The queen of clean Marie Kondo has said she has “kind of given up” on tidying since the birth of her third child.

The world-renowned Japanese decluttering expert admitted that with three children to look after, her family home was “messy” and tidying up was less of a priority now.

“My home is messy, but the way I am spending my time is the right way for me at this time at this stage of my life,” she told the Washington Post.

The tidying guru said her life had changed significantly since the arrival of her son in 2021.

“Up until now, I was a professional tidier, so I did my best to keep my home tidy at all times,” she said, through an interpreter during an online webinar.

“I have kind of given up on that, in a good way for me,” she said. “Now I realise what is important to me is enjoying spending time with my children at home.”

Kondo’s latest book, Marie Kondo Kurashi at Home: How to Organise Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life, centres on the Japanese concept of kurashi, meaning “way of life”. Since becoming a mother to three children, she said her way of life had changed and her focus had shifted from organisation to drawing on simple ways to bring happiness to everyday things.

In the book, she writes: “Tidying up means dealing with all the ‘things’ in your life.” For Kondo, this means evaluating how you order your life and creating your own rhythm based on what fills you with joy.

KonMari, Kondo’s tidying method, was outlined in her 2011 book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. This method encourages categorising items, including clothes, books and sentimental items to figure out whether they “spark joy” in the owner.

She has since shared the joys of organisation in her two Netflix series, where she helps people “Marie Kondo” their lives by decluttering their homes.

Kondo, who lives in California with her family, said she no longer put pressure on herself to always keep her house in order. She and her husband now planned their days so they could spend as much time with their children and still get important tasks done.

“I will keep looking inward to make sure I am leading my own kurashi,” she told the Washington Post, still cleaning but making time for the things that made her happy.