Kondo claims her study of neatness began at age 5, when feng shui became trendy in Tokyo, Japan;[11] its Japanese equivalent was called fusui.

[13] In junior school, Kondo ran into the classroom to tidy up bookshelves while her classmates were playing in physical education class.

[15] Kondo's method of organizing is known as the KonMari method, and consists of gathering together all of one's belongings, one category at a time, and then keeping only those things that "spark joy" (Japanese language ときめく tokimeku, translated as equivalent to English "flutter, throb, palpitate"),[18] and choosing a place for everything from then on.

[19][20] Kondo advises to start the process of tidying up by "quickly and completely" discarding whatever it is in the house that doesn't spark joy.

For example, all the clothes in the house should be piled up first, assessed for tokimeku, and discarded if not needed, followed by other categories such as books, papers, miscellany, and mementos.

[22] Another crucial aspect of the KonMari method is to find a designated place for each item in the house and making sure it stays there.

[23] Cleaning and organizing things properly can be a spiritual practice in Shintoism, which is concerned with the energy or divine spirit of things (kami) and the right way to live (kannagara): Treasuring what you have; treating the objects you own as not disposable, but valuable, no matter their actual monetary worth; and creating displays so you can value each individual object are all essentially Shinto ways of living.

[24]A two-part TV dramatisation was filmed in 2013 based on Kondo and her work, titled 人生がときめく片づけの魔法 (Jinsei ga Tokimeku Katazuke no Mahō).

Once Kondo's career was established, he left his job to become her manager and, eventually, CEO of Konmari-Media, LLC.

[34][35] After the birth of her third child, Kondo's rigorous attitude towards tidying her home relaxed in order to make room for more personal priorities at this stage of her life.