I finally noticed this and checked out the podcast. I've been fairly itching to see what you thought of it, as certainly her "heroic effort" mentality is very contrary to general "Everyday Systems" advocated methods.
Full disclosure:
I did declutter my four bedroom home via the Konmari method. My husband was enthusiastically on board with it. I am an empty nester, and I did not even open my children's bedroom doors. Their rooms are still in moderate levels of appalling they will have to deal with when we eventually downsize.
I read the whole book before I started and did almost everything according to her recommendations. I thought about why I wanted to tidy, what I wanted to get out of it, and all that before I started. I tidied by category instead of by location except in one instance -- the kitchen.
When I try a suggested system, I do try it as fully as possible, as something the ways parts of the system interact and are useful are not immediately obvious. I did my best with this, even to some goofy things like emptying my purse every day and filling it back up again in the morning.
It did work well. My room at this very moment is quite tidy, indeed! That being said, it wasn't last night. I hadn't put away my clothes and gifts from my Christmas journey to the ancestral estate. (Joke: it's a house in Suburban VA, not an estate...)
BUT!
Putting everything away took me about ten minutes. I had a place for everything, the clean clothes I had left over were already properly folded to go in my drawers, and I already had a place for the suitcase.
I do let things pile up more than possibly Ms. Kondo does. I do not necessarily put things away the second I use them (did for a little bit), but I never let it sit out for more than a day. Things are tidy before I go to bed, and I wake up to a tidy house every morning.
I think clutter is a little like our perception of S-days. Once you get used to the moderation (or tidiness) the excessiveness of clutter (or S events) becomes blisteringly obvious.
I wrote a LOT of blog posts about my Konmari adventure.