Konmari'd!

Happy Joyful Socks

So, I started Konmari.  The Magical Art of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.  Currently we're in a transitional place after moving 800 miles away.  We've gotten rid of lots of stuff and moved from a 4 bed, 2 bath, 2.5 car garage into a 2 bedroom apartment.  We'll have a house again soon, but for now we're here.  There's stuff in our garage in boxes, the rest is int he apartment with us.

The closet.  I thought I minimalized before, but there's always clothes that gets old and stained.  Eventually, I'd like to get to the point where ALL my clothes fit into a carry on.  Here's my closet before:



Did I mention that the only place for my yarn stash is next to my closet?  Yeah, yarn and clothes makes it a happy place.  I like to hang all my clothes, but Kondo says to fold things.  Fold?  I hate folding, I never do it right.  But if I'm going to try this, I'll do it.  All the clothes go on the floor.



Yep, that's all the clothes I own in that pile, it's a little over a foot high.  I held each item in my hand, waiting for that spark of joy.  It happened to some, not to all.  The un-sparky stuff got put in either the garbage or a bag for charity.  I forgot to thank the clothes I threw away, the poor things.  But I'll try to remember to do that to the charity cases.

After some youtube help, I folded.  It wasn't so bad, really.  It looks very pretty and happy all together.


I was also surprised that I could fit ALL my clothes into my closet.  This includes coats, shoes (except winter boots), sleepwear, hand knit sweaters and scarves.  The stuff that was happier hanging or too bulky got hung with a rise to the right.  The other stuff is in my plastic 4 drawer thing.  I have a little basket with my scarves and a larger sweater at the bottom.  I've also wanted to have only the clothes that fit on my 10 huggable hangers someday, and I'm only 2 hangers over that, not including coats and robe.  And voila!


See those empty hangers?  Those represent clothes that no longer give me joy.  I realized that:


  • I only need 2 pairs of jeans to be happy
  • 2 pairs of shorts may be too much
  • I have enough hand knit socks for now
  • The only warm tops I have are hand knit sweaters
  • I really don't like pullovers but flattering cardigans give me joy
  • All my tops and my pajamas fit in one drawer, and it's enough
  • There's possibly enough room on the right end of the closet to fit my yarn
The true test was if I'd continue to keep the closet this way.  I don't like putting things away neatly, thus the hanging everything syndrome.  That night we went out, so I changed from my yoga pants, folded them up and pulled out my jeans.  I folded my shirt and took out a different one.  No problem, it was actually nice to keep it all that way.  Perhaps it's because everything that it's in there gives me joy that I don't mind taking extra steps to put them away properly.  I still have kept it tidy after a few more days and a few loads of laundry.

This may not all fit into a carry on, but it will all fit into one suitcase.  It's all ready for the next step on the journey.

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