Frequently asked questions

The KonMari method is a system for decluttering and organizing a home, developed by the Japanese organizing expert Marie Kondo, author of the worldwide bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

It works by category rather than by room, and always in the same order: Clothes, Books, Papers, Komono (miscellaneous items) and Sentimental items. Everything in one category is gathered in one place, you hold each item in your hands, and you keep only what sparks joy. Every item that stays is given a permanent place.

The whole path, from the first category to the last, is called the KonMari festival — you go through it only once in your life, and the order it creates stays.

I guide you through the method in Zagreb and the surrounding area, or online. I am the first certified KonMari® consultant in Croatia and the only one with a Master certificate.

A KonMari® consultant is a professional organizer who is certified and licensed to work with the KonMari method — the certificate comes from training, exams and workshops completed directly with Marie Kondo's team, and every consultant is listed on the official KonMari website.

A professional organizer needs no certificate at all. Both can help you declutter and organize a home or an office; the difference is that a KonMari consultant is trained in one specific method — and can still work outside it when that suits you better.

I am the first certified KonMari® consultant in Croatia and the only one with a Master certificate, based in Zagreb.

I do not offer cleaning as a service on its own, but it comes with the work: when we empty and organize a wardrobe, we wipe that wardrobe down together.

As for the difference, nobody explains it better than Marie Kondo:

"Tidying is the act of confronting yourself; cleaning is the act of confronting nature. Tidying deals with objects; cleaning deals with dirt. Both are aimed at making a room look clean, but tidying means moving objects and putting them away, while cleaning means wiping and sweeping away dirt. Clutter accumulates when you fail to return objects to their designated place. Tidying orders the mind while cleaning purifies it: while you tidy you must think about what to discard and where things belong, but while you clean it is like meditation — you let your mind empty while your hands do the work."

Put simply: tidying decides what stays and where it lives, cleaning removes the dirt. In practice they go hand in hand — while we declutter and organize a home, the space we have just emptied usually gets cleaned too.

Nothing leaves your home without a decision, and there are four ways it can go:

• Selling — first we look at whether an item is worth selling, and whether you have the time for it.
• Donating — you get a list of places in Zagreb where things can be dropped off, and the online groups where you can offer them.
• Recycling — whatever can no longer be used by anyone is separated for recycling.
• Responsible disposal — the rest is disposed of without harming the environment.

If there is a lot of it, you do not have to deal with it yourself — donation pickup and rehoming is a separate service where I take everything away and hand it over where it belongs.

No. You keep every single thing you love or genuinely use — and then we organize it so you can see it at a glance and put it back without effort.

I will, though, ask a lot of questions if I notice you holding on to something out of fear or obligation rather than love. Not to push you towards letting go, but so that you can see what is actually going on underneath.

That is entirely common, and it is not an obstacle. We work only with your own things — I never make decisions about anyone else's belongings, and I will not ask you to.

In my experience the rest of the household very often joins in later, once they see what happened to your part of the home. Persuading works against you, which is why I do not recommend it.

Shared items that you have decided to let go are not taken away straight away. At the end of the session we set them aside for your partner to look through — whatever he wants to keep, stays.

Then we stop. Being stuck is not a sign that you are doing something wrong — it shows up most often with sentimental items, and it means the decision you are trying to make is bigger than the object itself.

We first let the block be there and feel it, and only then try to see, by talking, what it is trying to tell us. Very often it is not about the things, but about what they are holding in place.

That is why the five categories have their order: by the time we reach the hardest things, you have already practised deciding on dozens of easier ones.

My part is not to make you decide anything, but to give you a space in which something can come to light. Very often the easier, faster part of decluttering begins right after a block, as though we had removed something that was holding it back.

Most often three to five hours — that is where the physical and emotional limit sits for most people.

It does not have to be. My path has crossed with people who went past eight hours, and with people for whom two was the maximum. Both are fine: we work at your pace and around your schedule.

How many meetings you need depends on the size of your home and how much is in it. We talk that through on the free call, before anything is agreed.

The price depends on the scope — how many spaces we declutter and how much is in them. I charge by the hour, and the hourly rate is lower the larger the package: there are three, from a single category to a whole home.

I send the full price list on request, or after the free call, once I know what we are dealing with. Before that conversation I could not even give you a rough figure, and I would rather not quote a number that later turns out to be wrong.

The free twenty-minute call is there so we can get to know each other, with no obligation on your side. On it we go through your space and what you want, how the process works, what the price includes and a rough number of hours — and only then do you decide. How the packages are divided is on the how to work with me page.

1. Do not tidy before I arrive. It is perfectly understandable that you want your home in order before our meeting, but I am not your guest — I am there to help you. The worse the situation is, the better I can see what is actually causing it. If I do not see the real state of your home and your daily routines, you are spending your money and both our time for nothing.

2. Make sure we can work without interruptions — from your partner, children, other family members and pets.

If you feel embarrassed: your home does not define you as a person. It shows your current situation, which came about for all sorts of reasons, and we will change it quickly and without a word of judgment from me.

I take before and after photographs, first of all for you — so that you can see your own journey, where you started and where you got to. If you are not comfortable with it, those photographs will not go into my portfolio.

No. The KonMari method does not suit everyone, and it is not the best choice in every situation — especially if you are short on time and need practical, fast solutions.

No — and please do not. Storage is the last thing on our agenda, and more often than not you will need very little of it once the excess is gone.

Buying boxes before decluttering is the most common and most expensive mistake in home organization. I will show you how to use what you already have, and only then, if something is still missing, I will show you what is worth buying.

Both directions share the same foundation and the same goal — decluttering the home. They differ in the question they ask:

Minimalism asks: do you really need it?
The KonMari method asks: do you really love it?

The difference is also in how it is done. KonMari, unlike minimalism, suggests that you put everything in one pile and declutter it in one go, deciding on the basis of the question "what remains". With minimalism the question is "what goes away".

Through the KonMari method you can keep 500 books if every single one of them brings you immense joy. Minimalism advocates living with as few objects as possible, which would mean letting go of most of those 500 books. Very often minimalists, when they see the final result of a KonMari festival, still see a crowded space. That is why it is so interesting when people equate KonMari with minimalism — it shows us what kind of consumerism we live in right now.

Minimalists often part with things they love and things that are practical for them, in order to keep only what is necessary for their life. There is nothing wrong with that; it only means that empty space matters more to them and is therefore at the top of their priority list. I do not see the two as conflicting directions, more as two directions that offer you their advantages on a platter — and it is up to you to take from one and from the other. Either way, you will be listening to yourself and your intuition.

I am based in Zagreb, Croatia, and most of my work happens here and in the surrounding area.

I travel to other cities and countries as well — the split of travel costs is agreed with you.

Online organizing is possible too, no matter where you are.

It is possible, and it does not affect the result.

What you lose: I cannot lift or move anything. When we organize a cupboard, I guide you while your hands do the work. And I am not beside you if a moment becomes heavy — although for some people that is precisely the advantage, a minute to themselves.

What you gain: I only ever see the small part of the home we are working on, which makes many people far more comfortable, and scheduling becomes easy and flexible. Online organizing sessions also work across time zones, so distance is not a limit.

It is honest work either way — only the hands are yours.

Whenever suits you — early mornings before work, late evenings, weekends and holidays included.

Most people work Monday to Friday from eight or nine until four or five, which leaves only the edges of the day. I work around that, rather than the other way round.

I have had clients in other time zones, working online, and it was magical to work with them through the night. The only thing that makes me unavailable is another client already in the calendar.

Yes. I hold workshops and talks on home and office organization, the KonMari method and zero waste living — in libraries, for associations and community groups, at company events and for teams, in person in Zagreb or online.

I adapt the topic to the group and the occasion. Among others, some of the themes and formats can be seen on the workshops page — or simply write to me so that we can agree on what you need.