Hi there! I am thrilled to share with you the beginning of a new and exciting adventure!
I just finished this book.
The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
I'm sure you've heard about it. If you haven't, this book is about how to "tidy up your house", but in a very unique way. Some of it sounded a bit weird... off kilter... so when I first heard of it, I wasn't interested. I mean, she recommends "talking to your things" and to say "hello" to your home...? I'm sorry, I think that's just weird.
BUT!!
Yes, a huge BUT! I ran across a post from a blogger that I read, (she isn't weird) and started to read what she thought of the book, and how she "tidied" up her house. This sparked my interest enough for me to give it a try. I was not disappointed!
Putting all of the weirdness aside, this book is absolutely revolutionary! At least to me it was. I've cleaned out and decluttered to a certain degree, but this book has made me really think. Which came at a perfect time because Hubby and I have spent some time seriously discussing our future... getting old, retirement, downsizing. Downsizing... whew! We have a lot of stuff! We don't need all this stuff. We don't want our kids to have to deal with this stuff. So, we are going to deal with it! And reading this book has helped me have a game plan!
Don't get me wrong, like I said, I've cleaned out areas of the house before. But this KonMari Method is soooo very different...You handle every single item and ask if this brings you joy? Hmmm... I've never considered that. Instead of "getting rid" of things we are to look for things we want to keep.
Joy is something that shines, the feeling is instantaneous. You really don't have to think about it much. Why should we have things that we really don't like? She goes through that and so much more in her book.
Marie Kondo, the author, recommends starting with clothes. I've cleaned out my closet several times... I even blogged about it, Closet Clean-up. But her method is so unique. She says that people have the least attachment to clothes and it will give you practice in honing the skill of deciding what brings you joy.
She doesn't say just look at your clothes. No, bring every single item of clothing out from all over the house and go through it all at once. 😳 Ummm.... I have a lot of clothes. Thank goodness she suggested breaking it down into subcategories, like tops, bottoms, etc...
So, here we go... Here's a before photo of my closet. Well, it wasn't quite this bad. This is an older photo, because I forgot to take one before I got started. 😏 I cleaned out the closet last year and got rid of some things but nothing like I did this time! One more thing, I know that the lighting on these photos is crappy... taking nice photos in a closet is not the easiest.
I took down all of my top, t-shirts, sweaters, blouses, etc...
and plopped them on my bed...
Then I went through each and every one of them. It really does make a difference to pick each item up. It's crazy, but it actually makes sense to me. When I go shopping, I will sometime put things in my cart that I'm not sure about, but I want to touch it and hang on to it until I'm sure. So, to me this makes incredible sense!
This was my pile of clothes to discard.
I don't know why I was hanging on to some of those things... Because I really didn't like wearing them. It feels so freeing to be rid of them. 😊
This is all my tops rehung and organized. I flipped all of my hangars backwards so I can tell at a glance what I didn't wear next year.
Now, it's time to attack the bottoms, skirts and dresses in my closet...
I eventually went through everything from shoes to baseball hats to purses, all of it!
I ended up discarding 123 items of clothing, 2 coats, 6 scarves, 2 pairs of shoes, 21 pairs of socks, 5 baseball hats, 6 belts, and 2 purses. Wow!!
What an incredible feeling. Hubby wants to do his side of the closet. Yay! He really needs it...
I did a short little video of my side of the closet completed. It's only a 1 minute video. 😍
The next category to attack is books. Can't wait! I do realize that this is going to be a long journey. This isn't something you can do in a weekend. There are several categories, but I'm determined to get through all of it.
We had time to attack Hubby's side of the closet this weekend!😊
Here's what his side of the closet looked like before we got started. After my side was done, hubs was really excited to work on his side.
That back corner... I don't know what was all down there??
Ummm... those are empty shoe boxes we were hanging on to for something?? 😂
He got rid of sooo much!
9 shorts
11 pants
53 shirts
2 sweaters
18 ties
2 shoes
2 belts
That's 103 items! Whoo Hoo!! Granted there was quite a bit of work uniforms in there he got rid of. But now it looks like this!!
So much better!! We love having our closet completely cleaned out. What a weight lifted. Now we're ready for books!
Blessings!
Lori
I have read parts of the Konmari book and loved it - I now roll my tshirts, cardies and weekend pants so I can tell exactly what I have in the drawers without wearing the same 3 top items when happened when they were folded. Still working on the small items lol :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Leanne! I've learned so much and still have sooo much to do! I really like all the changes so far! I know what you mean, clothing was just buried! Thanks for stopping by!
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