Confessions of a Konvert, by Lydia Slater, deputy editor of Harper’s Bazaar

I discovered Kondo in 2015, when I was teetering on the border of a midlife crisis. As well as drowning in a sea of mess, I felt mentally swamped by competing deadlines and domestic demands. A whole day spent clearing out my wardrobe, although it was time I could scarcely spare, appeared to be a delicious indulgence. And so, assisted in my task by a ruthless minimalist friend, I held every piece of clothing I owned to my chest, one after another, to see if any ‘sparked joy’. It turned out that very few of them did.

At the time, I had assumed that Kondo’s approach would leave me and my family rattling around a sterile cube, but I was wrong. Our home is still brimming with books, pictures, clothes and copper saucepans, but the difference is that every single item makes at least one of us happy.

And while Kondo’s patented folding method swiftly went by the board, I learnt to apply her ‘spark joy’ test to less visible lifestyle clutter. Unwanted jobs, tedious social obligations, wornout friendships hung on to for old times’ sake – to all these, as well as to my holey tights and outgrown trousers, I learnt to say a respectful sayonara.

It might sound ruthless, but the Kondo approach is actually a wholly positive one: you don’t focus on what you want to get rid of, but on what makes you happy. The result is that three years later, I have a job I truly love, a healthy worklife balance, and a colourcoded underwear drawer arranged like a bento box. My life has been changed.