 |
| My de-cluttered clothes cupboard - the shelves were previously stuffed to the top with clothes. |
Over the last couple of months I have been doing the Konmari method of de-cluttering. I read Marie Kondo's book 'The life changing magic of tidying up' and it gave me a totally different mindset about the the things I own, and my house. I have always hated clutter and have been quite minimalist in my possessions, but recently I have found I have accumulated more than my house and cupboards could fit.
The whole premise of the book is to focus on only keeping the things you truly love, and to get rid of everything else. It is a refreshing and positive approach, and I found that when I paired back my stuff to only the things I loved it gave me a lot more happiness and contentment with what I had. Often I feel we go chasing more possessions because we feel dissatisfied with what we own.
It makes me really happy to open my cupboard or look at my wardrobe and see all the things I love together - I can pick out anything and be happy to wear it, whereas before I would have to sift through the things I didn't like to find something I wanted to wear. I also found (not just with the clothes, but with everything) that when you kept the things you loved only, they tended to go together better - your true style shines out more clearly and is not obscured by things you don't like.
 |
| My wardrobe where I put my more formal wear that needs to be hung. Now containing only things I love. |
With her method you de-clutter category by category, not room by room, and the first category you start on is clothes, because it is the easiest. She says you need to get all the clothes from the whole house into the same place to start so you can see just how much you have and if there are any repetitions and duplicates. Then you need to pick up each item in turn and ask yourself 'does this bring me joy?'
Some things will surprise you when you realise they don't - I had a beautiful new dress which I never wear and I realised it really doesn't bring me joy - it fits kind of weirdly and the fabric is really thick wool even though it is a mini dress so it is too cold for winter but too hot for summer. And also you will find some things that you assumed wouldn't bring you joy, do - like an old sweater or shirt.
These days I am pretty good at knowing what suits me, so I didn't have a crazy amount of clothes to give to the charity shop. But in fact I had a lot of clothes that I had once liked and worn a lot, which had become faded and worn and I still had in my wardrobe. These were all basic items like long sleeved plain T-shirts for layering in the autumn and winter and plain jeans, but I purged these to the cupboard under the sink for cleaning rags and they actually came in handy when I was Konmari-ing the rest of the house, because I cleaned out lots of areas and cupboards etc. as I went. I got rid of about one carrier bag of clothes to the charity shop and put about three carrier bags (three!) under the sink for rags. So much for me being the minimalist I thought I was - no wonder my clothes cupboard was full to brimming.
She says once you have completely and properly tidied an area it will pretty much stay tidy, all you need to do is put things back where they go. The key is to get rid of all the excess belongings which are cluttering up the space and not bringing joy, and once you have de cluttered give everything a proper permanent home with everything of the same type all in the same place.
With clothes she says you should fold them so you can see at one glance all that you have - so stack them vertically on their ends in a drawer instead of one on top of the other.
Since I have been doing this for a while now and have done other categories since, I can definitely say this was the easiest and quickest to do. I went through the clothes in my cupboard in about 20 minutes tops, and while I tried on a few things from my wardrobe to double check I was sure, the wardrobe took about 20 minutes as well. It was such a dramatic change once I put everything back folded neatly in her method - My wardrobe looked amazing and was filled with only the things I loved an that made me happy. Plus all the space and organisation was beautiful. I now love looking at my cupboard and my wardrobe with its matching hangars and all my fancy clothes - I feel it looks really pretty and put together.
 |
| I treated myself to matching wooden hangars once I had de cluttered (which were actually surprisingly cheap) and ditched all the miss matched plastic ones.
Another obvious side effect, apart from the fact that your space looks tidier, is that if you only keep the clothes you love, you only wear the clothes you love, resulting in feeling a lot better about how you dress and what you wear. I feel a lot smarter and more comfortable and put together since Konmaring and I had also previously been wearing a few unflattering items because I liked the type of style they were, but they weren't really bringing me joy because they made me feel awkward.
 |