Dezeen Magazine

Marie Kondo launches shoebox-style boxes to help people declutter their homes

Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo has released a product she claims will help people organise their homes – a set of three empty, shoebox-style containers she calls the Hikidashi Boxes.

Kondo is known for her KonMari Method, a technique that encourages people to live with less. She asks people to hold their possessions one by one in their hands, and to keep the items that "spark joy" and ditch those that don't.

The Hikidashi Boxes are intended as spaces where cherished items that have passed the spark joy test can be stored and organised. They are named after the Japanese word for "drawer".

Marie Kondo launches shoebox-style Hikidashi Boxes to help people declutter their homes

The tidying expert came up with the idea for the product after working with clients in America. She noted that keeping a stock of boxes to use as storage is a unique Japanese custom, and isn't understood in the USA.

As a result, many people that started the following the KonMari Method were unable to maintain it.

"She searched for the ideal tidying boxes here in America but could not find any that brought her and her clients joy," said the KonMari team.

"Marie then set out to create a set of simple and beautiful boxes that could be used to bring order to her clients' homes."

Marie Kondo launches shoebox-style Hikidashi Boxes to help people declutter their homes

Kondo collaborated with Apple's head of packaging materials Cecylia Ferrandon on the design of the Hikidashi Boxes, according to FastCompany.

"My job was to create a seamless unboxing experience, while also ensuring that the packaging properly protected the product and was sustainable," Ferrandon told the website.

Marie Kondo launches shoebox-style Hikidashi Boxes to help people declutter their homes

The boxes come in three-piece sets that feature a large, medium and small box. There are four different designs: Clarity, Harmony, Balance and Wonder.

Each box is made of reinforced fibreboard, composed of recycled paper, to reduce environmental impact. The board is topped with laminated premium paper to add durability and all the materials are FSC certified, meaning they come from responsibly managed forests.

Inside, they are lined with prints selected by Kondo herself.

Marie Kondo launches shoebox-style Hikidashi Boxes to help people declutter their homes

Included with each purchase of the Hikidashi Boxes is an online step-by-step guide for using them, delivered to the customer in a series of short videos and helpful tips.

Kondo launched the KonMari self-help philosophy in 2011 with her internationally bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising. Her particular art of decluttering is also the subject of an eight-episode Netflix series, which is yet to air.