The Return: Rebuilding My KonMari Practice in London
Re-Becoming a KonMari Consultant
My Journey Back (2024)
I first discovered the world of Marie Kondo in 2017, and was immediately drawn to the idea of surrounding myself only with things that are joyful or useful to the life I wanted to live.
That pull was strong enough that I became a certified KonMari Consultant in 2018, launching a business soon after.
In 2020, during the pandemic, I closed that chapter to focus on a full-time remote role in geospatial analysis.
And yet—the truth was, I missed it.
While I valued the creative, technical, and meaningful nature of my work, I found myself longing for something more immediate: to see, firsthand, the impact of my efforts on other people’s lives.
So in the spring of 2024, I reached back out to the KonMari team to begin the process again.
👉 [Click here to read about my first journey becoming a KonMari Consultant in 2018]
(Re)Certification as a KonMari Consultant
During my application call with KonMari Media, I learned a few key things:
My certification had lapsed and would require full re-certification
The training had moved online during the pandemic
The first in-person training was returning that fall—in London
My interviewer mentioned the course was nearly full and joked that it was too bad I wouldn’t be in the UK.
I remember laughing as I realized—I actually would be.
By complete coincidence (or perhaps something a bit more serendipitous), I had already planned to be in the UK during that exact window, staying with friends between two international global health conferences.
I signed up immediately—and similar to my first time around the KonMari Consultant Merry-Go-Round, I secured one of the final remaining spots for the training.
London, Mary Poppins, and a Full-Circle Moment
I was beyond excited to attend the training in London—a city I’ve always felt drawn to.
As a lifelong lover of fairytales and Disney, I couldn’t help but see echoes of my favorite heroine, Mary Poppins, woven throughout the city.
My friend Mandy joined me for part of the journey, and we saw Six: The Musical—a vibrant, modern retelling of the lives of Henry VIII’s wives. After the show, she made me promise to do some “practice tidying” once I got home, before heading off—while I made my way to the Tube and on to my hotel.
The Training Experience
On the first morning, there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air. Attendees had traveled from around the world, all gathering at ExCeL London—a vast exhibition center that felt like a city unto itself and overlooked the Docklands.
Having attended the training years earlier—before Marie Kondo’s Netflix series turned her name into a verb—it was striking to see how much the program had evolved.
Everything felt more refined:
The agenda was clearer
The materials more robust
The structure more accessible
And Marie herself had evolved as well—grounded, confident, and speaking in English without a translator. I felt impressed and grateful to be in her orbit.
The course was immersive, intensive, and filled with kind, thoughtful people. We focused on the philosophy and mindset of the KonMari Method, explored how to guide clients through their tidy journeys, and learned how to build a business grounded in service and intention.
Marie delivered a keynote at the beginning of the training, and returned at the end to sign books and take photos.