If you build it they will come...

I'm still slowly working through my journey but wanted to share my daughter's success the other day. On her own she undertook to KM her bedroom and bathroom. She did a great job! So proud of her...and now my husband is talking about doing his clothes....

Clothing - Exercise Clothes and Swimwear - October 6

This was another quick category that will be revisited later as I figure out how to fit exercise into my life more regularly...

Before...  

After...

I am letting go of three swimsuits, some exercise pants and capris, and seven exercise tops.  The white box in the drawer holds swimwear.

One Month In -- My Thoughts So Far

When I started this process I was frustrated that Marie Kondo says it will take up to six months to complete the process.  I want magical transformation now!!!  I'm not the most patient person in the world.  And I know that, as with any decluttering/organizational effort, things will get worse before they get better...that will be especially true when I tackle the kitchen, and then papers and miscellaneous items (komono) and sentimental items and crafts....  But I don't have to accomplish this all in one weekend, or even one week, or one month.  I do have a six month goal, however.


So, one month in I'm almost finished with all of my clothing.  I still need to do workout clothing and coats, but then I will be completely done with clothing!  I plan to finish those this week, and coats should be easy because Brie and I went through the coat closet several months ago and got rid of a lot of coats.


One month in, one category almost done.  And guess what?  I am actually seeing magical transformations in my life.  In just one month.  Miraculous magical transformation!


-My dresser drawers and closet have stayed neat, organized, and tidy, despite the fact that I get things out and put them back on a daily basis -- sometimes multiple times each day.  My neatly folded shirts and jeans and pants and shorts and pajama and socks are all still very neatly folded -- they seem to want to stay that way.  It's so easy at the end of the day to take something off, refold it, and put it right back into its designated spot in my dresser drawer.


-It's been one month since I have left an article of clothing on my bedroom floor.  Those of you who always immediately put your clothing away/in the hamper when you take them off won't recognize what a triumph this is for me -- what a transformation.  But it's true -- I just automatically want to put things away when I take them off, whether that's back in the dresser, the closet, or the hamper.  Last night I somehow ended up with an extra nightgown on my bed when I got ready for bed and rather than fold it and put it away, I dropped it on the floor next to my bed.  It bothered me and bothered me and bothered me and I had to deal with it....it was like it was sitting there looking at me with a sad face, wondering why I wasn't taking care of it in the manner it should be cared for!  Crazy, I know, but it's definitely a huge change for me.


-Shopping.  I am a shopaholic.  But since I started this journey one month ago, my shopping urges have significantly decreased.  I have actually gone into Target and not bought a single item of clothing or for my home that wasn't on my shopping list!  Nine West -- check!  J. Crew -- check!  Ann Taylor -- check!  Loft -- check!  This is miraculous, people.  I can't even begin to tell you.  Part of it is a result of actually staring at the piles of my clothing, handling each item, and coming face to face with how much I had, how much I didn't wear, and how much I didn't need.  Part of it is knowing that, even though I have some drawer space and closet space available to me, I have a wonderful assortment of clothing that sparks joy and that I love....and I have more of it than I really need.  So when I see items in the store, I appreciate their loveliness but I don't feel a burning desire to buy them and bring them home.  I've even found myself walking around the store mindlessly picking up things to buy, only to look at them and realize that I don't love them that much and I have things at home that I love more...and returning the items to their racks in the stores.  This is huge.  This is transformation.


-Wardrobe choices.  I knew that I preferred certain colors, but I didn't realize how monochromatic my wardrobe had become until I freed everything that didn't spark joy and organized the rest of it.  I have A LOT of black, navy, gray, and white in my wardrobe, with splashes of light blue, fuschia, and purple.  Now I know exactly what I have and what I need -- I need a belt to wear with jeans.  I need a soft white t-shirt to wear with pajama pants (bought that yesterday).  And when I do decide I want to buy new clothes, I know what colors are missing from my wardrobe so I can branch out and try new things.  I find that I no longer shop mindlessly -- I know exactly what I want/need and that's what I get.  I needed some work pants that fit -- bought three pairs and two sweaters to coordinate with them -- they add a needed bit of color (plum and teal) and coordinate with almost everything else I own.  I needed a pair of black dressy sandals -- found them on clearance at Nine West and didn't buy anything else.  I've been looking for a pair of nude strappy sandals -- found them on clearance at Ann Taylor and didn't buy anything else.  Needed a white t-shirt to wear with pajamas -- bought that at Target and didn't buy anything else.  I love this feeling of knowing exactly what holes I need to fill in my wardrobe and then finding those items.


I have taken three large bags of donations to Salvation Army and have three more bags ready to go, plus a few other things.  And that is just from doing my own clothes.  I'm excited about the process and wish I had more time to devote to it....but that's ok -- I'm making progress!

Clothing - Shoes, Dresses, and Closet - October 2

My apologies -- these pictures are a bit out of order....

Shoes.....this was a category I was dreading.  I really love shoes.  Love shoes.  They spark joy for me.  So I was afraid this one would be really tough.  It helped that I had done a go-through of my shoes with one of my sisters  while back.  But still...after I gathered up all of my shoes from around my house, this is the pile I was faced with...

This is the discard pile.  There are some fabulous shoes in there -really fabulous shoes.  But if they weren't comfortable I got rid of them.  If I had gotten rid of the outfit they went with and they didn't match anything else, I got rid of them.  And so this is 28 pairs of shoes ready to go on to their next home and owner....  (I didn't take a picture of the "after" because my shoes are stored in three different places in the house.)

Dresses...for some reason I didn't get before and after pictures, but I ended up saying goodbye to 5-6 dresses. 

One of my goals over the last few weeks -- once this process showed me that it was actually going to be possible -- was to consolidate my clothes to one side of our walk-in closet and move my husband's clothes into the other side.  I so badly wanted to do this and wanted to surprise him with the result.  Below is a picture of all of the hangars I ended up getting rid of.....And actually, there were more after that!  It's insane how many of those blasted metal hangars I had!

These are "before" pictures of the closet....

And this is all of my hanging clothing (except coats which are in the coat closet), all on ONE SIDE of the walk-in closet!  I am so excited about this!  My summer shoes are lined up on the floor below the clothing, closed toe shoes that I don't wear frequently are in a shoe holder on the far wall of the closet, and the rest of my shoes (frequently worn) are in a shoe holder in the entry way.  I moved the clothing my husband had in our guest room closet and surprised him.  In hindsight, though, I should have moved his clothing from the hanging bar in the laundry room and left the other stuff in the guest room closet.  He wasn't as impressed as I expected him to be, but that's ok -- I'm not doing this process for him as much as I'm doing it for me.  Sometime this week I'll swap his clothes around and that will make my laundry room much easier to get in/out of.

Clothing - Pajamas - September 24

This category was surprisingly difficult for me!  Here is the before pile....

I love pajamas.  LOVE them.  Love cozy pajamas, silk pajamas, pretty pajamas, soft knit pajamas, etc.  One item in this group that was particularly difficult was a pair of old satin-y pajamas (not lingerie, but actual pajama pants and chemise top) that I took on my honeymoon with me.  (Have I mentioned that I love pajamas?)  I don't know why, but for some reason I have hung on to that pair of pajamas for 23+ years....they are definitely well past their prime with holes in the lace, discolorations, snags, etc.  It was hard to let them go on their way, though.  I really don't know why, but I needed some emotional support/prodding from my sister with this category!

And below is the "after" picture.  This is a very deep dresser drawer that was previously overflowing with pajamas.  There are three pair that aren't in the drawer yet (in the laundry right now) but there is room for them.  I need to buy a soft white t-shirt to wear with the two pairs of pajama pants that I kept, and everything else in this drawer is very soft knitwear (thank you, Soma!) or very lightweight summer nightgowns (the top floor of our house gets uncomfortably hot in the summer).  I released about 10 nightgowns/pairs of pajamas on to their next destination.

This category took me about 45 minutes.

Clothing - Socks and Tights - September 14

This category was pretty quick and easy -- I did it one night while I watched a favorite TV show.  This is the before pile...which is actually a lot deeper than it looks...

This is *just* my bin of tights...yeah, I have a few pairs of tights and, once again, you can definitely see which colors I tend to wear the most!

My tights after I was done...I experimented with standing them up on end or putting them in the bin like this...this way won out.  I discarded 8-10 pairs of tights.  To organize what I kept, I used this clear bin inside my nightstand drawer so they stay neat and tidy.  To the side of the bin (this picture is sideways) are the socks that I can't find the mates for right now but that I don't want to get rid of yet...I'm hoping their mates will materialize.

And the socks that I kept.  Yes, I love fuzzy, cozy socks and  I wear them daily in the winter to keep my feet warm while I'm waiting outside for the bus.  So I need lots of them because socks get gross after you wear them with boots.

I'm really happy with how things went with this category!

Clothing - Bottoms - September 10

I will freely admit that I probably cheated a bit on this category.  I have a lot of pants and a couple of skirts that I really love that don't fit right now because I've gained weight.  Truth be told, I'm torn between trying to get back into them or just losing weight, getting in shape, and trying to keep some of my new "curves."  We shall see....  But in the meantime, I decided to hang on to the pants that don't fit right now that do spark joy and so I ended up keeping probably 10 pairs of pants.  I will do a second pass at KMing my clothes in the future and we'll see where those end up.

Anyway....before....

Everything piled on the bed....good grief.....

These are pants and skirts to get rid of, but not the final pile -- I added more to them.  I'm debating over what to do with these.  They're all nice pants/jeans and I spent a lot of money on them so I'd like to get something for them instead of just donating them, but I don't know how much to charge, where to list them, having been able to find a consignment shop that has good recommendations, etc.....and honestly, I'd probably get more out of the tax deduction than I would if I sold/consigned them.  So this pile is still sitting by my bed (it's gotten bigger) while I decide what to do with it.

These are the pants I saved (jeans and shorts are in a dresser drawer -- all consolidated down from two very full drawers to one!).  These are not the slacks that go with my suits -- those are hanging with their matching jacket.  Obviously, I tend to wear certain colors...black, gray, navy...with two pairs of khaki thrown in for good measure.  I am predictable!  I also like having these hang on their own hangers instead of the hangers that held multiple pairs.  So much easier to see and get to and hang back up!

Skirts...I do still have a bunch of these on multi-tiered hangars and will have to keep them that way for now since I don't have enough space to hang them separately.  Again, you can easily see my color preferences!

This category took about three hours because I had to try on so many of the items to see if they fit or not.  I will definitely re-do this category in the future, but for now I'm pretty happy with my progress!