Marie Kondo shows Stephen Colbert how to fold a fitted sheet, tells him to keep the bourbon

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

published 5 February 2019

Not everyone is a fan of Japanese organization and decluttering phenom Marie Kondo, but Stephen Colbert told her on Monday's Late Show that although he doesn't understand Japanese, "even if you had no translator, I would follow you to a cult compound and never leave." Kondo has a bestselling book and a new Netflix show, Tidying Up. "Why do you think Americans love your philosophy and your cleaning up so much?" Colbert asked her. "I think it's that, of course we all have problems tidying our homes, but it's not just that, Stephen," Kondo said through her translator. "We all have clutter in our hearts, and that's what needs tidying."

Kondo helped Colbert thank his desk — his "work home," as he put it — and then Colbert asked her to help him get rid of some of the things he's collected in the desk. It turns out, they all sparked joy — the bottle of bourbon, the Cinnabon, the hand sanitizer, and Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up — except for a fitted sheet. "It brings me great rage, because it's impossible to fold a fitted sheet," Colbert explained (though he did not offer a plausible explanation for why he stores one in his desk). "Nobel Prize–winning physicists don't know how to do this." Kondo did, and she showed him and the Late Show viewers. You can watch and learn her trick in the last minute of the video below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.