Konmari-ing my closet

Maybe you've heard of "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up". Maybe you think it sounds weird and creepy to be thanking your clothes, letting your socks 'rest' after a job well done, and releasing your belongings to be one with the universe if they don't 'spark joy'.

I'm with ya.

But after reading a lot of reviews about the famous 'Konmari Method' of decluttering I found it all looked rather addictive and I wanted to try it. I'm no hoarder, but shheeeeez do we own a lot of stuff. I'm frequently purging and decluttering so I was skeptical that I needed any kind of 'method' but there were a few points to this system that I decided to use and I found them helpful:

1) Declutter by category, not location. For example, on this day I decluttered ALL my clothes, gathering them from my car and every corner and bag in the house. Most of them happened to be in my wardrobe, but it wasn't technically a wardrobe clean-out. 

2) Put ALL the things together in a big pile so you can really see it all laid out. It's mind-boggling how much you can pull out of a closet, chest of drawers, bedside drawers, etc. I found that I could instantly see that my lack of sports t-shirts could be resolved easily by shifting some old tshirts into the sports pile instead of using them as sleepwear..... etc.

3) You take everything OUT and then you sort through looking for the things you want to keep - as opposed to looking through your wardrobe for things to take out.

4) If you're not keeping it, you thank it and then release it. Well, gotta be honest, I've never been one to chat with my clothes, but I do think the attitude of gratefulness allows you to get rid of things more easily.

5) You declutter in a very specific order., beginning with clothes and books. I found several checklists online to follow. Just google 'Konmari Checklist' for one.

Onward!

Here's a bunch of stuff that I ruthlessly threw in a basket to be rid of or deal with later. How long will this basket sit in my room? Will I go through it and fall in love with each piece over again thus defeating the purpose of this exercise? Time will tell...

Meanwhile it's weird to have only one item of clothing on each hanger, and half of my wardrobe free!

I also just discovered that I own 12 sleeveless tops. Quite a lot for someone who almost always wears sleeves!

The right side is almost completely empty now, leaving me room to gather these gift bags into an old duvet bag and get them *finally* off the floor!!! And I can actually see them! Bending over to find stuff on the floor makes me mad. Must be a throwback to pregnancy.

What will I do with the empty shelves on the right??? Oh the possibility. I guess I'll leave that until I'm further through the Konmari Checklist and need to find somewhere to put our overflowing linen.

On the left, I have a shelf for each of: swim gear, maternity gear, and snow gear.

It feels pretty good to have a clean closet. Books are next on the checklist. Immediately followed by paperwork or something equally awful that I may never survive.

Let's not talk about the rest of the house that my 3 year old messes up literally faster than I can clean. Would you ever know that I clean/tidy constantly? 

 I think not.

Have you Konmari-ed anything?