Decluttering guru Marie Kondo is back with more life-changing tips

Making your life more joyful and less complicated can begin with the simple act of tidying up, says Japanese author recently named one of world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine

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Marie Kondo, author and organising consultant, on the Society Stage at the 2015 Web Summit in the RDS, Dublin, Ireland. Photo: Corbis

Published: 3:00am, 6 Jan 2016Updated: 12:45pm, 13 Jun 2016

Just in time to make good on your New Year's vow to get organised, Marie Kondo, the self-described “crazy tidying fanatic” who has sparked the world with her joy for decluttering, has a new book to help you clean up your act.

This week, Kondo's Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organising and Tidying Up,”will be published in the United States. A sequel to her international bestseller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, (see review) it offers a more detailed and in-depth course in her methodical programme to get rid of things that don't “spark joy”.

The right fold for each object is integral to the KonMari method. Illustrations from Spark Joy, Marie Kondo and Masako Inoue, Ten Speed Press

The new book includes illustrations of how to fold everything, including parkas, underwear and socks, as well as pictures of perfectly organised drawers. Kondo also answers some of the questions raised after her first book, such as what to do about items that don’t spark joy but are still needed. In Kondo’s case, it’s screwdrivers; she thanks them everyday for not ruining her nails.

SEE ALSO: Tidiness guru says keep only the things that bring you happiness

Kondo is a celebrity in Japan – she regularly appears on television there, and her four books in Japanese have sold a total of 2.2 million copies. Her surname has become a verb – “I just kondoed my closet” – and when Time magazine named Kondo one of the 100 most influential people of 2015, actress Jamie Lee Curtis called her a “modern-day ‘Mary Poppins’”.

Video: Marie Kondo shows how to fold a T-shirt perfectly so that it stands up in your drawer

Kondo's approach of keeping only what you need and organising it in the most space-saving way seems perfectly tailored to tiny Japanese (and Hong Kong ) flats. More surprising, even to Kondo, is her popularity in places such as the US, where people typically have more space to spread out their belongings. (The Life-Changing Magic has sold more than 1.6 million copies in North America.)