All language subtitles for Tidying.Up.with.Marie.Kondo.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-3_English

-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.
You 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, Iida?

-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 ♪