I’ve started a KonMari Challenge for 2017! If you missed the intro to this series, you can read it here. Today, I’m going to talk about Step 1: KonMari Clothing.
So, did you read the book? You’re still skeptical, huh? Its ok. But if you’re going to do this right, you must read the book. You can buy it here.
Why I’m Going to KonMari Clothing
One of the reasons why I really wanted to get this done back in 2017 is because we’re going to redo our walk in closet with semi-custom wardrobes, and I wanted to make sure I could design them to hold what we have. I didn’t want to make space for things that I wasn’t going to wear, so I was determined to pare down.
Spoiler Alert – We Finished the DIY Custom Closet!
This is the before closet pic that I took a few months ago as we prep for the “new closet”. Yikes.
The week before Christmas, before I read The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, I went through my closet & dresser. I got rid of about 8 shopping bags worth of clothes & shoes that I donated to charity. I thought I had gotten rid of so much!
Then I read the book.
Purging My Clothes
In the book, Marie Kondo tells you to get started first thing in the morning, when you’re refreshed and ready to go. Armed with my trash bags, I went in a bit of a different order than she suggests in the book. I started with underwear. I knew I had a ton of underwear that I could throw out, and I figured that would be easier than the tops that she says to start with. This is something easy that gives instant gratification.
After the underwear, I moved on to bras, then pajamas, swim suits, socks & tights, and finally shorts. Those are the 6 drawers in my dresser. As a side note, my goal when designing the closet is to get rid of my dresser, and keep everything in the master closet.
After refolding all of the items I was keeping into rectangles as the author suggests in the book, I had enough space left over to empty two shallow elfa drawers in my closet (where my bras used to live). I was also able to have all of my PJs in one drawer, instead of summer pjs in the drawer and winter pjs in a box in my closet. I had one almost empty drawer, and my shorts drawer went from stuffed to half-full. And that was after I had been using her folding technique for a year. I love to KonMari Clothing!
I was pretty impressed with myself!
KonMari Clothing in the Closet
After completing the dresser, I moved on to the items in my closet. After making my way through skirts, jackets, tops, sweaters, t-shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops, activewear and shoes, I had filled 2 trash bags destined for the dump, 4 trash bags completely full for donation, and 1 18 gallon tub full of things to sell on Poshmark. I had about 30 empty Huggable Hangers. I got rid of a hanging closet organizer, where I used to store t-shirts, and I had 1 empty sweater box and 8 empty plastic shoe boxes.
That’s after I had already purged my closet prior to Christmas.
Yeah. Read the book.
That’s it for KonMari Clothing!
KonMari Jewelry & Accessories
The next day, I went through my jewelry, which I used to keep in the 2 secret drawers of my dresser, in a dish on my Alex in the closet, or hanging on a cork board. I pared that down enough to donate an entire grocery sack full of stuff, plus I have a full box of items to sell. I ended up finding a spot in my closet Alex drawers to hold what’s left. So now, I have 2 empty secret drawers in my dresser. Progress!
This is now what the closet looks like!
Yep. Read the book.
The Difference It Makes When You KonMari Clothing
Now that my closet is so organized, I find that its much easier & fun to get dressed every day. I’m really putting an effort in to make outfits with my clothes instead of just finding yoga pants and a t-shirt. I feel better about myself because I’m wearing a cute outfit or I have on a great necklace. It really does make a difference!
The best tidbit by far that I took away from the book was finding a home for the contents of my purse. Marie Kondo empties her handbag every day, right when she gets home, and puts each item in a specific place. Then, in the morning, she takes her bag and loads it up with what she needs for the day.
I found a spot in my closet where I could do this, and it is a life-changer. Before, I was rushing out of the house to pick up the kids, and I couldn’t find my keys, or my glasses, or I didn’t have any diapers, or my purse was filled with old receipts and expired coupons. Not anymore. Now, I know exactly where my keys are. I know that I have diapers & wipes. There is no trash floating around in my bag. My purse stays clean.
ITS FANTASTIC!
Even my husband – who is totally skeptical about this KonMari stuff & doesn’t want to do it – said that I’ve been needing to do that. Now if I could just find MY car key instead of using the spare…
The Purse Thing – It Works
I’ve always been a “use one bag forever until it falls apart” girl and I’ve always wanted to be a “changes her bag everyday depending on what she’s wearing” girl, but I could never figure out how to do that. Probably because I had so much trash in my bag. But now that I’m emptying my bag every night & I know where everything is, I’ve used 3 different bags in 5 days. Yeah. It’s so easy!
Hurrah! I can finally be that girl! Now I need more bags…
In Conclusion
So my KonMari clothing step is done. I’m super proud of myself! I could probably get rid of a few more dresses and shoes, but I’m ok for now. I know which ones that I could probably part with, so I’m going to keep an eye on them and see if I wear them or not. If I do wear them, I’m going to take note of how they make me feel. If they don’t “spark joy”, they’re gone.
Let’s recap. In the last 2 weeks, I’ve donated 8 shopping bags & 4 trash bags full of clothes and shoes; I’ve sent 2 trash bags full to the dump; and I have a box full of jewelry and an 18 gallon tub full of clothing to sell.
I never would have gotten rid of half of that stuff if I hadn’t read the book. You must read the book.
So what do you think? Have you completed Step 1: Clothing yet? How do you feel? I think I’ve finally convinced Doug to do it too! I’m so excited! This method really works. I’m totally convinced now. I have bought a few pieces of clothing and one pair of shoes since my big purge, but they are all items that I’ve thought about a million times, they “Spark Joy”, and they fit into the awesome wardrobe in my brain. I’ve got a Wishlist at Nordstrom, and some of my “Spark Joy” items went on sale during the Half-Yearly Sale. Never pay full price, y’all.
But if you are going to pay full price at Nordies, at least do it on a Triple Points Weekend. 🙂
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