--- title: Thrift Stores Restrict Donations Amid Marie Kondo Show description: Thrift stores are reporting an notable uptick in donations this new year, which many are pointing to as the influence of Marie Kondo. canonical: https://time.com/5517557/thrift-stores-donations-marie-kondo-effect/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-31T16:07:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:12.782Z og:title: Thrift Stores Have New Junk Restrictions Amid Marie Kondo og:description: Does it spark joy? og:url: https://time.com/5517557/thrift-stores-donations-marie-kondo-effect/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1e2c8a627e4aa3f/6989444cb21a9cf3ea50003d/marie-kondo-effect-thrift-stores.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Celebrities Visit Build - October 18, 2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Thrift Stores Have New Junk Restrictions Amid Marie Kondo twitter:description: Does it spark joy? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1e2c8a627e4aa3f/6989444cb21a9cf3ea50003d/marie-kondo-effect-thrift-stores.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Thrift Stores Can't Keep Up With All the Junk and They're Saying the Signs Lead to Marie Kondo > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 31, 2019 4:07 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 18: Organizing consultant and author Marie Kondo visits the Brit+ Co #CreateGood Wellness event at Build Studio on October 18, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/WireImage) NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 18: Organizing consultant and author Marie Kondo visits the Brit+ Co #CreateGood Wellness event at Build Studio on October 18, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/WireImage)Gary Gershoff—WireImage  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 31, 2019 4:07 PM UTC While the start of a new year has traditionally been a time to reflect on what belongs in your life and what needs to be eliminated, the first month of 2019 could be upping the ante with donations to thrift stores, which many attribute to [Marie Kondo](http://time.com/5516365/marie-kondo-on-jimmy-kimmel/) and her [wildly popular minimalist organizing method, KonMari.](http://time.com/5493284/marie-kondo-ariana-grande/) Kondo, who wrote about KonMari method (where users are advised to ask themselves if an item “sparks joy” to determine whether or not they should keep it) in her book, _The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing_, recently debuted her own Netflix show called _Tidying Up With Marie Kondo_, where she helps homeowners with heavily cluttered homes organize their belongings and in turn, their lives. Now, however, for one city, the donations are so great in number that a sample of stores in San Francisco that they’re actually putting restrictions in place. According to [_KPIX 5_](https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/01/30/marie-kondo-effect-leaves-bay-area-thrift-stores-swamped-with-donations/), thrift stores in the San Francisco East Bay Area are limiting when and how much they will accept due to the mass amount of donations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5517557/thrift-stores-donations-marie-kondo-effect/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5517557/thrift-stores-donations-marie-kondo-effect/"},"headline":"Thrift Stores Can't Keep Up With All the Junk and They're Saying the Signs Lead to Marie Kondo","datePublished":"2019-01-31T16:07:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:12.782Z","description":"Does it spark joy?","url":"https://time.com/5517557/thrift-stores-donations-marie-kondo-effect/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1e2c8a627e4aa3f/6989444cb21a9cf3ea50003d/marie-kondo-effect-thrift-stores.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1e2c8a627e4aa3f/6989444cb21a9cf3ea50003d/marie-kondo-effect-thrift-stores.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Celebrities Visit Build - October 18, 2018","caption":"Celebrities Visit Build - October 18, 2018","creditText":"Gary Gershoff—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5517557/thrift-stores-donations-marie-kondo-effect/","name":"Thrift Stores Can't Keep Up With All the Junk and They're Saying the Signs Lead to Marie Kondo"}}]}] ```