I never managed to keep my space tidy. I felt overwhelmed, even a little uncomfortable in my home.
The more I learned about tidying, the more I felt lost. I didn’t identify with austere minimalism and rules like “one in, one out” felt prescriptive. There’s too much information, too many restrictions, too many products.
The life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo made me realise two things: 1) it's normal to not know how to tidy and 2) you can learn. What a huge relief! Through this simple method, I rediscovered the essence of Japanese tidying. It’s striking for its simplicity, positivity and universality: tidying guided by joy.
Soon enough, telling people about the KonMari method and encouraging them to do it was no longer enough. I wanted to accompany them step by step, hand in hand, to experience the magic of tidying.
This is why I certified as a KonMari consultant and established atelier tokimeki. My mission is to get you to experience this famous "spark joy" feeling, or tokimeki.
Are you ready to experience the magic of tidying?