Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale

by Adam Minter

In Japan, the population isn’t just aging—it’s declining. Often, there isn’t just a dearth of relatives to claim and clean up what’s left behind. Often, there isn’t even somebody to hire someone to perform the cleanout. Meanwhile, homes packed with belongings and garbage—hoarder houses, in the American parlance—are discovered daily. That’s a state of affairs very much at odds with the image projected by Marie Kondo and other representatives of Japan’s minimalist and decluttering movements. But it’s worth noting that part of the reason those movements have achieved popularity in Japan is that the Japanese want decluttered homes as much as Americans do. In that sense, Marie Kondo is preparing her readers outside Japan for a future that few consumers outside Japan care to anticipate.