In the first Enjoy Life Project on the blog, we are working on Creating Home, one of my intentions for 2019. The first step for me is to purge my home of the unnecessary, anything that isn’t useful beautiful or loved. I am choosing to use the KonMari method, developed by Marie Kondo, a Japanese decluttering guru and author of two book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up {LM} and Spark Joy {SJ} that I read over three years ago.  Check out my intro and the first steps and my discussion of her one criteria of what to keep. Then return here to read about my experience with Category 1: Clothes

My Closet – Before

Here is a shot of the before of my closet.  I know, I know. To some, there is nothing wrong with this. It looks perfectly fine, maybe straighten the shoes a bit. But what I love about the KonMari method of tidying is Marie’s philosophy that “order is dependent on the extremely personal values” {LM6} of an individual.  And this doesn’t spark joy for me.

It wasn’t until I committed to the process that I was able to assess why this didn’t spark joy for me.  And it wasn’t what you see in the pic.  It was lurking in the two additional feet of width on each side of my close and underneath my bed. It was the guilt buried in those depths.

Closet Goals

I started at 10:30 PM on a Saturday night.  My original plan was to get up early on Sunday morning, around 5 AM, but I lay in bed for an hour, so giddy with excitement that I couldn’t go to sleep. I thought I might as well get up and go for it.  I had prepared a cheat sheet of Marie’s tips and things I wanted to remember. I had an inspiration picture (Closet Goals from Shira Gill’s organizational work) printed and Marie’s two books sitting on my dresser for easy reference. I thought it would take me couple of hours. After all, I have cleaned out my closet many, many times.  What more could I possibly have to get rid of?

Well, I was shocked by the sheer volume of clothes on my bed. I really didn’t think I had so much and 7 ½ hours later, which included the “joy check” and finding temporary storage for each item (temporary because according to Marie, storage isn’t finalized until the end of the entire home tidying marathon) I was done.

Everything that didn’t “spark joy” or was necessary because I didn’t have a suitable replacement that “sparked joy” went. This included pieces that I absolutely LOVED but had worn to death: pair of shorts that the drawstring had come out of but I still wore, pulling them up every few minutes (or not and mooning close friends and family). I had also resoled the heels of a pair of the most comfortable Nine West pumps and Kenneth Cole wedge sandals at least three times each and both were over 10 years old. There was no more that could be done for them.  And my Sperry sneakers insoles had come apart and out entirely.  I bade them all a very fond farewell.

Additionally,  three pairs of shoes are headed for consignment.  I haven’t worn them in years and I don’t love them.  They went. I also threw out a few workout shirts that I have had since I started my weight loss rollercoaster.  Annexing that guilt felt so good.

Marie says that once an item is bought, it should be immediately unpacked, detagged, and welcomed into the closet.  Would you believe that I had so many things with the tags still hanging on them? Why do I do this? Maybe to experience another jolt of happiness when I go to wear the item for the first time and have to remove the tag? Who knows.  Well, no more of that. Some of the tagged items were in sizes that I have not seen for who knows how many years. These were the items that were haunting me; guilting me every time I opened my closet.  Definitely not a source of joy and happiness.

By the end of the night I had one trash bag of garbage (socks and underwear with holes, worn-out shoes that I loved, etc.). I had one bag of clothes to donate and one to try and sell. Many of these items still had tags on them as well as those three pairs of shoes, I haven’t worn in YEARS!  I’m ashamed.

My Closet – After

Here’s a shot of my closet after.  As I stated before, some of these storage solutions are temporary. We will see how they develop.

I will be back with Part II soon where I will share some surprising discoveries and a bit more of my process and tips for tidying my clothes. Please ask me any questions or concerns that you might have and I will do my best to answer them in the next post.

Have you guys started yet?

Until next time.

enjoy life…

UPDATE: Part II is live on the blog but I can still respond to questions and comments, so ask away.