Eleven years after opening her business, almost to the day, certified KonMari Consultant Camille Hecker is publishing Une maison bien rangée? (A Well-Organized Home?) in France.
The book grew out of years of client work and a simple question Camille couldn’t stop considering: What does the act of tidying give us beyond a more organized home?
We spoke with Camille about how that question led her to start writing – then a book deal! – and how she carved out the time and space in her own life to write it.
You’ve spent over ten years teaching clients that tidying is the means, not the goal. What was the moment you knew that idea deserved its own book?
I got into this profession because I’ve always believed that our living spaces can be an incredible tool for supporting people through change. I combined that with my training as a professional coach, and later with traditional Chinese Feng Shui.
Over the years, working with clients, I’ve seen just how much tidying can go beyond simply putting things back in their place. It can help us understand ourselves better, change our relationship with our belongings and our home, simplify our daily lives and, ultimately, feel better in our own space.
About three years ago, I started wanting to write about the power of tidying as a tool for supporting people – almost as a form of therapy. Then, in July 2025, I finally started writing, with a very clear intention: to share my experience, real-life examples and everything I had observed over the years about what tidying can genuinely bring to our lives.
“When I arrive at a client's home, I always explain that I'm not coming in with 'the' right answer. My role is first to understand: Why do they want to tidy? How do they live? What matters to them? I spend a lot of time listening and observing without judgment.”
Walk us through how Une maison bien rangée? came together. Did anything in the process surprise you?
In the summer of 2025, I gave myself one very simple rule: write for half an hour every day. My partner really encouraged me to get started. He said, “Just start, and we’ll see what happens.”
Then, in September, almost as if by magic, I was contacted by a publishing house that happened to be looking for an author to write about tidying, and folding in particular. Meanwhile, I had already started writing something that was closer to personal development.
I asked whether I could propose something that brought the two together: a very practical book that would also show how tidying can simplify everyday life and improve the way we live in our homes. They immediately connected with the table of contents I proposed, and we signed the contract.
Did anything in the process surprise you?
What surprised me most afterwards was how naturally the writing came. I also discovered that you don’t necessarily write a book in order! In the end, the hardest part wasn’t the writing at all – it was the editing and corrections. It’s incredibly meticulous work. I hadn’t expected that final stage to require quite so much concentration and energy.
Writing a book is a massive, life-changing undertaking. How did you organize your own life, schedule, and home to make room for it?
What helped me was breaking it down into small pieces. It’s a bit like climbing a mountain: if you only look at the summit, you can start wondering how on earth you’re ever going to get all the way up there. So I simply followed the path and put one foot in front of the other, chapter by chapter.
I blocked out one or two half-days a week in my calendar for writing and made use of any time I could find. I also wrote a lot on trains and while travelling. In the end, this book was written in all sorts of places: near Paris, in Andalusia, Switzerland, Canada… and I even worked on corrections while I was in Portugal! Moving forward consistently, even in small blocks of time, allowed me to watch the manuscript grow without feeling as though the book was taking over my entire life.
“Whatever we put in place needs to last. That's why the final part of the book focuses on routines, sharing responsibilities and simple habits such as 'I take it, I use it, I put it back.'”
Your book moves through decluttering, organizing, and finally habits and shared systems. Why structure it in that order? Where do you think most people get stuck?
For me, you can’t start by organizing. This is also a fundamental principle of the KonMari Method: you begin by choosing what to keep, working category by category. First, you decide what you want to keep and what reflects who you are today. Then, you actually let go of what no longer has a place in your home. You reduce the volume and create clarity. Only then do you organize.
That’s where the three principles I introduce in my book come in – visibility, accessibility and highlighting what we own – along with organizing by category and folding.
Finally, whatever we put in place needs to last. That’s why the final part of the book focuses on routines, sharing responsibilities and simple habits such as “I take it, I use it, I put it back.”
And this first part of the process is exactly where I see people struggle the most. Many people think they have an organizing problem when what they actually have, first and foremost, is a volume problem. Decluttering and letting go are less immediately rewarding and require more effort, but if we skip those stages, organizing alone can’t solve the problem in a lasting way.
“There's almost a paradox to [tidying]: organizing well can actually mean spending much less time organizing. The whole point is to free up time and energy for whatever truly matters to each of us. ”
You write that a good system fits the people using it and that there’s not a single “right” way of organizing. What does that look like in practice?
When I arrive at a client’s home, I always explain that I’m not coming in with “the” right answer. My role as a coach is first to understand: Why do they want to tidy? How do they live? What matters to them? I spend a lot of time listening and observing without judgment.
When it comes to organizing, I make suggestions, we test them, and then we adjust. Vertical folding, for example, is quite unusual in France. I show people the benefits and invite them to try it. If it makes their life easier, perfect. If they ultimately prefer to do things differently, that’s perfect too! The goal is to simplify their life, not to follow a rule for the sake of following a rule.
Sentimental items are the final category in the KonMari Method. When people are deciding what to keep, I encourage them to pay close attention to how they feel: What happens when you hold this object? Do you feel a sense of ease, tension, something in your face, your chest, your stomach?
What’s one thing you hope readers do differently in their homes after finishing the book?
More than anything, I’d like readers to change the way they think about tidying. I deeply believe that it can be an extraordinary tool for understanding ourselves, changing our relationship with our belongings and our living space, and simplifying our lives.
And there’s almost a paradox to it: organizing well can actually mean spending much less time organizing. The whole point is to free up time and energy for whatever truly matters to each of us – family, hobbies, work or something else entirely.
If the book can change the way people see tidying, I hope it will make them want to take action, bring more simplicity into their homes and, little by little, inspire the other people they live with to join them.
Looking back at the road you took, what would you tell the Camille who was just starting out?
Before becoming a home organizer, and now an author, I had spent ten years working in communications. So when I first started my business and didn’t have many clients yet, I did what I knew how to do: I communicated.
Eleven years ago, home organizing was still very little known in France. And sometimes I wondered whether it really made sense to spend so much time communicating when, in the beginning, it wasn’t bringing me many clients.
But I kept going. The community grew, and I became more visible. Then came all the choices that shaped my career: Feng Shui, training in the KonMari Method, my clients, entrepreneurial networks, media opportunities, television, my own training program… and now this book.
So I think I would simply tell the Camille who was just starting out: Keep going. Do exactly what you’re doing. The doubts are part of the journey too. I started my business on September 15, 2015. Eleven years later, almost to the day, my first book is being published. So today, more than anything, I want to celebrate that Camille and tell her that she can be proud of the choices she’s making.
