Tidying Up with Marie Kondo – Episode 3 Review

Although the buzz is starting to die down around Marie Kondo’s Netflix series Tidying Up, it is still a topic of discussion. People remain motivated to clear the clutter and live in a space with less stuff! As I continue reviewing each episode, this blog focuses on Episode 3 and the Mersier family. If you haven’t seen any of the Tidying Up episodes, I encourage you to watch.

Organizing The Fantastic Four

This family of four recently downsized from a large home in Michigan to a 2-bedroom apartment in LA in order to start a new life where the opportunities are better for Douglas’ profession as a musician. The Mersiers, who call themselves the “Fantastic Four”, are a tight-knit family, including mom (Katrina), dad (Douglas), Nolan, age 12 and Kayci, age 11.

Katrina carries a tremendous amount of guilt for the chaos at home and feels it is her responsibility to organize their small space which houses too much stuff. Her guilt and over-functioning has kept everyone in the family dependent on her to find anything and results in a lack of help from the kids and Douglas. Because this scenario is incredibly relatable and one in which I deal with quite often, this episode has become my favorite thus far.

Sharing Responsibility

In Marie’s first visit, they tour the kid’s room and Mom becomes emotional when she recognizes that she has been doing all of the organizing for the kids and hasn’t taught them the skills they need to maintain it. The kids have been trying but they don’t know how. I nearly teared up myself when Kayci says she knows it hurts her mom, and it hurts her too because she feels bad after she messes it up. I wholeheartedly agree with Marie’s approach to teaching everyone in the family how to be responsible for their own belongings.

After the first lesson of learning how to purge, fold and store their clothing, the entire family is empowered and excited. Yes, there is a lot of homework to be done, but the fact that they now know what to do is setting them all up for success. Having systems are beginning to give them peace of mind.

In lesson 4 Katrina says that before Marie came, she wasn’t setting herself up to win as a mom. She was doing too much. She is realizing that no one person can do it all and that they all need to work together as a family to make things work. Such a great “aha” moment here! It definitely takes a team to run a home.

Delegating Household Tasks

As the organizing process continues, we see Katrina learning to delegate household tasks to the family. Douglas confesses that he has felt guilty about how much of the housework falls on Katrina, but he didn’t feel like he was confident in how to help. He didn’t realize the pressure of having to do everything until he did it and it has changed his perspective. Now he and the kids are learning these life skills and Katrina is growing in her confidence to lead the family in household chores rather than doing everything for them.

By the end of the episode, Katrina is delighted and amazed with what the family has learned to do. She is no longer shouldering the burden of every household chore and the pride of that is evident on each family member’s face. The episode ends with Katrina stating that she is so proud of her family and that their life is coming together. Their house is FINALLY a home. It’s a perfect ending and a perfect summary of what a professional organizer can bring to a family.