Harnessing China’s luxury decluttering movement
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Key points to remember:
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Rising luxury consumption and shrinking living spaces have boosted China’s decluttering industry, which topped $ 3.8 million by 2023.
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Marie-Kondo-style âCleanfluencersâ are multiplying on Chinese social networks, while the affluent urban class is increasingly buying professional home organization services and participating in decluttering workshops.
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Brands need to take note of these shifts in consumer mindsets towards âbuy less, betterâ and a new passion for creating tidy space.
Nothing seems to stop Chinese consumers from buying more luxury and fashion.
Despite the stock market panic over the Chinese crackdown on excessive income, which could have dampened luxury sales, large luxury groups posted strong growth in the last quarter. In a financial context report published on October 12, French conglomerate LVMH revealed that its organic sales were up 38% from pre-pandemic levels in its Fashion and Leather Goods category. The brand attributed much of this success to âdouble-digit growthâ in China and the United States. On October 19, rival group Kering announced a 12.2% increase in sales, exceeding analysts’ expectations. China and its spending-inclined consumers continue to be at the center of luxury growth.
But for the Chinese, constantly buying and hoarding things has its drawbacks: in particular, it leads to more crowded and overcrowded homes. With the rise in property prices in Chinese cities that favor space, a need for decluttering and an organized life inspired by Marie Kondo have fueled the rise of a new high-end service: the professional organizer (æ´ç æ¶çº³ å¸).
According to an industry report by Sina Finance, there are currently more than 7,000 professional organizers in China, while it has been estimated that the industry’s value will exceed $ 60 million by 2023. In January, China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has classified “professional organizer” as a valuable new profession, promising more standardizing measures and workforce training programs in the years to come.
On social networks, âcleanfuencersâ specializing in capsule wardrobe content and minimalist living are now appearing more frequently. On Zhihu, a Reddit-style online forum, the topic #homeorganization has over 31.7 million subscribers. And on Xiaohongshu, the hashtag #
This new passion for decluttering and reorganizing space is an organic result of the rapid growth in fashion and beauty consumption in China over the past decade. According to a survey conducted by CBNData, women living in major Chinese cities today buy an average of five lipsticks and four makeup brushes per year. Likewise, the Sina 2020 China Organizing Industry Report study found that 83% of respondents have more than 500 items of clothing in their closet, while 91% admit to having a hoarding tendency.
Finding storage and organization solutions for a tidy and clean home has become a new urgency for many HNWIs. Along with the boom in the professional organization industry, decluttering workshops and schools have also mushroomed across the country to meet the growing needs of the upper class for organized space. The original Liu Cun Dao Organizational Training School, whose name in Chinese means “the philosophy of taking care of things,” charges RMB 28,800 ($ 4,513) for its nine-day professional decluttering course.
Like Marie-Kondo-style organizational media in the West, China’s decluttering content has extended the concept of cleaning up a physical space to a life-transforming exercise, prompting consumers to consider decluttering. as a form of personal care. As part of this new philosophy, âbuy less, betterâ emphasizes staying current and maintaining sophisticated tastes. As such, decluttering space is essential for an upgrade in quality of life.
In addition to the shift in mindset towards less but better, Chinese decluttering fans are increasingly ritualizing the process of organizing space by investing in high-end organizational pieces. O’Mast, a luxury hanger brand based in Shenzhen (founded by cleanfluencer Bracy Hu in 2017), specializes in high-end hangers for different categories of clothing, and O’Mast has become one of the brands that we talk the most in China. community.
O’Mast, a luxury hanger brand based in Shenzhen and founded by cleanfluencer Bracy Hu, offers hangers designed for professional closet organization. Photo: Courtesy of O’Mast
On the Xiaohongshu platform, a group of decluttering fans increasingly flaunted high-end organizers from luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Celine and Rapport London. The organization, storage and maintenance of luxury shopping has clearly become a new point of fascination for the luxury community in China.

More and more, decluttering fans are posting about their luxury organizers from top luxury brands on Xiaohongshu. Photo: Screenshots
This expanding concept of conscious decluttering is expected to have a profound impact on brands. In the past, brands could focus only on making products more appealing to Chinese consumers; today, they face the added challenge of making themselves more relevant to the growing needs and rituals of consumers.
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