"I don’t think it’s healthy to hold onto your past."
Marie Kondo’s best-selling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” encourages people to go through their possessions and discard everything that doesn’t “spark joy.” She wrote in her native Japanese, and it was translated to English in 2014. Since then, it’s been published in 30 countries.
In January, Netflix debuted a series starring Kondo who, through a translator, helps families control their clutter.
The eight, half-hour episodes each have millions of views. The show sparked a deluge of before-and-after photos on social media, people documenting their attempts to follow the Kondo method. In the last month, more than 1 million people have mentioned her on Facebook. The site’s Marketplace reports a huge increase in people selling things they no longer want.
Across Tampa Bay, Goodwill has seen a 3 percent increase in drop-offs throughout its 10-county region -- an additional 5 million pounds of clothes, furniture and other items in just one month. “Our donations departments keep getting calls from people saying they’ve been inspired to clean out their clutter,” said Goodwill spokesperson Chris Ward. “At our Wesley Chapel store, donations have tripled.”
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times.