Elizabeth Cline Covers Marie Kondo and Clothing Waste for Slate

Clothing is the first category to be purged in each episode of Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, the hit Netflix show featuring the lifestyle expert. Kondo’s clients (and, in turn, millions of American viewers) start by making a mountain of clothes on their beds, pausing to ask if they “spark joy,” and thanking them before casting them out. The show has coincided with unprecedented spikes in clothing sent to thrift shops around the country, with some shops reporting long lines to donate and outdated closet dregs brought in by the suitcase-full.

For more than a century, charities have linked the process of getting rid of stuff with some higher purpose. Now, Kondo has tapped into that long-running and cherished American myth too. She’s recast discarding waste as a virtue, or at least a necessary step in personal reinvention. Read the rest of Cline’s article over at Slate.