why I konmari'd konmari

a first time look behind the scenes as a former konmari consultant

‘All good things must come to an end. It's time to konmari konmari.’ 

I announced this within the consultant community back in February of last year, but I just now realized I’ve never publicly stated this: I am no longer a konmari consultant.

our cohort was the last to get to meet marie in person. I remember feeling so badly for her at everyone fangirling all over her all weekend. She’s a true introvert.

I stayed quiet for many years on my thoughts on the konmari brand (Marie Kondo’s company) as it was in my best interest as an extension of the organization, however this is no longer the case.

Everything starts off so exciting. A new chapter, a new business, a new industry. There is so much to be grateful for. But if I’m being honest even the first New York seminar in March 2019 of my certification as a konmari consultant was disorganized, which felt ironic to me. How could a home organization phenom have a disorganized company? Over time I started hearing from other consultants about the disappointments they experienced as consultants. A very small company with very high standards, the juxtaposition between an American market being run by a Japanese company, underqualified staff and many missed opportunities along the way. In the early days it was just a few humans running konmari, even when I left it was a team of 10, doing what they would need more business savvy humans to do.

Back in 2019 the hype for the netflix show was HUGE, and I saw so much potential in the konmari brand, especially with Rebecca Prusinowski at the helm. If you don’t know her, she’s a taurus ICON at authentic branding with brands like parachute, paper magazine, and most recently Kismet with John Legend + Chrissy Teigen under her belt. She was honestly a huge part of what initially attracted me to konmari with her beautiful branding, soulful messaging and creative direction.

I was the first konmari consultant in portland, and the second ever in oregon, as well as many other accolades that were meaningful to me at the time.

As time went on I saw huge opportunities that were never fully realized: a partnership with California Closets, Cuyana, the Container Store. HUGE opportunities that I assumed would trickle down and lead to opportunities for the consultants as well, but never materialized. There was always a stark divide between Marie Kondo as a brand, and the konmari community.

And I know a huge part of this was due to Marie. She is a HUGE introvert. I don’t think she realized how big the brand became, and what fame in america entailed. It was way too overwhelming, and all at once, and this reflected in the way business was handled, communications were received and the ways in which opportunities were (mis)managed. And as her family grew, the business on the consultant side evolved for the worse.

We were promised upcoming consultant retreats, community opportunities, and education opportunities in the works for the entire 5 years I was a consultant, but most of that never happened. Overpromised, underdelivered.

And then Konmari’s majority share was sold to Rakuten.

Again, I saw huge potential for a merger with Rakuten, a digital giant with the manpower to make big changes in the business, and the potential affiliate opportunities for us to capitalize on. But instead the konmari brand became a completely product focused entity, a la goop, with a heavily consumerist lens marketing all of ‘Marie’s favorite things’ incessantly on social media and via email. I unfollowed the brand everywhere after a year of this campaign. All the while the ethos of the brand speaks about owning less things, and the intentionality of everything we own. It was in direct conflict, and it was gut wrenching to watch and be a part of.

Every piece of negative press on Konmari had the potential to negatively impact my business, without any control over what was happening or when. We got little to zero notice of upcoming press or brand opportunities. I remember when I was featured on a panel of consultants in LA we had 2 weeks notice. At the time this was exciting, but it was also so unprofessional to expect a community of business owners to drop everything for a $150 paid opportunity. Every opportunity offered happened in a similar last minute fashion.

This also extended to the consultant side of the business with marketing constantly to ‘start your new career path as a konmari consultant’. This messaging is still at the forefront of the brand today. This is misleading at best. I paid $2500 for my initial in person seminar in new york, a requirement for certification that was only available twice per year. And at that time Marie was involved at the seminar. Now it’s a digital certification, with an unlimited cap on the number of participants, offered 4-6 times per year, and no Marie, but the price has remained the same. It may have increased even, I’m not sure. I know now that the consultant program became a huge money maker for their business, money they relied on during the pandemic years especially. It felt like selling out something that was so special to all of us.

In 2019 I was consultant number 213 I believe. Now there have been thousands that have gone through the 3 day seminar program, but many do not go on to complete certification.

The requirements to become a consultants have drastically changed as well. For example, as a part of certification you are required to do the konmari method with several practice clients, which took me over 120 hours to complete. Now the requirement is a third of that. This has completely watered down the value of the consultant program, not to mention the value of what is learned is not the same without experiencing in person work with clients. With a background in counseling I already had honed many of the emotional skills required for this type of work with clients, however without that background I believe there are ethical issues with allowing consultants access to clients to do such intimate work without proper training.

One of the values of our yearly $500 licensing fee paid to konmari was in the directory, having our name and business featured on the konmari website for clients to be able to find us. I can count on 2 hands the number of clients that found me through konmari’s website. There was a strong lean towards giving social media attention and access to opportunities to senior members of the community, called master consultants. From day 1 this felt unfair. By the time I became a master myself, there were so many masters that this privilege didn’t really extend to me.

Another value was in continued education. We were told for years there would be ongoing education opportunities that never materialized. By the time these opportunities did happen, we were then asked to pay for these workshops, a value that should have been complimentary, but again we were just treated as another cash cow for the business.

And I dont even want to get started on the countless times the consultant community was asked for feedback, feedback was given, and then completely ignored. The last virtual community meeting I attended in 2023 included all of the same complaints from consultants: the value of the program, what our fee went towards, when a retreat would happen etc, and still the feedback was ignored. We were unpaid promoters of their business, with years of free marketing materials for them to use. It wouldn’t be a far stretch to compare to the structure of mlms, in fact the director of consultants for a few years was a former beach body manager.

I built my business on my own. The association with Marie Kondo and her brand was great, but in exposure only. It never led to success simply by being a konmari consultant alone. It was in standing on my own that I have found success in my business, and in differentiating myself as a minimalist, focusing on my background in counseling and interior design. Many consultants included ‘spark’ “joy’ or ‘tidying’ in the names of their businesses, but I am so so happy I had the foresight to create my business as its own brand from the start.

I met alot of incredible women through this organization, with shared values under the konmari ethos of intentionality, minimalism and creating a life that you love. I will forever be grateful for the humans I met, but I will never stop being disappointed by how badly we all wanted community that we deserved, but never received. We created it for ourselves.

And I LOVE the book. It is still a cornerstone of what the modern minimalist stands for, and I will fold my clothes konmari style until I die! The principles outlined in that book changed me, and sparked something that changed me as a human. That will never change. But I’m also not strict about the way I teach this method to my clients, and I know there are many many aspects of the method that do not work for the american market. If we ever work together, you’ll know this. Everything we do is customized to the needs of the client, nothing really works exactly the same for every single human.

The public facing brand, and the values it stood for are out of alignment with the actual organization, and the way it treats the consultant community that has done so much to create and expand the brand for them. Konmari is no longer an association that sparks joy for me and my business, so I have decided to distance myself from the brand over the last two years, and now I am no longer a consultant as well.

I know there are a good number of consultants and former consultants who are still connected with me, so if you want to add your two cents, I’d love to hear it!