After a few episodes of Tidying Up, I decided I was going to KonMari my life. I was 100% on board. I bought the book. I told everyone I knew about the life-changing magic of Marie Kondo. I picked a day to kick the project off. I was in it.
Kicking Off KonMari
I was so jazzed about the first step of tidying up (going through clothing), that I started two days early. Snowed in on a Saturday morning, I took all the clothing out of my closet and the coat closet and heaped it on my bed. I was already embarrassed for myself and I hadn’t even emptied out my two dressers yet (yes, two – totally shameful).
I knew I had to commit, though, so I pulled everything out. It was pretty horrifying. But I decided to jump in and ask myself if each item brought me joy. My Jessica Lange-
Hitting a Roadblock
After 90 minutes of sorting (that’s on top of about an hour of just pulling stuff out of storage), I was having a hard time. Did a pair of sweats bring me joy? I mean, they were cozy. Is coziness joy? What about a skirt I made (but hadn’t worn in years)? It made me feel proud. But was that joy? Or satisfaction masquerading as joy?
I had to take a break. After an episode of Gilmore Girls, I came back refreshed. I plowed through the rest in another 45 minutes. But I kept tripping up on the same things: my makes (though they didn’t still fit).
Originally, I tossed a few dresses and skirts into the bag. If they didn’t fit, they weren’t really joyful, right? After all, I felt a lot of relief getting rid of other clothes that didn’t fit me well. But seeing pieces that I worked really hard on tossed in a bag with old band tees and too-tight skirts felt wrong. Or at least it made me feel really sad. More so than when I released some other old favorites.
Right about this time, Michael came home. I have to give him so much credit, first and foremost because he came home to our bedroom turned upside down and didn’t bat an eye. But he deserves even more credit because I had a meltdown (why do I have so many of these?) about saying goodbye to my handmade clothes. And he just said, “Why don’t you keep them? Even if they’re just examples for yourself?”
That’s when I pulled my favorites out of the bag – two skirts and two dresses. I folded them neatly, KonMari-style, and placed them in a basket in the basement. No, it’s not a perfect solution, but I’m happy with it for the time being.
With those items in a new home, going through the rest of my odds and ends was easy. In the end, I had four garbage bags packed full and ready for Goodwill (not to mention a half garbage bag of unrepairable and worn garments to toss).
Putting It All Back Again
Even though looking at four bags of donations was satisfying, looking at the keep pile was still overwhelming. Time for another Gilmore Girls break. If you are tacking this project, I highly recommend decompressing occasionally. Lighthearted TV, an easy read or a walk would all be welcome.
Returning once again to Clothes Mountain, I developed a bit of a game plan. First, I’d hang up what needed hanging. Then I’d deal with the folding – first basics like shirts and sweaters and then moving onto less regular things like tights.
Hanging clothes was fairly simple. Marie writes in her book that her preference is to fold clothes, but some clothes are happier on hangers – dresses, skirts, things that are light and airy. She also specifies that clothes should be hung
I followed Marie’s directions as best as my closet would allow. In the end, it looked much nicer visually (to me at least). I was hoping that I’d have a wardrobe with some healthy gaps in it to really show me how much I improved. I didn’t quite get that. Instead I got a closet that was mostly full, though, most importantly, not overstuffed. I’d take it.
The Folding Method That Didn’t Make Me Hate Folding
After a low-key win in the closet, I turned my attention to everything remaining. I’d have to KonMari fold it all? I saw how long it took people to do it on Tidying Up. I figured I’d be there all night.
But after watching a quick YouTube video, I think I got the method down alright. After 90 minutes, everything was folded and put away. I even ended up with one empty drawer! And the rest looked near-picture perfect.
After all that work, being able to pull open a drawer and see everything was a huge reward. No longer would I be surprised by that sweater in the bottom of the drawer. My pajama drawer wouldn’t be overstuffed. All my pants could live in one spot! Getting dressed was easy!
What About Shoes and Bags?
I like my shoes and I like my bags, but I don’t have an outrageous collection of either. Thank goodness because I could not handle another tidying session like the one I did with clothing.
Because the first part of tidying was so exhausting, I admittedly half-assed the bag and shoe part. Or maybe it just felt that way because it didn’t take very long. Going through both took 10 minutes. I filled up an entire bag.
An Unexpected Stumbling Block
Along the way, though, I ran into sentimental items. A lot of them. My closet’s top shelf is apparently prime real estate for mementos of all kinds. High school yearbooks? There up there. Ticket stubs from all the concerts Michael and I saw while dating? They’re old and curled now, but yes, they call the top shelf home. Letters my great-grandma and great-aunt wrote? They’ve got their own shoebox there.
This felt like a pretty big stumbling block to me. Part because I was tempted just to deal with those items right there and then. Part because putting them back on the shelf felt like I wasn’t tidying right but leaving them out as clutter didn’t feel right either. I put them back – just for the time being.
How Does It Feel?
I couldn’t feel better about my drawer situation. It looks so darn good. My closet didn’t provide me with a dramatic transformation, but I’m thinking that’s fine for now.
In general, though, I’m really trying to learn. Pinpointing what sparks joy for me comes and goes, but Marie writes about how you develop this sense more as you go. I’m hoping that comes in subsequent steps.
My biggest takeaway so far, though, is to work methodically and not to rush. Yes, she describes the process as quick, but she clarifies that means about six months. As someone who is more a hare than a tortoise, this is a big lesson. So I’m trying my best to go by the book, to work one section at a time and resist the urge to tidy things before their time.
For me, this is very big since I love working on a handful of projects at once. But I think it’s time I try something new (like slowing down).
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P.S. If you want to see how I really felt in real time, check out my Instagram stories. I was a disaster.
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