What is Marie Kondo's Net Worth?
Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant, author, and television personality who has a net worth of $8 million. Marie Kondo is known for her bestselling books about personal organizing. Her first book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" (2011), has been translated into numerous languages and published in more than 30 countries. Kondo's profile was later raised even further with her Netflix series "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo" (2019) and "Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo" (2021).
Early Life
Marie Kondo was born on October 9, 1984 in Osaka, Japan. She has an older brother and a younger sister. As a youth, Kondo attended the Chūō Ward Hisamatsu Elementary School, and then Friends Girls Junior & Senior High School in Mita. At the latter, she would run into the classroom to tidy up bookshelves while her classmates were busy in physical education class.
Kondo said she had a breakthrough one day while organizing her school's bookshelves; after fainting and lying unconscious for two hours, she realized her tidying strategy should be focused more on keeping things than throwing them away. She went on to attend Tokyo Woman's Christian University, where her capstone thesis addressed tidying up through the lens of gender.
Tidying Up
Kondo first became known to western audiences thanks to her 2011 book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" which was published in more than 30 countries and sold 11 million copies. It was a bestseller in Japan and Europe and the United States (where it was published in 2014). Her second book to be published in English in the United States was "The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story," which came out in 2017.
Today her movement, which is called the KonMari method, revolves around the concept of "sparking joy" with your everyday activities and possessions. For example, Marie teaches that one should only keep an article of clothing that "sparks joy" emotionally and instantly. She teaches people to gather their belongings category by category and only keeping the ones that are meaningful and joyful to the owner. She is a frequent media guest on shows like Good Morning America and The Today Show.
KonMari Method
Kondo has called her method of organizing the KonMari method. It involves gathering all of one's belongings, one category at a time, and then keeping only the items that make one happy. Kondo recommends starting the process by "quickly and completely" throwing out whatever doesn't spark joy. Another important aspect of the KonMari method is finding a designated place for each household item and ensuring that it stays there. Kondo has said that her method is partly inspired by the Shinto religion and her five-year experience working as an attendant maiden at a Shinto shrine. Among other things, the religion is concerned with treasuring what you have and treating all things as valuable, even if they don't have monetary worth.
Netflix Series
In 2013, a two-part television special based on Kondo and her work was filmed in Japan. On January 1, 2019 her show "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo" debuted to rave reviews on Netflix. The eight-episode series brought Kondo to families around the United States to help them tidy up and de-clutter. Tidying Up reportedly was one of the most popular non-scripted shows on Netflix in 2019. As a result of the show's popularity, donations to charity stores increased significantly around the world. Donations to Goodwill shops in Washington D.C. alone saw donations increase nearly 70%.
Following the release of the series, Kondo became a regular presence on television talk shows. For "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo," she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program. Kondo released a second, shorter series on Netflix, entitled "Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo," in the summer of 2021. The second Netflix series won an Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle Series.
Personal Life
In 2012, Kondo married Kawahara Takumi, who at the time was working in marketing and sales support at a company in Osaka. Once Kondo became successful in her career, her husband left his job to become her manager. He eventually became CEO of her company Konmari-Media. Together, Kondo and Takumi have two daughters and a son, and reside in Los Angeles, California. Since the birth of her third child, Kondo has said that her fastidious tidying habits have become less strict as she makes room for other personal priorities.
Marie Kondo Birthday, Age and Height
As we mentioned previously, Marie Kondo's birthday is October 9, 1984. Marie's height is 4 ft 7 inches.