Marie Kondo's Latest Lifestyle Hack: Reusing Pasta Boxes

Organization guru Marie Kondo has inspired countless people around the world to tidy up. Known for her inventive folding techniques and mantra to only keep things that “spark joy,” she’s wielded her influence through multiple Netflix series and best-selling books. In Kondo’s latest venture, she repurposes empty pasta boxes as packaging to ship clothes she sold on a secondhand platform. Her new tutorials are part of an unusual collaboration with pasta brand Barilla. In the videos, the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up demonstrates how to perfectly fold clothing of various sizes into boxes that once contained different pasta shapes. Her practical message: Do try this at home by reusing Barilla boxes as a sustainable packaging alternative. Barilla’s partnership with Kondo launches today, Global Recycling Day, with the goal of inspiring sustainable living. It’s a departure for Barilla by addressing a topic outside of food. Jon Hamm Is Cast Aside in Minute Maid Zero Sugar’s First Global Campaign The campaign, created by Publicis Group shop LePub, capitalizes on two current trends. One is the rise of people selling clothing and other items on secondhand platforms. In the secondhand market, some sellers report difficulty finding the right packaging options at home, while recipients sometimes complain of receiving large boxes containing small items. The second trend is a growing call for brands and consumers to reduce packaging waste. In the U.S., activists and environmental groups are pushing legislation that would require brands to pay for the trash they generate through single-use packaging. Barilla’s campaign was inspired by real secondhand sellers who talked on social media about using old Barilla boxes to ship their clothes, Bruno Bertelli, global CEO of Le Pub and chief creative officer of Publicis Worldwide, told ADWEEK. “Connecting this strategic input to the tidying skills of an icon like Marie Kondo set up the creative magic of this project, bringing attention to the issue and inspiring people to act daily,” Bertelli explained. Though Barilla’s campaign with Kondo is not strictly about food, a message about what comes after dinner is still relevant to the brand’s purpose of “spreading the joy of food for a better life,” said chief category and marketing officer Ilaria Lodigiani. “For us it means to offer people tasty and wholesome products, made with selected raw materials coming from sustainable supply chains. In this vision, packaging also plays a key role,” Lodigiani said. The brand has also been making strides toward sustainable practices in its business, such as producing its blue boxes using virgin fiber, with more than 99% of paper sourced from responsibly managed forests that are FSC certified, according to Lodigiani. This is not Barilla’s first sustainability-minded campaign. In 2022, the brand tackled food waste with “Second Life Pasta," enlisting TikTok creators to turn their leftovers into delicious new creations. The work won the Grand Prix at the TikTok Ad Awards last year.

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Barilla and Marie Kondo Show the Life-Changing Magic of Reusing Pasta Boxes

The organization expert teams up with the pasta brand in an unusual collaboration about sustainable packaging

Brittaney Kiefer

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Brittaney Kiefer