Tidying Up with Marie Kondo (2019) s01e02 Episode Script
Empty Nesters
1 - Ah! - She looks excited! I'm so excited because I love mess.
It's a never ending battle to fight the clutter.
Oh! I want things to be more simple.
I don't know how to fix it.
With the baby coming, it's gonna be more chaos.
Oh, my God! We have too much stuff! Hello, I'm Marie Kondo.
My mission is to spark joy in the world through cleaning.
Ching! Best-selling author and world-renowned tidying expert.
Marie Kondo is dedicated to inspiring the world to choose joy with the KonMari Method.
The KonMari Method is unique because I organize by category rather than by location.
In the KonMari Method, we tidy five categories in a specific order.
First, is clothing.
I can't reach.
Next, is books.
Giving them a little shake and wake them up.
Then, paper.
I can't do the papers.
The largest category is komono.
Komono is kitchen, bathroom, and garage.
Everything miscellaneous.
Finally, sentimental items.
It's kinda hard to let it go, 'cause I really like this one.
This is kinda hard.
I don't want to just, you know, dump it.
But I want to be thoughtful about it.
From the moment she set foot in our house, she had this presence to her.
She wants to see this place turned around.
Marie brought a whole bunch of joy upon our home.
This is amazing.
You're so cute! I love you! You're so cute.
I love you, too.
These are, like, happy, happy tears.
Thank you for what you've brought to our home, really.
Mushu, where are you? Kitty, kitty, kitty.
I do not see Mushu.
Oh, no.
That window was open.
Okay.
Mushu, here, boy, Here kitty, kitty, kitty.
Mushu? Moosh, okay, boy, come here.
Hello, sweetie.
Come here.
Atta Come on.
Up we go, up we go.
Alright, gotcha.
Come on.
My name is Wendy Akiyama.
And I'm Ron Akiyama.
We inherited the house in 1994.
Raised our children here.
But we are now empty-nesters.
But now the clutter, it prevents me from having what I would call a normal retirement.
So I want Marie Kondo's help to actually maximize our enjoyment in this house.
Ditto everything she just said.
'Cause I'm her husband.
Ron's family moved here in 1968.
My parents bought the house on the street down below at the same time that they were here.
Ended up marrying the boy next door.
- Literally.
- Yep.
We've been married for What did I? Forty-two years.
Forty-two? Seventy-six.
Yeah, 42 years.
So, you know, we've gotten to the point where, you know, even if I come home and sit here and we don't say one word to each other, he's just watching TV and I fall asleep it's a great relationship.
We don't feel pressured to, "Oh, how was your day?" "Oh, how was your day?" You know, it's there's just no pressure.
I feel like talking, I'll talk.
I don't wanna talk, I'm not gonna talk.
Y o u know? And there's no, "Well, why aren't you talking to me?" You know, so this is a great time for us to tackle something new like this where we're both going to be involved together.
What do you think? It is.
Okay.
I have worked with many couples who wanted to re-evaluate their life after their children have left home.
I have every confidence that if Ron and Wendy progress step by step, they will be able to discover what's truly important in their life.
Which one? Which one is it? Oh, it's this one.
Today are people of Japanese descent.
Oh, really?! The outside looks a little Japanese.
That's very Japanese.
But there's no name plate.
- Hi! - Hey! - Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- I'm Marie.
- Yes! Oh, yes, I know.
- I am Wendy and this is my son, Russell.
- Hi, Marie, nice to meet you.
- What was your name? - Iida.
- It's Marie Kondo? - Marie Kondo.
Kondo.
Perfect.
We're Akiyamas.
Yeah, we know Little bit.
Yeah.
- I know a little bit English.
- All I'm saying is this job is gonna be, - what is it, taihen? - It's okay.
Yeah, my husband is here somewhere.
- He'll be here in a minute.
- He might be in the back.
- I think he's in the backyard.
- He might be in the backyard, yes.
Oh.
Speak of the devil! Oh, gosh, there you are.
- Perfect.
- This is Ron.
Hi, nice to meet you.
I'm Marie.
Yes, I recognize your face from from YouTube.
So I would love to get a little bit of a tour inside your home, if that's okay? My name is Russell, um, and part of the reason why I am here is to help my mom, because I think that there is a little bit of hesitation and concern for my dad about the daunting mountain of things my parents are gonna have to go through.
But, you know, even though he's a man of few words, you know, being able to have an activity like this with my mom, he and my mom can get to know each other in this new process.
Cleaning the house was definitely Wasn't my priority, but it would definitely be hers.
I'm of the subscription to happy wife, happy life, so I I support whatever it takes to have a clean house, if that makes Mama happy.
So I'm just not 100% in it because I don't know what it entails yet, so let's see what happens here.
Okay, so master bedroom, Marie.
And then this is what we're dealing with here.
Baseball cards, Marie.
Baseball card! Those boxes all used to be white.
So all of these belong to your husband? Yes, the kids worked with my husband, collected cards, so this is the end result.
Ron is really perfectly willing to have things be status quo.
And maintaining the status quo actually does inhibit you from being creative and having, um, different approaches to solving the problems in your life.
If you're satisfied with the status quo then nothing's gonna change because you don't want change.
So I hope it's never too late to teach old dogs new tricks.
This is not everything, Marie.
There's There's much more.
More clothes? Yes.
Yes.
- Oh, you wanna see that next? - Yeah.
So this used to be a bedroom with a bed in it.
I see a lot of clothes with tags still on.
There's lots of things with tags, yes.
And one of the things I would like to see for her retirement, if we can transform this room into her office.
And I'd love to see the one last place we have clothes.
Yeah, there's actually two more rooms to look at in here.
Okay, this is Russell's old room.
Ah.
Those are all mine.
This is my little brother's room.
And there's more in the closet.
The disorganization is stressful.
I try to just bury it, not think about it, to live with floor-to-ceiling boxes, and to have a whole room of clothing that is just kinda thrown over things.
We can't find stuff and that does bother me.
And I think that getting that organized will help, you know, to make this feel like the home that I really would like to have.
So this way is the rumpus room, please.
Amazing, is this an activity room? I'd say an activity room.
A room where you watch TV, you play games, and this is the Christmas collection which I've been trying to figure out how to put away.
So, just wondering, Christmas materials, in the living room and all of this, that's it, right? No, and the kitchen.
And the bathroom.
And there's some nutcrackers that are still out, yeah.
My love of Christmas started when I was a little girl.
My mom, she was the one who actually made it really special for us as we were growing up and I wanted to do the same for my children.
Decorations were really important.
To me that was a big deal, because now you know Christmas is coming.
And having the house, you know, decorated for Christmas just makes me happy.
It's nice.
You have a lot of memorabilia, keepsakes in here.
- Yes.
- Yes, yes.
Oh, okay.
We're gonna go look at the garage next.
Yeah.
- After you.
Go ahead.
- Oh! - At least there's room for you to walk.
- Garage.
There is room.
Oh, there you are.
- I didn't expect him up there.
- Yeah, that's Mushu and Mulan.
This is where a lot of everything ended up.
Yes.
We have no idea on how many boxes are in the garage and what's in them.
For most of its life, the garage has been a clutter.
And we have three generations of belongings in this house.
It began with Ron's mom and dad.
They brought their belongings from their previous home.
And now we have our children's items which are still in this house and Ron's items and my items.
I do think that it will take a significant amount of time going through all this.
- But you will finish.
- Yes! - Okay.
- That's what I want to hear! - Can I get a high five, Marie? - Yes! Here we go! We're on.
So, just as I introduced myself to you today, I always also introduce myself to the house.
I love that.
I love that.
- I never thought of talking to our house.
- We should.
- We should talk more to our house! - Yes.
Yes, this is a good spot to do that.
And asking our house to cooperate with us? - That's great.
- I love that.
Should we do Can we do that? Can we kneel on the floor? Can you do seiza? Like this? The Japanese proper way of sitting.
- I don't think so.
- If you can't, that's okay.
Were you able to greet it? - Yes, I was.
- Okay.
When tidying your clothes, you will take everything out and create one big pile.
This may seem like a hassle, but please do not skip this step.
Only by creating one big pile are you able to see how much clothing you actually have.
You will also be shocked at the amount of clothing you have.
By experiencing this shock, you will finally be able to decide what items are truly necessary for you.
- I'll do this bit.
- You really do own a load of jackets.
Yeah, I do.
That's my weak point.
It just makes me feel good that I have 'em.
I think it'll make you feel good to get the space back, too.
- Oh, sorry! - Excuse me.
Here you go, now drawers.
There's truly a lot here.
So, how long did it take, about an hour? Just about.
I'm going to be honest with you.
This is the biggest pile I've seen of all my clients.
Yay! I win! - I don't know if that's how this works.
- Yay! For me, clothes are a passion, an obsession, recreation.
Retail therapy is definitely something I'm guilty of using.
And, you know, whenever Ron and I would fight, shopping was a diversion, it was a way to, you know, just calm down, de-stress.
Um Maybe, you know, hit Ron where it hurts, in his pocketbook.
I know! Holy cow, Ron! This is pretty bad.
- He's working really hard.
- Holy moly.
He is.
And just to to clarify or to keep fresh in my mind, the object isn't necessarily to throw everything away, it's to be it's like almost like Correct me if I'm wrong, like reacquaint yourself with your belongings.
What I really want you to ask yourself is if it's something you really want to take into your future.
- Yes.
- Yeah.
So, your homework for this week is to finish sorting through all of your clothes.
Okay, great.
Thank you very much! Thank you.
I'm kind of an old school, macho kinda guy and this isn't something that I normally would do.
But, um, Wendy's kind of overwhelmed.
It's kind of unfair that her pile is three or four times what my pile is.
But my thing is baseball cards, so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get the crack of the whip for that.
I love having all of this.
I would not just take the whole mountain and just chuck it out.
I really love what I have.
I love clothing.
But to put it, everything all in one pile, I've never done that before, and I've never seen the accumulation of everything that I own that's clothing.
So now I am overwhelmed.
I'm gonna probably keep this one 'cause, again, I like the colors and it's really soft and comfortable, so yes.
We will keep that one.
I'm starting from the bottom, just throwing everything down.
I like it, I love florals, so we will probably be keeping that one.
This is really heavy under Okay, I can't pull it out.
When I was little, I would make paper dolls and just design clothing for them, piles and piles of clothing and keep changing them.
And so as I grew older, I became the paper doll.
I still like to look at clothes, I still like to try them on, and, um, this is really hard for me to do.
Okay, I like that one, too.
The anxiety part is trying to understand what I have so that I can use it.
Seen the top of the bed, yet? Um, no.
I'm keeping a lot.
Well, yeah.
I figured.
I have to make it go down.
I hope the next time I see Marie that this is gone.
Are we just throwing this in a bag? - Yes.
- Okay.
Let's just get the process done.
You can walk when you get to Heaven, so let's hurry up.
- Hi! - Hello, Marie.
Good to see you.
Iida, good to see you.
- Hello again.
- How are you guys? - Good! - It's hot, hot, hot.
It got really hot quite suddenly.
I've been taking out Lots of gomi.
Things that we let go that are Should be trash, and things that we're letting go that are gonna be donated are all still piling up down here.
I had no idea there was an extra room in there.
There's a bathroom there, believe it or not.
See, look at it.
There's a lot! - There's a lot.
- It's a large pile.
Again.
But this time these are things that are going, right? You want to see upstairs and I'll show you how we completed our homework.
Yes, please show me.
So we'll start here.
- This is where we had everything piled.
- Wow! It's wonderful.
You worked so hard! I did it.
I did it.
I got rid of a lot.
You know, it was easy on that one.
Yeah, lotta bags have gone.
So in here, sweaters was really huge, too.
Now that you've tackled your clothes, what kind of effect has it had on the way you shop? When I go through my emails that come from all my favorite stores and I'm going, delete, delete, de I'm not even opening the emails.
Even when it's a sale.
Big difference.
Yes.
Yes, yes.
So, you've worked so hard on the tidying clothes, - I would love to move on.
- Okay.
Christmas decorations.
How do you feel looking at all of this? Well, right now I don't feel really good looking at all of them, but once they're organized into their own little cases, it just makes me feel really good that I have them.
What do you think of the quantity, though? - Does this feel right for you? - Yes, because we have a big house and I like to have Christmas, like, in the three main entertaining rooms.
So I feel I need this many in order to bring Christmas to all three of the main rooms.
I don't recommended putting things in plastic bags like this.
It starts to look like gomi, or trash.
Satsuki, these are Christmas decorations.
- And this one? - This one, too? Here you go.
My little girls love Christmas as well.
But I don't think they share the same enthusiasm as Wendy.
Here are some tips for tidying Christmas decorations.
Create one big pile.
Hold each item one by one.
Only keep the ones that spark joy.
I'm sure there are a lot of families who use Christmas to decorate together.
In those situations, it would be great if everyone did it together.
Hey, Satsuki.
Does this spark joy? - Yeah.
- Yes.
It sparks joy.
Here are some tips on storing seasonal decorations.
First, do not store them in trash bags.
Put the decorations in a box.
For example, store them in clear containers like this.
That way, it'll be easier to see what's inside.
So this morning, Ron and I got up at five o'clock in the morning and we piled it on top of all the sofas so that we have more room here to work.
Wendy is starting to take apart Christmas.
And the infamous nutcrackers are where she is Goodbye! Not necessarily where she's starting, but I don't know if you remember, but that was super full.
She's got these clear bins that I think she was talking to Marie about.
Here's two bins that she's already done.
I really I love Christmas and I do realize it was it was a little overboard here, you know, with things just in every It almost looked like I was selling the stuff.
So I learned that it didn't have to be that extreme to look really festive.
So, um, I'm gonna change the way I decorate this year.
Wendy started off with Mount Wendy because the clothes was probably the most daunting thing that she had.
And so the cards was gonna Are gonna be my Mount Ron.
Found Marino's rookie card.
And John Elway's rookie card.
Baseball cards is something that me and the kids have been collecting for over 30 year I've been collecting for longer than that, but with the kids, over 30 years.
Going through this process, it has made me think about things more, about whether, does it make sense for me to keep it, or does it make sense for me to treasure it, or does it make sense for me to say thanks and get rid of it? I never really thought that I would think the way I'm thinking about baseball cards now the way I am.
If I really think about it, I only need to keep ten percent of it.
Oh, let's see.
How is he doing? Aww.
He actually conked out.
I'm looking, I mean look at all this carnage here.
Believe it or not, he has it under control.
It doesn't look like it, but he does.
So we're gonna do the fall stuff over here, right? Yes.
Clumsy, Wen.
I know, well, it wasn't anything important.
There are a lot of things out here.
There's some more.
Hi! How are you? I'm so dirty! How are you, lida? - Come in.
Come in.
- Hi, good to see you.
Good seeing you.
Yeah, I know I'm not So, you wanna see the garage? - Absolutely! - Of course.
I can't wait.
- You can see the other side! - I know! Isn't it amazing? - Konnichiwa.
Hello Ron! - Hey.
Konnichiwa.
So, did you guys discover anything new about each other while you were tidying this garage? Well, what'd you call me, Ron? - Gasa gasa.
- I'm gasa gasa.
Gasa gasa! He slows me down.
I kinda make him hurry up.
Ron's reaction to the thought of going into this project was, like, I guess what most men would Like, "What's wrong with the way things are right now?" You know? "If it isn't broke, don't fix it.
" But now, he's enjoying it.
I think he's enjoying the results.
His creativity level just jumped, you know, it just went onto the moon.
He's like, "Why don't we do this, why don't we do that?" We're working together to accomplish something that we think is definitely gonna be life-changing.
I think since Marie's come here, from the beginning to now, we're totally we look at this differently.
"Spark joy," that really is a a real thing.
It actually brought about changes that we really didn't expect.
That's true.
That's true.
Truly.
Truly.
There actually is a side bonus to all of this and the side bonus is that um, we're working together.
Right, are you putting small, big, how are you doing it? Just anyway you can, but obviously you don't wanna put smalls on the bottom.
It's kinda fun, actually.
What're you gonna do up there? 'Cause that's all gonna come out.
I think we still wanna put some of the photographs and stuff up there.
From de-cluttering and cleaning and working with Marie, that Ron and Wendy are actually are working together on a project like this, it's kinda cool.
- Okay.
- So, I think we're done.
We can see the endgame right now.
And before it was kinda like, "How are we gonna do it?" Because there was just so much stuff in there.
But now we've made tremendous progress and we're gonna continue.
And so my motivation is I never want to have to do this again.
We estimated, what, 150 bags of trash have left this house.
A hundred and fifty.
Okay, so where do you want to start? Top shelves or bottom shelves? Um - Probably top shelves.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
So Is that hair? - What does it say? - "Russell.
" Yeah, it's Russell's hair.
- First haircut.
- First haircut.
Okay.
Nana kept that?! Holy crap.
This is April 1966.
Does that even look like me? - That's you? - Yep.
I mean, it almost looks like Russell.
Wow.
There's gonna be a lotta things that we're gonna find I know that are precious to us and we have to come up with a way to store them.
What we need to do is make a pile of photos that we're gonna come back to.
When tidying photos, you must believe in your ability to know what sparks joy for you.
Let's go through each one, one by one.
This one sparks joy.
This one doesn't.
This one does.
This one doesn't.
If you have similar photos, keep the one that sparks the most joy.
Photos can be stored in a box.
My recommendation is to store them in an album.
This makes it easier to enjoy the memories.
Some places to store your albums are on bookshelves and coffee tables.
Please find a spot that sparks joy for you.
Okay.
We kinda were thinking of the stages and the sentimental was definitely a part of the stage that I was looking forward to, honestly, 'cause I really wanted to see some of this old stuff that I either have never seen or haven't seen for a long time, and by a long time I'm talking - Fifty years.
- Yeah, fifty years.
I'm pretty sure this was my father's.
- Hmm.
- When I started looking into it, this is December 7th, 1941.
That was Pearl Harbor.
And then he begins to tell that they were gonna be interned at Santa Anita Racetrack.
And what happened to them, you know, right after the break of World War II.
So This is an item that should be cherished.
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
There's a lot of memories in this house.
There's a lot of emotional stuff that we found that took us back.
You know, we've found more things that have brought value to us that are worth absolutely nothing to anybody else, but to us, they're worth a ton.
And we wouldn't have found that stuff, um if we didn't start this process.
Did you dust these? Yeah, more or less, but Don't you know, you're gonna create more work than you want if you start doing that.
There's the door.
Um - Konnichiwa! - Hi! Konnichiwa! - How are you? - Hello.
Hi.
I think we're gonna show you the garage first.
Oh, great idea.
- Wendy-san! - Marie! - How are you? - Good.
Good to see you.
- This is a completely different room.
- Yes, even from last week, right? - You did this all in a week? - Yeah, yes.
Amazing! Those are some dolls I found in a box.
- How do you say "doll"? - Kokeshi.
Kokeshi dolls.
Morioka, Sendai, Mizusawa, the reindeer.
Look at all the tiny ones! - They're so cute.
- Aren't they cute? We had no idea these existed.
It was hidden in one of the cabinets.
It brings me joy just to see this in the garage, that you have space to display this now.
All through this process, I was stepping back, going, "How did we let it get to this?" Or "How did this happen?" Or "How did that happen?" And, man, I can't leave anything around anymore.
I mean it's like, "Why's that in the middle of the living room?" "Why is that there? Why is that there?" So it's definitely changing us and I have to say it's for the better.
Here's my office! - Can you believe it? Look at this.
- Wendy-san! So, see? We did it.
And then here's workspace here, workspace there.
"Ron and I, we thought," You know what? This would be a good place to store the photo boxes.
" - What happened to all the shoes? - Ah! Oh, I'll show you.
We moved everything.
Alright, so here, now we have more of the clothing all in the Mount Wendy room.
I know, little by little, this is turning into being a walk-in closet.
- Okay, so here is Ron's space.
- Ah.
Workspace.
I love it.
This is all that's left after the big mountain.
The whole KonMari philosophy and everything, I think, really has played a key into the way that we're looking at stuff.
Yeah, I think this is a very good volume - that you can calmly look through.
- Yes.
There's a value to our possessions that maybe I didn't feel that I had before.
So if I have, um ten baseball cards as opposed to 1,000 baseball cards, I'm gonna treasure those ten baseball cards more than if I had 1,000.
That's really huge coming from him because, really, for him to cross over, you know, into the light is huge, it's huge.
Okay, yeah, so, I just want to say that.
Ah, look how clean this room is.
And so here's a picture.
If you stand right here, this is the view.
How many years ago was this? This is probably a good 20 years ago.
Yeah.
Really, just everything that has been placed here, it's just transformed the feeling in this whole room.
- It's so different.
- Oh, thank you.
Yeah, we feel it, too.
I can feel a change in the atmosphere of the house.
It feels lighter, it feels more positive.
And actually, to me, is probably the first step in de-stressing and moving forward, you know, into our retirement years.
I'm just struggling to find the right words because I'm so moved right now.
Because these past six weeks, both of you have so seriously confronted not just your possessions, but your own lives and yourselves as well, and I'm just so moved.
That's what I'm, you know, most proud about her.
She's a good partner.
We did put in some long hours some days.
So on our very first day together, I asked, "What is our ideal vision for your life together"? And, Ron, you mentioned "happy wife, happy life.
" Do you think you've accomplished that? Yeah, I think we accomplished happy wife, happy life.
She's my girl, she's always been my girl, she'll always be my girl.
There were times where it was a little hard and, um, we came through it.
Here we go, guys.
First game of pool, in I don't know how many years.
He partnered with me on this and, you know, went all in.
And that is, you know, really something.
You know, thanks.
I was really, really thankful for that.
Oh, my God.
I do not believe that! This really has been a fun thing for us to do.
We've laughed a lot.
He's sandbagging me! I think that both of us, we have gotten closer and it's brought a lot of joy in my life.
Oh, my gosh, these flowers are beautiful! Look at those.
And now we're thinking there really isn't any other task that we couldn't do together.
Congratulations for successfully completing the KonMari Method of tidying.
You've graduated! We graduated! Yay! Oh, my gosh! I'm very, very happy with the results and um, I can honestly say that it's gonna change the way I view possessions, it's gonna change the way Actually, the way that I, you know, proceed with the rest of my life.
Ditto.
'Tis the season The joy we're feeling There's magic in the air 'Tis the season The joy we're bringing You know it's everywhere Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la It's Christmas Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la It's Christmastime
It's a never ending battle to fight the clutter.
Oh! I want things to be more simple.
I don't know how to fix it.
With the baby coming, it's gonna be more chaos.
Oh, my God! We have too much stuff! Hello, I'm Marie Kondo.
My mission is to spark joy in the world through cleaning.
Ching! Best-selling author and world-renowned tidying expert.
Marie Kondo is dedicated to inspiring the world to choose joy with the KonMari Method.
The KonMari Method is unique because I organize by category rather than by location.
In the KonMari Method, we tidy five categories in a specific order.
First, is clothing.
I can't reach.
Next, is books.
Giving them a little shake and wake them up.
Then, paper.
I can't do the papers.
The largest category is komono.
Komono is kitchen, bathroom, and garage.
Everything miscellaneous.
Finally, sentimental items.
It's kinda hard to let it go, 'cause I really like this one.
This is kinda hard.
I don't want to just, you know, dump it.
But I want to be thoughtful about it.
From the moment she set foot in our house, she had this presence to her.
She wants to see this place turned around.
Marie brought a whole bunch of joy upon our home.
This is amazing.
You're so cute! I love you! You're so cute.
I love you, too.
These are, like, happy, happy tears.
Thank you for what you've brought to our home, really.
Mushu, where are you? Kitty, kitty, kitty.
I do not see Mushu.
Oh, no.
That window was open.
Okay.
Mushu, here, boy, Here kitty, kitty, kitty.
Mushu? Moosh, okay, boy, come here.
Hello, sweetie.
Come here.
Atta Come on.
Up we go, up we go.
Alright, gotcha.
Come on.
My name is Wendy Akiyama.
And I'm Ron Akiyama.
We inherited the house in 1994.
Raised our children here.
But we are now empty-nesters.
But now the clutter, it prevents me from having what I would call a normal retirement.
So I want Marie Kondo's help to actually maximize our enjoyment in this house.
Ditto everything she just said.
'Cause I'm her husband.
Ron's family moved here in 1968.
My parents bought the house on the street down below at the same time that they were here.
Ended up marrying the boy next door.
- Literally.
- Yep.
We've been married for What did I? Forty-two years.
Forty-two? Seventy-six.
Yeah, 42 years.
So, you know, we've gotten to the point where, you know, even if I come home and sit here and we don't say one word to each other, he's just watching TV and I fall asleep it's a great relationship.
We don't feel pressured to, "Oh, how was your day?" "Oh, how was your day?" You know, it's there's just no pressure.
I feel like talking, I'll talk.
I don't wanna talk, I'm not gonna talk.
Y o u know? And there's no, "Well, why aren't you talking to me?" You know, so this is a great time for us to tackle something new like this where we're both going to be involved together.
What do you think? It is.
Okay.
I have worked with many couples who wanted to re-evaluate their life after their children have left home.
I have every confidence that if Ron and Wendy progress step by step, they will be able to discover what's truly important in their life.
Which one? Which one is it? Oh, it's this one.
Today are people of Japanese descent.
Oh, really?! The outside looks a little Japanese.
That's very Japanese.
But there's no name plate.
- Hi! - Hey! - Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- I'm Marie.
- Yes! Oh, yes, I know.
- I am Wendy and this is my son, Russell.
- Hi, Marie, nice to meet you.
- What was your name? - Iida.
- It's Marie Kondo? - Marie Kondo.
Kondo.
Perfect.
We're Akiyamas.
Yeah, we know Little bit.
Yeah.
- I know a little bit English.
- All I'm saying is this job is gonna be, - what is it, taihen? - It's okay.
Yeah, my husband is here somewhere.
- He'll be here in a minute.
- He might be in the back.
- I think he's in the backyard.
- He might be in the backyard, yes.
Oh.
Speak of the devil! Oh, gosh, there you are.
- Perfect.
- This is Ron.
Hi, nice to meet you.
I'm Marie.
Yes, I recognize your face from from YouTube.
So I would love to get a little bit of a tour inside your home, if that's okay? My name is Russell, um, and part of the reason why I am here is to help my mom, because I think that there is a little bit of hesitation and concern for my dad about the daunting mountain of things my parents are gonna have to go through.
But, you know, even though he's a man of few words, you know, being able to have an activity like this with my mom, he and my mom can get to know each other in this new process.
Cleaning the house was definitely Wasn't my priority, but it would definitely be hers.
I'm of the subscription to happy wife, happy life, so I I support whatever it takes to have a clean house, if that makes Mama happy.
So I'm just not 100% in it because I don't know what it entails yet, so let's see what happens here.
Okay, so master bedroom, Marie.
And then this is what we're dealing with here.
Baseball cards, Marie.
Baseball card! Those boxes all used to be white.
So all of these belong to your husband? Yes, the kids worked with my husband, collected cards, so this is the end result.
Ron is really perfectly willing to have things be status quo.
And maintaining the status quo actually does inhibit you from being creative and having, um, different approaches to solving the problems in your life.
If you're satisfied with the status quo then nothing's gonna change because you don't want change.
So I hope it's never too late to teach old dogs new tricks.
This is not everything, Marie.
There's There's much more.
More clothes? Yes.
Yes.
- Oh, you wanna see that next? - Yeah.
So this used to be a bedroom with a bed in it.
I see a lot of clothes with tags still on.
There's lots of things with tags, yes.
And one of the things I would like to see for her retirement, if we can transform this room into her office.
And I'd love to see the one last place we have clothes.
Yeah, there's actually two more rooms to look at in here.
Okay, this is Russell's old room.
Ah.
Those are all mine.
This is my little brother's room.
And there's more in the closet.
The disorganization is stressful.
I try to just bury it, not think about it, to live with floor-to-ceiling boxes, and to have a whole room of clothing that is just kinda thrown over things.
We can't find stuff and that does bother me.
And I think that getting that organized will help, you know, to make this feel like the home that I really would like to have.
So this way is the rumpus room, please.
Amazing, is this an activity room? I'd say an activity room.
A room where you watch TV, you play games, and this is the Christmas collection which I've been trying to figure out how to put away.
So, just wondering, Christmas materials, in the living room and all of this, that's it, right? No, and the kitchen.
And the bathroom.
And there's some nutcrackers that are still out, yeah.
My love of Christmas started when I was a little girl.
My mom, she was the one who actually made it really special for us as we were growing up and I wanted to do the same for my children.
Decorations were really important.
To me that was a big deal, because now you know Christmas is coming.
And having the house, you know, decorated for Christmas just makes me happy.
It's nice.
You have a lot of memorabilia, keepsakes in here.
- Yes.
- Yes, yes.
Oh, okay.
We're gonna go look at the garage next.
Yeah.
- After you.
Go ahead.
- Oh! - At least there's room for you to walk.
- Garage.
There is room.
Oh, there you are.
- I didn't expect him up there.
- Yeah, that's Mushu and Mulan.
This is where a lot of everything ended up.
Yes.
We have no idea on how many boxes are in the garage and what's in them.
For most of its life, the garage has been a clutter.
And we have three generations of belongings in this house.
It began with Ron's mom and dad.
They brought their belongings from their previous home.
And now we have our children's items which are still in this house and Ron's items and my items.
I do think that it will take a significant amount of time going through all this.
- But you will finish.
- Yes! - Okay.
- That's what I want to hear! - Can I get a high five, Marie? - Yes! Here we go! We're on.
So, just as I introduced myself to you today, I always also introduce myself to the house.
I love that.
I love that.
- I never thought of talking to our house.
- We should.
- We should talk more to our house! - Yes.
Yes, this is a good spot to do that.
And asking our house to cooperate with us? - That's great.
- I love that.
Should we do Can we do that? Can we kneel on the floor? Can you do seiza? Like this? The Japanese proper way of sitting.
- I don't think so.
- If you can't, that's okay.
Were you able to greet it? - Yes, I was.
- Okay.
When tidying your clothes, you will take everything out and create one big pile.
This may seem like a hassle, but please do not skip this step.
Only by creating one big pile are you able to see how much clothing you actually have.
You will also be shocked at the amount of clothing you have.
By experiencing this shock, you will finally be able to decide what items are truly necessary for you.
- I'll do this bit.
- You really do own a load of jackets.
Yeah, I do.
That's my weak point.
It just makes me feel good that I have 'em.
I think it'll make you feel good to get the space back, too.
- Oh, sorry! - Excuse me.
Here you go, now drawers.
There's truly a lot here.
So, how long did it take, about an hour? Just about.
I'm going to be honest with you.
This is the biggest pile I've seen of all my clients.
Yay! I win! - I don't know if that's how this works.
- Yay! For me, clothes are a passion, an obsession, recreation.
Retail therapy is definitely something I'm guilty of using.
And, you know, whenever Ron and I would fight, shopping was a diversion, it was a way to, you know, just calm down, de-stress.
Um Maybe, you know, hit Ron where it hurts, in his pocketbook.
I know! Holy cow, Ron! This is pretty bad.
- He's working really hard.
- Holy moly.
He is.
And just to to clarify or to keep fresh in my mind, the object isn't necessarily to throw everything away, it's to be it's like almost like Correct me if I'm wrong, like reacquaint yourself with your belongings.
What I really want you to ask yourself is if it's something you really want to take into your future.
- Yes.
- Yeah.
So, your homework for this week is to finish sorting through all of your clothes.
Okay, great.
Thank you very much! Thank you.
I'm kind of an old school, macho kinda guy and this isn't something that I normally would do.
But, um, Wendy's kind of overwhelmed.
It's kind of unfair that her pile is three or four times what my pile is.
But my thing is baseball cards, so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get the crack of the whip for that.
I love having all of this.
I would not just take the whole mountain and just chuck it out.
I really love what I have.
I love clothing.
But to put it, everything all in one pile, I've never done that before, and I've never seen the accumulation of everything that I own that's clothing.
So now I am overwhelmed.
I'm gonna probably keep this one 'cause, again, I like the colors and it's really soft and comfortable, so yes.
We will keep that one.
I'm starting from the bottom, just throwing everything down.
I like it, I love florals, so we will probably be keeping that one.
This is really heavy under Okay, I can't pull it out.
When I was little, I would make paper dolls and just design clothing for them, piles and piles of clothing and keep changing them.
And so as I grew older, I became the paper doll.
I still like to look at clothes, I still like to try them on, and, um, this is really hard for me to do.
Okay, I like that one, too.
The anxiety part is trying to understand what I have so that I can use it.
Seen the top of the bed, yet? Um, no.
I'm keeping a lot.
Well, yeah.
I figured.
I have to make it go down.
I hope the next time I see Marie that this is gone.
Are we just throwing this in a bag? - Yes.
- Okay.
Let's just get the process done.
You can walk when you get to Heaven, so let's hurry up.
- Hi! - Hello, Marie.
Good to see you.
Iida, good to see you.
- Hello again.
- How are you guys? - Good! - It's hot, hot, hot.
It got really hot quite suddenly.
I've been taking out Lots of gomi.
Things that we let go that are Should be trash, and things that we're letting go that are gonna be donated are all still piling up down here.
I had no idea there was an extra room in there.
There's a bathroom there, believe it or not.
See, look at it.
There's a lot! - There's a lot.
- It's a large pile.
Again.
But this time these are things that are going, right? You want to see upstairs and I'll show you how we completed our homework.
Yes, please show me.
So we'll start here.
- This is where we had everything piled.
- Wow! It's wonderful.
You worked so hard! I did it.
I did it.
I got rid of a lot.
You know, it was easy on that one.
Yeah, lotta bags have gone.
So in here, sweaters was really huge, too.
Now that you've tackled your clothes, what kind of effect has it had on the way you shop? When I go through my emails that come from all my favorite stores and I'm going, delete, delete, de I'm not even opening the emails.
Even when it's a sale.
Big difference.
Yes.
Yes, yes.
So, you've worked so hard on the tidying clothes, - I would love to move on.
- Okay.
Christmas decorations.
How do you feel looking at all of this? Well, right now I don't feel really good looking at all of them, but once they're organized into their own little cases, it just makes me feel really good that I have them.
What do you think of the quantity, though? - Does this feel right for you? - Yes, because we have a big house and I like to have Christmas, like, in the three main entertaining rooms.
So I feel I need this many in order to bring Christmas to all three of the main rooms.
I don't recommended putting things in plastic bags like this.
It starts to look like gomi, or trash.
Satsuki, these are Christmas decorations.
- And this one? - This one, too? Here you go.
My little girls love Christmas as well.
But I don't think they share the same enthusiasm as Wendy.
Here are some tips for tidying Christmas decorations.
Create one big pile.
Hold each item one by one.
Only keep the ones that spark joy.
I'm sure there are a lot of families who use Christmas to decorate together.
In those situations, it would be great if everyone did it together.
Hey, Satsuki.
Does this spark joy? - Yeah.
- Yes.
It sparks joy.
Here are some tips on storing seasonal decorations.
First, do not store them in trash bags.
Put the decorations in a box.
For example, store them in clear containers like this.
That way, it'll be easier to see what's inside.
So this morning, Ron and I got up at five o'clock in the morning and we piled it on top of all the sofas so that we have more room here to work.
Wendy is starting to take apart Christmas.
And the infamous nutcrackers are where she is Goodbye! Not necessarily where she's starting, but I don't know if you remember, but that was super full.
She's got these clear bins that I think she was talking to Marie about.
Here's two bins that she's already done.
I really I love Christmas and I do realize it was it was a little overboard here, you know, with things just in every It almost looked like I was selling the stuff.
So I learned that it didn't have to be that extreme to look really festive.
So, um, I'm gonna change the way I decorate this year.
Wendy started off with Mount Wendy because the clothes was probably the most daunting thing that she had.
And so the cards was gonna Are gonna be my Mount Ron.
Found Marino's rookie card.
And John Elway's rookie card.
Baseball cards is something that me and the kids have been collecting for over 30 year I've been collecting for longer than that, but with the kids, over 30 years.
Going through this process, it has made me think about things more, about whether, does it make sense for me to keep it, or does it make sense for me to treasure it, or does it make sense for me to say thanks and get rid of it? I never really thought that I would think the way I'm thinking about baseball cards now the way I am.
If I really think about it, I only need to keep ten percent of it.
Oh, let's see.
How is he doing? Aww.
He actually conked out.
I'm looking, I mean look at all this carnage here.
Believe it or not, he has it under control.
It doesn't look like it, but he does.
So we're gonna do the fall stuff over here, right? Yes.
Clumsy, Wen.
I know, well, it wasn't anything important.
There are a lot of things out here.
There's some more.
Hi! How are you? I'm so dirty! How are you, lida? - Come in.
Come in.
- Hi, good to see you.
Good seeing you.
Yeah, I know I'm not So, you wanna see the garage? - Absolutely! - Of course.
I can't wait.
- You can see the other side! - I know! Isn't it amazing? - Konnichiwa.
Hello Ron! - Hey.
Konnichiwa.
So, did you guys discover anything new about each other while you were tidying this garage? Well, what'd you call me, Ron? - Gasa gasa.
- I'm gasa gasa.
Gasa gasa! He slows me down.
I kinda make him hurry up.
Ron's reaction to the thought of going into this project was, like, I guess what most men would Like, "What's wrong with the way things are right now?" You know? "If it isn't broke, don't fix it.
" But now, he's enjoying it.
I think he's enjoying the results.
His creativity level just jumped, you know, it just went onto the moon.
He's like, "Why don't we do this, why don't we do that?" We're working together to accomplish something that we think is definitely gonna be life-changing.
I think since Marie's come here, from the beginning to now, we're totally we look at this differently.
"Spark joy," that really is a a real thing.
It actually brought about changes that we really didn't expect.
That's true.
That's true.
Truly.
Truly.
There actually is a side bonus to all of this and the side bonus is that um, we're working together.
Right, are you putting small, big, how are you doing it? Just anyway you can, but obviously you don't wanna put smalls on the bottom.
It's kinda fun, actually.
What're you gonna do up there? 'Cause that's all gonna come out.
I think we still wanna put some of the photographs and stuff up there.
From de-cluttering and cleaning and working with Marie, that Ron and Wendy are actually are working together on a project like this, it's kinda cool.
- Okay.
- So, I think we're done.
We can see the endgame right now.
And before it was kinda like, "How are we gonna do it?" Because there was just so much stuff in there.
But now we've made tremendous progress and we're gonna continue.
And so my motivation is I never want to have to do this again.
We estimated, what, 150 bags of trash have left this house.
A hundred and fifty.
Okay, so where do you want to start? Top shelves or bottom shelves? Um - Probably top shelves.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
So Is that hair? - What does it say? - "Russell.
" Yeah, it's Russell's hair.
- First haircut.
- First haircut.
Okay.
Nana kept that?! Holy crap.
This is April 1966.
Does that even look like me? - That's you? - Yep.
I mean, it almost looks like Russell.
Wow.
There's gonna be a lotta things that we're gonna find I know that are precious to us and we have to come up with a way to store them.
What we need to do is make a pile of photos that we're gonna come back to.
When tidying photos, you must believe in your ability to know what sparks joy for you.
Let's go through each one, one by one.
This one sparks joy.
This one doesn't.
This one does.
This one doesn't.
If you have similar photos, keep the one that sparks the most joy.
Photos can be stored in a box.
My recommendation is to store them in an album.
This makes it easier to enjoy the memories.
Some places to store your albums are on bookshelves and coffee tables.
Please find a spot that sparks joy for you.
Okay.
We kinda were thinking of the stages and the sentimental was definitely a part of the stage that I was looking forward to, honestly, 'cause I really wanted to see some of this old stuff that I either have never seen or haven't seen for a long time, and by a long time I'm talking - Fifty years.
- Yeah, fifty years.
I'm pretty sure this was my father's.
- Hmm.
- When I started looking into it, this is December 7th, 1941.
That was Pearl Harbor.
And then he begins to tell that they were gonna be interned at Santa Anita Racetrack.
And what happened to them, you know, right after the break of World War II.
So This is an item that should be cherished.
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
There's a lot of memories in this house.
There's a lot of emotional stuff that we found that took us back.
You know, we've found more things that have brought value to us that are worth absolutely nothing to anybody else, but to us, they're worth a ton.
And we wouldn't have found that stuff, um if we didn't start this process.
Did you dust these? Yeah, more or less, but Don't you know, you're gonna create more work than you want if you start doing that.
There's the door.
Um - Konnichiwa! - Hi! Konnichiwa! - How are you? - Hello.
Hi.
I think we're gonna show you the garage first.
Oh, great idea.
- Wendy-san! - Marie! - How are you? - Good.
Good to see you.
- This is a completely different room.
- Yes, even from last week, right? - You did this all in a week? - Yeah, yes.
Amazing! Those are some dolls I found in a box.
- How do you say "doll"? - Kokeshi.
Kokeshi dolls.
Morioka, Sendai, Mizusawa, the reindeer.
Look at all the tiny ones! - They're so cute.
- Aren't they cute? We had no idea these existed.
It was hidden in one of the cabinets.
It brings me joy just to see this in the garage, that you have space to display this now.
All through this process, I was stepping back, going, "How did we let it get to this?" Or "How did this happen?" Or "How did that happen?" And, man, I can't leave anything around anymore.
I mean it's like, "Why's that in the middle of the living room?" "Why is that there? Why is that there?" So it's definitely changing us and I have to say it's for the better.
Here's my office! - Can you believe it? Look at this.
- Wendy-san! So, see? We did it.
And then here's workspace here, workspace there.
"Ron and I, we thought," You know what? This would be a good place to store the photo boxes.
" - What happened to all the shoes? - Ah! Oh, I'll show you.
We moved everything.
Alright, so here, now we have more of the clothing all in the Mount Wendy room.
I know, little by little, this is turning into being a walk-in closet.
- Okay, so here is Ron's space.
- Ah.
Workspace.
I love it.
This is all that's left after the big mountain.
The whole KonMari philosophy and everything, I think, really has played a key into the way that we're looking at stuff.
Yeah, I think this is a very good volume - that you can calmly look through.
- Yes.
There's a value to our possessions that maybe I didn't feel that I had before.
So if I have, um ten baseball cards as opposed to 1,000 baseball cards, I'm gonna treasure those ten baseball cards more than if I had 1,000.
That's really huge coming from him because, really, for him to cross over, you know, into the light is huge, it's huge.
Okay, yeah, so, I just want to say that.
Ah, look how clean this room is.
And so here's a picture.
If you stand right here, this is the view.
How many years ago was this? This is probably a good 20 years ago.
Yeah.
Really, just everything that has been placed here, it's just transformed the feeling in this whole room.
- It's so different.
- Oh, thank you.
Yeah, we feel it, too.
I can feel a change in the atmosphere of the house.
It feels lighter, it feels more positive.
And actually, to me, is probably the first step in de-stressing and moving forward, you know, into our retirement years.
I'm just struggling to find the right words because I'm so moved right now.
Because these past six weeks, both of you have so seriously confronted not just your possessions, but your own lives and yourselves as well, and I'm just so moved.
That's what I'm, you know, most proud about her.
She's a good partner.
We did put in some long hours some days.
So on our very first day together, I asked, "What is our ideal vision for your life together"? And, Ron, you mentioned "happy wife, happy life.
" Do you think you've accomplished that? Yeah, I think we accomplished happy wife, happy life.
She's my girl, she's always been my girl, she'll always be my girl.
There were times where it was a little hard and, um, we came through it.
Here we go, guys.
First game of pool, in I don't know how many years.
He partnered with me on this and, you know, went all in.
And that is, you know, really something.
You know, thanks.
I was really, really thankful for that.
Oh, my God.
I do not believe that! This really has been a fun thing for us to do.
We've laughed a lot.
He's sandbagging me! I think that both of us, we have gotten closer and it's brought a lot of joy in my life.
Oh, my gosh, these flowers are beautiful! Look at those.
And now we're thinking there really isn't any other task that we couldn't do together.
Congratulations for successfully completing the KonMari Method of tidying.
You've graduated! We graduated! Yay! Oh, my gosh! I'm very, very happy with the results and um, I can honestly say that it's gonna change the way I view possessions, it's gonna change the way Actually, the way that I, you know, proceed with the rest of my life.
Ditto.
'Tis the season The joy we're feeling There's magic in the air 'Tis the season The joy we're bringing You know it's everywhere Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la It's Christmas Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la It's Christmastime