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Parents around the world are enjoying a little schadenfreude today as Marie Kondo, the queen of meticulousness, has surrendered to the chaos that is a toddler.
The organizational guru and author, whose books on tidying and decluttering your home have been international best sellers, admits that she has had trouble following her own advice following the birth of her third child.
“Up until now, I was a professional tidier, so I did my best to keep my home tidy at all times,” she told the New York 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.”
That’s bound to be a relief to parents and non-parents who struggled to keep up with the examples Kondo set in her books and Netflix series. But just because she, too, now has to deal with things like Happy Meal toys that kids refuse to let go of and junk drawers, Kondo’s still focused on sparking joy.
Her latest book, entitled Marie Kondo’s Kurashi at Home: How to Organize Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life, focuses on ways to bring calmness and happiness to your life amidst the bedlam of the average day.
That could mean cooking a favorite recipe, cleaning out that aforementioned junk drawer, or gardening. It also focuses on prioritizing what’s important to you—and, as many parents know, a clean house quite often takes a backseat to things like getting the kids to school on time and five minutes to yourself. She encourages readers to create a joy routine and follow it for 10 days, then determine if those changes to your old habit are making you feel better.
And if the house is a wreck, don’t stress over it. Kondo doesn’t.
“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,” she said.
