Marie Kondo, expert on tidying and famous for helping people to declutter their spaces, said she realised her goal was not to always maintain "the perfect state of tidiness".

She said she had concentrated on spreading the idea that tidying up would spark joy in others before her views on clutter changed, reported The Guardian.

But now, Kondo, 39, explained that something else "really sparks joy" than tidying: Spending time with her children.

Still a fan of tidying up

In January 2023, Kondo said she had "kind of given up" on tidying after the birth of her third child.

She also said her home is "messy" and no longer views keeping her house tidy as her main priority.

Speaking to The Guardian recently more than a year on, she said: "As long as the living room floor is clean, then that is what the new tidying threshold becomes."

Her previously stringent approach to designating spaces for items — the Marie Kondo effect triggered a transatlantic rise in sales of storage boxes — is now less rigorous in her own home.

She said she used to motivate her children to arrange plush toys, music items and dolls into their respective boxes, but later changed her mind as the items ended up getting mixed up after the children were done playing.

She said: "Now I have shifted my mindset to the idea that everything being at least inside a box is satisfactory."

She added that her dining room now has a temporary area for items, which she did not use to have.

Kondo, who started organising things at the tender age of five and then went on to accumulate organisation skills while working at a Shinto shrine, said that sparking joy is still the core of her Konmari method.

"Perhaps my position is slightly unique, because I am a huge fan of tidying and I enjoy the act of tidying up. It's just that the idea may no longer always be 'attainable'," she added.

Shift in followers' mindsets

When Kondo announced that her home had gotten messier because of children's toys, her international followers had many reactions.

The overwhelming reaction was relatability rather than shock, surprise or betrayal, she said.

She added that more people were concerned about what happened or found themselves relating to her situation.

She said: "As my life stage has shifted, perhaps the same thing has been happening with my followers. It may not necessarily be with growing families; people may be really busy with work or they just aren’t physically able to always be tidy."

However, her following was not affected due to the mindset shift.

She added that the main message of her Netflix series is that the protagonist in each story is going through a journey of tidying, but it does not mean that that her life should be the same.

She said: "I understand how that might project a certain image of my own lifestyle, but those two are not necessarily always equal. My own personal level or threshold is something completely separate."

Top photos via Marie Kondo/Facebook & Canva