Last month I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.
And as it turns out I’m a HOARDER! Not like the people on the show Hoarders (love that show) but I have been hoarding things I don’t need for years!!
I asked for some idea’s on organizing last month on Instagram and I got some good suggestions. Don’t try to do it all in one day, was some good advice cuz several hours of organizing will drive a person a little nutty. I’d never heard of The Flylady before but she’s got some great stuff for organizing and cleaning. A few people suggested I read Marie Kondo’s book so I bought it and read it. It’s a quick read, I read it in 24 hours. It’s simple and to the point and I suggest reading it all the way through before you start de-cluttering your home.
De-cluttering has been something that’s needed to happen in our home for a while. For many of us there are all sorts of reasons our homes get cluttered. For me it’s that I hate to organize, clean and de-clutter. 😂Am I the only one? And busy life always gives me a reason to put those aside for a while. I’ve been fairly good at hiding most of my clutter in closets and drawers but it’s always a reminder that my home isn’t as clean and organized at I would like. And let’s be honest, if your home is cluttered it makes everyday day life more difficult. I am the queen of “I know it’s here somewhere – let me go find it”! Ugh!! I HATE those moments. As the mom in the home it’s almost always on me to be the one to find whatever’s missing in the never ending clutter pit.
Lets get back to my hoard shall we. I’m not actually a hoarder. Really. I’m not. But as much as I think I’m good at getting rid of stuff (compared to an actual hoarder) I still have way more stuff than I should or need. And of all the things I learned from this book, it was that.
I’ll be doing a few posts about the KonMari method (yup it’s a method) but today’s post will focus on clothing. I do want to tell you a few other things about the book so you can understand a little more about the method she uses. Her philosophy on cleaning and organizing is not like anything I’ve ever heard or read about. She’s been learning about, and practicing organizing since she was a young child. She’s come to the conclusion that you should only keep things that “spark joy”. And she has a very specific way of doing that. And some interesting ways of discovering what brings you joy. The reason I suggest you read her book cover to cover is so you can understand how to do this.
I’ve de-cluttered and organized my home lots of times before, but after reading her book I found it much easier to discard so much more than I usually do. She gives you permission to throw things out or donate things you’ve felt guilty getting rid of in the past. She goes into depth on how it will make your life easier to only keep the things that spark joy, even if you find that something you discarded you may have used. There is a trade off to possibly getting rid of something that later may’ve been useful and living each day in a home that is organized with only items that bring joy.
Marie has a specific order of where to start in your home. Clothing is first. She tells you to pull everything of the same category out and into a big pile. I know that sounds a bit crazy, but the idea is to see what you have. So I started with tops.
She wants you to hold each thing in your hand and ask yourself “does this spark joy?”. If it doesn’t, you thank it for its usefulness and discard it. No I did not thank each thing personally for being useful, but I did decide to go in with a feeling of gratitude for all of the things I discarded. Now you should know that only about 2 months ago I went through my closet and filled a bag for donation, but I was amazed at how much more I let go after reading her book, and seeing how much I had all laid out.
Those 2 laundry baskets are just my tops. (I haven’t tackled anyone else in my homes clothing yet. It’s coming!) Next I laid out all my pants, shorts and skirts.
I continued this until each category of clothing and accessories had been laid out and gone through. It does take a while but when you actually pick up each item and hold it, you can determine if it’s something you want or something you just keep holding onto. She does talk about keeping clothing and other items for sentimental reasons and I had some of those. The ones I’d been holding onto that made me smile I kept and the ones that didn’t, I said goodbye to. There were only a few items that I kept that I knew I wouldn’t wear again but that still sparked joy. In fact a few of them brought me to tears when I thought about giving them away. Those are keepers, and I believe there was only 4 pieces of clothing that fit that description.
One of my favorite things about this book was the idea of getting rid of things that I had been holding onto because I felt guilty about getting rid of them. Lots of those items included things I only wore a few times. I always felt that I needed to hang on to those because I hadn’t “gotten my money’s worth” out of it. That isn’t part of my consideration when deciding what to keep and what needs to go anymore. Here’s the pile of just my clothing items I donated, and other items from my closet I threw away.
Amazing! I mean I was really amazed at the amount of stuff I felt good about getting rid of. I actually can’t understand why I ever felt the need to hang onto anything that I don’t love. Or at least use on a regular basis. It felt so good to put this huge pile into my GMC and drop it off at the local donation center.
Ok so lets talk just a little bit about the organizing method of Marie Kondo. First I did not follow all of her rules for organizing. I think as you read this book you will find the things that work for you, which may be following it completely, and not using what doesn’t work. Although don’t tell her I told you to change any of her methods because you will see from her book she wouldn’t like that!
She has a whole folding method that didn’t work for me. I have some of my cloths in an armoire so folding everything and “filing” it away just didn’t work. I did try. It didn’t spark joy! 😉 She has some video’s on Youtube you can watch to see how to do it. I did use her method for my socks and underwear drawer. Here’s my socks.
See how they are all folded and filed away. If you are better at this than I am all of our drawers can look like this. It really does make it easier to see each pair all folded and filed, than rolling them into balls and throwing them in the drawer. I may try to get better at this and try again with my other items.
Here are some before and afters of my closet
I use to have all my shoes in two of those shoe racks that hang from the rod. I like this much better because I can see everything. Part of her philosophy is you should be able to see everything so you know what you have, and then things don’t get forgotten.
Here’s my armoire before and after’s
Gotta get the hubby to work on his stuff. 😉 I also spend an afternoon going through my jewelry. I didn’t take a before picture but I will show you the bags of stuff I donated.
This is a great example of being able to see what you have when you discard the stuff that doesn’t bring you joy. I think jewelry has been the hardest for me to de-clutter because I always think I may want to wear it again. I never do, and it was making it hard for me to see what I did have. I found a pair of earrings I thought were lost because I couldn’t see them in all the cluttered jewelry mess.
Marie Kondo says in the book that it will probably take about 6 months to complete the de-cluttering and organizing. So as I go along and continue this journey I will add more posts and let you know how it’s going. I am currently in the middle of my office/paperwork/book de-cluttering. Seriously I can’t believe the stuff I’m finding there. (this may be why I feel like a hoarder 😉)
In the mean time grab a copy of her book and give it a try. You will find a link at the bottom of the post to purchase the book through Amazon.
Let me know if you have any questions about this or if you have tried the KonMari method of de-cluttering and organizing. I would love to hear from you. And if you want to see more posts like this sign for my emails so you don’t miss anything.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I hope you found this helpful.
Cindy
