Kristen Jonet knew about Marie Kondo, whose advice book for tidying homes became a bestseller five years ago, but didn't pay attention to her ideas until seeing her new Netflix show.
Jonet and her husband watched all eight episodes, then started cleaning their Minneapolis home and have since made multiple trips to the Cake Plus-Size Resale shop and to a Goodwill store with belongings they no longer need.
"We started with clothes, then we bought drawer organizers for the kitchen. We're still waiting on the garage until it warms up," Jonet said. "My husband and I call it the Marie Kondo-ing of our lives."
Around the Twin Cities, the post-holiday winter clean-out turned into a blowout this year. And owners and employees at shops that deal in used goods and consignments think Kondo's show is the reason why.
"Last January was painfully slow for my business, but this January is literally double what it was last year," said Cat Polivoda, owner of Cake Plus-Size Resale in Minneapolis.
Since the Netflix series "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo" debuted Jan. 1, Polivoda said nearly everyone who brings in clothes to sell mentions Kondo or her tidying process, dubbed the KonMari method.
"KonMari fever has been treating us very well," she said.
Kondo's method, explained when her Japanese book was translated into English in 2014 as "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up," encourages people to focus on what they want to keep by holding each item and asking themselves, "Does this spark joy?"