Hello! My name is Danielle. 

Origin story: wekondoit.com

I originally started this blog (www.wekondoit.com) several years ago, right after reading Marie Kondo’s new book, The Magical Art of Tidying Up. Like many people, I jumped into my closet and tossed everything into a big pile. I kind of got through the pile, wondering what sparked joy until I ended up with nothing to wear. Then I got through books - kind of. Then I started on komono, and kind of got through that. Then got lost.

A blog is born

I was determined to find a way to fully “Kondo.” I scoured the internet, hoping someone out there had done the process and had all the answers, and I could just do what they did.

Frankly, I’m still looking for that someone…

If Marie Kondo couldn’t answer my questions—Are my writing journals sentimental or part of papers? Is there a range of “joy-sparkage” or am I really surrounded by nothing that makes me happy?—then this is my attempt to be that someone, for myself and others.

Marie kondo comes to netflix

Then Marie Kondo came to Netflix! Now she’s a household name for many people in the US since. show ended up answering some questions by seeing her in action.

After blogging off and on and Kondo’ing for a couple years, Marie Kondo hit the big time. Suddenly everyone was obsessed with decluttering the Marie Kondo way. I had 5x the followers, but still hadn’t completed the process in full.

I watched Marie on her show and more importantly, I watched the clients. Granted, many of them had a lot of “stuff.” But, I also noticed how otherwise clean all of their places were. Nobody had dirty dishes with food anywhere or overflowing bags of trash or even what appeared to be anything but clean surfaces. Where was the dog or cat fur? The dirty laundry?

This had been something I’d been struggling with every since I started doing the Marie Kondo process. She never really addressed the “dirty stuff”—like, trash or dirty laundry. Surely she has these things—I assume so anyway.

It felt like there was something more behind the wizard curtain. Either Marie Kondo is tidy by nature, or she’s tidy by habit.

Tidy by habit—untidy by nature

After Marie Kondo’s people contacted me to ask me to stop using Marie’s copyrighted cleaning terms and phrases, I did a review of my content and where I wanted to go.

While the spark for this whole blog was her books and her process, I still had questions. I know I’ve heard people say they’ve done her process, and it’s transformed their lives, they’re clean and tidy every since… I keep looking around and feeling like a failure. Because I’ve been trying to do her process now for years. I always wondered what happened to everyone after they tidied. Did they magically become tidier then? What about the dishes? The laundry? Were all of those issues solved?

Maybe they are transformed tidy people. Her show makes it look like they are. At one point I wanted to become a Marie Kondo consultant. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s a good match.

I am untidy by nature. My dad, who much prefers leisure to work any day, is ironically very tidy, and always was when I was growing up. He’d tidy the kitchen and clean up after meals, do the dishes—it was never something he had to be asked to do. It was second nature to him.

My mother, a more creative type, has always struggled with tidiness. She can pull off a tidy house within 15 minutes (a skill I think many of us untidy-by-nature types have learned), but keeping things clean and tidy everyday isn’t part of our makeup. It’s not second nature. For all you weary closet warriors, organizing wizards, and decluttering samurais: Have you attempted this whole Marie Kondo method but fall off the wagon or gotten lost in the Jungle of Stuff? Me too! But I've kept hacking and slashing my way through and I've got some tips and tricks for you. I am becoming tidy by habit.

As I keep working to be a tidier human in my home, but even my finances and other areas of my life, I’ll share my journey with you so you can see what works for you.