She runs an acclaimed consulting business with a months-long waiting list. Her book was at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for several weeks, and it was published in more than 30 countries.

Marie “KonMari” Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant who was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She helps her clients transform their cluttered homes into spaces of “serenity and inspiration.” Her best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, teaches her methods for decluttering, organizing, and storing.

Professional home organizing is a relatively new and expanding industry, developed to help individuals and businesses create systems and processes using organizing principles to make their lives more efficient and enjoyable.

Professional organizers help their clients reduce their excessive and disorganized accumulation of stuff to better control their surroundings. They offer services from designing functional closets, to reorganizing the space of a room, to managing the flow of paperwork in work spaces. In short, they provide systems to conquer clutter and create better productivity.

According to Kondo, many of us imbue our things with emotions; we hang on to items we don’t like or need. We need to begin “questioning how much I have and how much I really need.” “Brooming” all of those unnecessary things can be liberating.

In the story of creation, mankind was created on the sixth day of creation—the planets, gases, minerals, vegetation, and animal life were already in place. Human beings were created last in order to create a hierarchy of order and purpose within creation.

Commanded to “fill the earth and conquer it and rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky . . . ,” we were given the mission to utilize our world for a divine purpose. We develop, challenge, and push creation to its limits and beyond in our mission to build a home for G‑d.

Should we achieve our purpose, mankind soars higher than all creation; should we fail, we are lower than the lowliest mosquito created before us.

“If man behaves improperly he is told: ‘Even a gnat, even a worm, (which was made on day five, while man was created on day six) preceded you.’”1

In the material excess of our privileged society, have we forgotten this hierarchical order and the divine purpose for mankind that it reveals? Do we need a reminder that everything in the world exists for a purpose? Have we become slaves to our things, rather than their masters? Do we work to live, to achieve our G‑dly destiny, or do we live to work, to acquire more? Have we forgotten that there is no creation that can achieve the heights of spiritual achievements like mankind, when we use our resources properly?

There may be many methods and techniques to learning how to become more organized or clutter-free. But one thing is crystal clear: as part of controlling our “stuff,” we need to gain a perspective on what order things should take in our lives.

And that can truly be life-changing.