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Tidying Up: Are Louisville Resale Shops Benefiting From The KonMari Craze?

Submitted

Jessica Moreland stands behind the counter of Sassy Fox, the women’s consignment store she’s owned in St. Matthews for nine years.

“If I had a dollar for every time we heard someone say, ‘I got rid of everything that didn’t bring me joy…'” she said, trailing off and gesturing to the full racks of clothes around the retail floor.

Moreland is referring to the spike in business she’s seen thanks to a new Netflix series called “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.”

The gist of the show is that people with massively disorganized homes reach out to organization specialist Marie Kondo, author of the bestselling 2012 book “Spark Joy.” Kondo comes in and teaches them techniques to get their houses in order.

Kondo’s essential philosophy is that if an item of clothing or a houseware no longer elicits a feeling of happiness, it’s probably time to donate or dispose of it, depending on condition.

“We’ve definitely seen a lot more people doing big purges,” Moreland said. “A lot of times, people, they’ll clean out a few things here and there — smaller amounts. But I think definitely, lately, people have been bringing in larger amounts of things.”

When I called around to area Goodwills and several other general consignment stores, staff were noticing the same pattern: individuals bringing in big loads of items that no longer “sparked joy.”

But some specialty resale shops aren’t seeing the Kondo-effect, quite yet.

Bryan Jones is the owner of Vintage Vibe in the Highlands. He specializes in re-selling clothing from the mid-90s or prior.

“I think the kind of people who are following the Marie Kondo are a bit of the younger generation, like me,” Jones said.

This tracks with Netflix’s reported user demographics; the biggest percentage of subscribers are between 18 and 34.

“But they are not typically donating or getting rid of clothes that are older, which is what I look for,” he said.

However, Jones is holding out some hope that a few people with the right items will find him after “tidying up.”