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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Arwa Mahdawi

Marie Kondo’s new messier mode chimes neatly with the times

Marie Kondo: ‘Now I realize what is important to me is enjoying spending time with my children at home.’
Marie Kondo: ‘Now I realize what is important to me is enjoying spending time with my children at home.’ Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Drăgoi/The Guardian

Marie Kondo embraces goblin mode

Marie Kondo, the queen of clean, has always been rather more aspirational than relatable. Looks like that’s changed: the organizing guru has sparked widespread joy, and a touch of schadenfreude, after announcing that she’s happily succumbed to the chaos of having kids. “My home is messy, but the way I am spending my time is the right way for me at this time at this stage of my life,” Kondo said (via an interpreter) at a recent media webinar. “Up until now, I was a professional tidier, so I did my best to keep my home tidy at all times … I have kind of given up on that in a good way for me. Now I realize what is important to me is enjoying spending time with my children at home.”

The fact that someone with three kids and a busy career is prioritizing parenting over organizing their pantry shouldn’t be newsworthy. But Kondo’s “messy” house (and, by the way, I refuse to believe it’s messy by normal people’s standards without photographic evidence) has generated a lot of headlines. People have always had strong opinions about the organizational consultant despite the fact that she’s never really done anything to warrant those opinions. Kondo, let’s be clear, never said that you needed to get rid of all your worldly belongings and live in a spotless and soulless beige dungeon Kim Kardashian-style – she simply said you should be more mindful about the things you own and think about what makes you happy. But a lot of people seemed to wilfully misunderstand her advice and chose, instead, to take it personally. And what you can do, eh? We live in a world where getting angry on the internet seems to spark a lot of joy.

Kondo’s pivot when it comes to tidying up may be due to her personal circumstances, but it’s also a savvy business move. 2014, which is when Kondo first became popular in the United States, was a very different time. We honestly didn’t know how good we had it then, did we? It was pre-Brexit, pre-Trump, pre-Covid. Women still had abortion rights in the US. Elon Musk hadn’t taken over Twitter. We didn’t have to hear about Prince Harry’s “todger” every few minutes. Oxford Dictionaries chose “vape” as its word of the year. It was a simpler time when we had the luxury of worrying about things like tidying up.

Almost a decade on things are rather more chaotic. Oxford Dictionaries’ 2022 word of the year was “goblin mode”. The phrase describes “a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations”. Which is not exactly compatible with cleaning your cupboards. Further, while everyone in 2014 was busy presenting a “perfect” life on Instagram, one of the most popular apps today is BeReal, an anti-Instagram that celebrates authenticity. Kondo’s comments about giving up on tidying are perfectly in tune with the zeitgeist. She may have a messier house now, but she can certainly read a room.

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