I had a rare five whole hours all to myself recently, and I decided that would be the perfect time to start my "KonMari" decluttering journey. Following the order recommended by Marie Kondo in her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I began with my own clothes.
I ransacked my closet and drawers and looked upstairs in the loft and in the drawers in the entryway for every article of clothing that belongs to me in this house. (I did save swim gear, shoes, and purses for another day.) Then I piled them all on the couch in the living room.
It was quite the pile, especially considering how small our house is. I was really excited at first about how good it was going to feel to not have so much stuff, but as I carried armful after armful of clothing to the living room, I started to feel a little anxious about actually letting go of much at all.
I was committed to this decluttering experiment, though, so I pushed through that feeling of dread and sorted all the clothing into the categories Marie Kondo recommends. Then I went through each category one by one (except for swim stuff, bags and shoes, which I left for another day) and asked myself if each item "sparks joy."
Now, I have done major purges before including one clothing purge within the last year or so, but this method of taking every item out and asking myself honestly if I really would want to wear it tomorrow was incredibly helpful. Even after such a recent purge, I ended up with two full extra large garbage of clothes to donate plus a bunch of items to trash and some to cut down into cloth napkins. I felt like I got rid of a lot of stuff last summer, but this was easily three times as much clothing and accessories leaving my house this time. My wardrobe is lighter by about a third now.
I will admit to feeling some intermittent regret about some of those articles of clothing, not because I really think I will wish I had them some day but mostly because of nostalgia. It's hard sometimes to separate the memory from the item. Honestly, though, a week later I've already forgotten half of what's in those bags, and I'm not sorry to have gotten rid of most of it.
Posts in this series:
 |
| My Closet Before |
It was quite the pile, especially considering how small our house is. I was really excited at first about how good it was going to feel to not have so much stuff, but as I carried armful after armful of clothing to the living room, I started to feel a little anxious about actually letting go of much at all.
 |
| Don't worry. We're keeping the cat. |
I will admit to feeling some intermittent regret about some of those articles of clothing, not because I really think I will wish I had them some day but mostly because of nostalgia. It's hard sometimes to separate the memory from the item. Honestly, though, a week later I've already forgotten half of what's in those bags, and I'm not sorry to have gotten rid of most of it.
Posts in this series:
- Tiny House KonMari
- Tiny House KonMari: Why Tidy?
- Tiny House KonMari: My Clothes
- Tiny House KonMari: The Morning After
- Tiny House KonMari: Closet Before and After
- Tiny House KonMari: My Shoes
- Tiny House KonMari: Kids' Clothes
- Tiny House KonMari: His Clothes
- Tiny House KonMari: Books
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