Queen of minimalism, Marie Kondo, admitted last week that she has “kind of given up” trying to keep her house immaculate. Kondo welcomed her third child in 2021 and says that “spending time with her children” is more important than cleaning in this season of her life. 

It’s nice to hear some realism when it comes to family life! A couple of ads recently crossed our feed and they really highlight how often family life is depicted as constraining and burdensome. Often children are characterized as an imposition on parent’s well-being. Parents sacrifice all the time for our kids, but the idea that a single and childless life, curated and scheduled (as they portray it) is more desirable undersells the fulfillment God built in to family life. 

Marie Kondo’s aesthetic is infused with a jumble of Eastern spirituality – cleansing rooms, making spaces sacred and discarding objects when they no longer “spark joy”. Her method has a mystical appeal to secular Westerners looking for a spiritual experience through calm, quiet and order. 

But raising children in the fear and admonition of the Lord is a weighty task, less calming than minimal interiors, more difficult than keeping drawers tidy, for sure. But shot through with eternal joy and of great spiritual significance. Maybe Ms Kondo will one day discover this for herself.