This post is part of the KonMari Series in which I document my journey to becoming a certified KonMari organizing consultant. Start from the beginning here and/or see all posts of the series here.
Today, I’m writing about the registration and requirements for the KonMari seminar in Los Angeles.
NYC Or LA?
At the time I decided to become a KonMari consultant, there were two seminars listed on the KonMari website: one in LA in July 2017 and another one later this year in the fall in NYC. Now I’m based in NYC, so it would have made sense for me to attend the one in my home city and save travel and hotel costs.
However, I decided that I wanted to start the whole process as soon as possible and not waste any time. Also, I have travel planned for almost the entire months of November and December, so attending the LA seminar just seemed the most logical step.
Seminar Registration
When doing research on the KonMari seminar, I came across an article in which it was mentioned that one of the first seminars held in the US was sold out within 24 hours. Of course, this led me to the assumption that the same would be the case for the LA seminar (if it wouldn’t sell out even faster!).
They opened registration at 12am LA-time on May 19th, 2017. This meant 3am New York-time for me. I was a little nervous for it to sell out before I could register. So I woke up a little earlier and thankfully I was able to complete my registration! It turns out that I didn’t have any reason to worry. The KonMari team kept registration open until about a week before the seminar.
It Pays To Be An Early Bird
Also, for those who registered within 2 weeks after the opening of the registration, they offered an early-bird special. The regular price of the seminar was $2,000. I was lucky enough to get the special and only had to pay $1,600. This was something that I didn’t know and wasn’t announced beforehand to my knowledge.
Location And Prerequisites
After the registration, I received an email with the payment confirmation and more information on next steps. Also, the exact seminar location was finally disclosed: the W Hotel in Beverly Hills. I was asked to create a profile on the KonMari consultant website and to submit photos of my konmari’d home.
Now I knew that it was a requirement to have decluttered and organized your own home according to the KonMari method before I could attend the seminar. Anyways, I wasn’t exactly sure how they wanted me to prove it and when. I had reached out to the KonMari team before registering for the seminar and they had said that I would need to submit photos after registering for the seminar.
Submitting Photos
After receiving the email, it was clear on what I had to do. I needed to submit photos now (although there wasn’t a deadline stated, I think the latest you could have submitted photos was one week before the seminar when they were closing the registration). Then, they would review them within a week and let me know if I passed and could attend the KonMari seminar. In the case of disapproval, I would have been given a second chance to re-submit.
I was required to submit the following pictures (one photo each):
- Bedroom
- Bedroom closet
- Living room
- Kitchen
- Additional room I was working on (I chose a photo of my bathroom)
So only five pictures were required in total. I also had the chance to submit more photos (and also before photos of all the rooms) if I wanted to.
Making It Work
At that point I hadn’t konmari’d my home. Also, because of upcoming travels, I didn’t have time to start working on it immediately. I had two days before I left for a trip. However, I wanted to submit photos in order to make sure I could attend the seminar and start travel planning.
What to do? Well, I just made it work. To be honest, our home isn’t cluttered or unorganized by any means. So I just re-arranged a few things, took the pictures, uploaded them to the KonMari portal and hoped for the best.
About five days later, I received an email confirming that my photos got approved. I was relieved. But also, I couldn’t wait to actually do the work and go through the KonMari process. After I returned from my travels, I immediately got started.
If you’re curious how it went for me, stay tuned for the next post in this series.
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