Spark Joy — a joyful living space.

Her Netflix series has gone viral & people everywhere have been motivated to begin folding, sorting & getting organised. But ‘tidying up’ isn’t most people’s idea of a good time so why have so many been moved?

For us it’s a combination of how Marie conducts herself – focusing on respect & gratitude. Coupled with the results she achieves, which evidently fundamentally alter people’s relationships with themselves, each other & their living space.

Marie is like a beam of pure light. A diminutive woman who one can’t help but liken to a an otherworldly sprite because of the fairy dust that she appears to sprinkle wherever she goes.

Her approach is gentle & without reproach or judgment. Nonetheless she helps those she works with confront the extent of their consumption / hoarding / lack of ability to deal, by getting it all out & piling it all up (literally), so they can see the full extent. This confronting experience that could so easily be shaming is nothing of the sort. Marie is accepting & as a result those she helps accept themselves & are able to move on. Her great gifts to them at this stage of the process being gratitude & joy.

If an item sparks joy it is kept & cherished & if it doesn’t it’s appreciated & thanked before being passed on. Every item has a lesson to impart. On the face of it this is simplistic but try it & you’ll see that the reality is not so simple.

In asking does it spark joy we have to ask ourselves what joy means to us & how or why objects of all kinds are able to spark joy or not. We’re forced to consider our relationship with them & how we fill our living space & lives, tapping into our deep motives for buying what we do & the emotional attachments we have to ‘things’.

At Kiss House we spend a lot of our time considering joy & how we can tap into this intangible but deeply important energy. How do you design for joy? Anticipating needs, elevating the experience, reducing fuss & complexity & focussing on quality are all undoubtedly key, but there is so much more that can’t be put into words. Ultimately this is why our work will never be done!

Best wishes for your joyful life.