KonMari my clothes?

What does that even mean! Purge of half my clothes and keep only the items that bring me joy?

That sounds… HARD. I admit though, I’m intrigued because each year, my closet seems to fill right back up with items I never wear, nor love any longer.

I’m going through a major organization and spring cleaning phase, which happens about twice a year in our house.

What would be ideal, instead of having these seasonal major purges, is to just learn to live with less and devise a plan to stick with keeping our closets minimal and organized.  I’m starting to get a real itch for minimalism BUT we have three kids and as you know, along with kids comes stuff – so much stuff!!!

 

How do I KonMari my clothes and what does that even mean?

KonMari is the Japanese art of de-cluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo who is an expert in tidying. I bought her book and while her approach to de-cluttering seems at first glance brutal, I was determined to try it.

The KonMari method is a no excuses way of eliminating items in your home that unless you truly love them and they bring you joy, need to get the heave-ho.

 

TACKLING CLOTHES

Take all your clothes, coats, and wearable items from all over your house (bedroom, closets, storage containers, your car…) and put them into one big pile.

Yes, take everything off the hangers, empty out your dressers, raid the coat closet and storage. Look in all the spots where your clothes may be – even out of season items – your car, garage, basement and especially in the laundry. There can be no stragglers.

Once you have everything into one large pile, pick up each item one-by-one and ask yourself, “does this spark joy?” Sounds silly right?

Listen to your inner voice when you touch each item. What is the first instinct?

• do you love this piece of clothing or are you holding onto it because of a sentimental or superficial attachment (my best friend gave it to me for my birthday, it looked great when I was 10lbs less, I spent a lot of money on it, etc.)
• Do you enjoy wearing the item and does it make you feel good?
• If the answer is no and it doesn’t bring you any joy, toss it without a second thought into a separate purge pile.

My pile, as you can see, is embarrassing large. I could not believe how much clothing I had amassed and I already knew before I got started that I didn’t wear half of it (or had seen some of it in years!)

After I divided all my clothes into two piles – a keep and a toss pile – I sorted the toss pile into donate and resell bags and immediately bagged them up so I couldn’t go through anything a second time and let doubt creep in and “accidentally” move it back to the keep pile. Trust me, it was tempting.

Hours later, I threw the bags in my car and took them to a place to donate and also a place to sell.

I think you’ll be surprised by the amount of clothes you’re discarding as well. We tend to hold onto items because we can’t let them go for sentimental and superficial reasons more than by the way they make us feel.

I was surprised by how much this process inspired me to tackle other categories in our home. My husband who was even doubtful of the effectiveness saw the transportation of my closet and later that night, did his own KonMari purge (which is incredible because while he would never admit it, is a full on clothes hoarder and has sentimental shirts shoved into the back of his closet he thinks he’s hiding from me.)

 

FOLDING CLOTHES THE KON MARI WAY  

There is the KonMari method of folding which works great for shirts and dresser-bound items. Here is a link for a quick tutorial. It will save you a ton of space in your dresser and drawers, as well as your closet.

 

WHAT ELSE CAN I KON MARI?

Pretty much everything!

Plan to sort and purge by category though instead of by room. You think moving from room to room is the most effective, but it’s not.

Choose a category (books, clothing, linens, shoes, paper, art, dishes, pots & pants, pens, art supplies, etc…) and go from there.

Marie Kondo states that similar items are all throughout your house, not just in one room. Makes sense. I know I have a little of everything all over our house.

For example: Books.

Do you have books scattered through your house? Bring them all into one area, take them out of bookcases, off shelves and so forth.

Once they’re in one big pile, start the process of picking up each book one-by-one and asking yourself if this book sparks joy?

If it doesn’t, put it in the toss pile and go through each book until you’ve touched each one and decided if it stays or goes.

 

ORGANIZATION TIP

Marie Kondo also states that those pretty little organization bins and sorters you may already have on hand tend to help you stay disorganized – totally true because I feel like it looks pretty on the outside but I may have have a million random things shoved into the container.

Everything you have should be in one neat little spot so you can always go back and find it.

Happy Purging, Sorting and Organizing!

 

Want More? 

• How to Have a Mess-Free Home While Raising Kids
• Clean and Disinfect Your Refrigerator in 20 Minutes
• Dirty Areas In Your House You Don’t Clean Often Enough – But Really Should
• Daily Habits for an Organized Home
• Little Areas You Forget to Clean That Make Your House Look Dingy
• Create a Cleaning Schedule That Doesn’t Take A lot of Time