Welcome to Day 2 of the 10 Days to a Tidy House Challenge! A few days ago I shared a crazy idea that I had with you guys: decluttering and tidying up your house in just 10 days. (You can read more in the introduction to the challenge HERE.) It must have struck a chord with several of you, because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the response! So, thank you for joining me. I’ll be posting pictures and lists of the items I’ve decluttered on my Facebook page throughout the challenge. You’re welcome to follow me and share your own experience as well!
Day Two: Tidying Up Your Clothing
Are you ready to begin the challenge?! Now that you’ve thought about why you want a clutter-free house, have spoken with your family to get their input, and have prepared yourself, you are ready to dive in! Marie Kondo of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up recommends starting with your clothing, as it can be a nice concrete way to ease into the process. We will see some rapid results in our challenge today!
Today we are going to do four things:
- Gather ALL of the clothing that we own and place it on the bed or floor
- Go through each item individually and keep only the ones that spark joy
- Decide where to send the remaining clothing
- Organize what you will be keeping
By the end of today’s challenge our closets and drawers will be a lot tidier!
1. Take out ALL of Your Clothing
First, it’s time to round up every single item of clothing that you own. Yep. Everything. It can be easy to overlook a dress hanging in the back of your closet or a sock stuck in the corner of your drawer. So, take every piece of clothing out and lay it on your bed or floor. You may be surprised by how big of a pile you have!
Here are a few items that can be easy to overlook:
- Outerwear: coats, hats, scarves, boots
- Out of season clothing: Do you have your summer clothes stored somewhere? Go get them!
- Shoes
- Accessories: jewelry, scarves, purses, wallets, etc.
Grab them all and bring them together in one place.
2. Ask Yourself, “Does It Spark Joy?”
Now that you are looking at every piece of clothing that you own, the real fun begins. Take each item and hold it, touch it, look at it. By making yourself pause and really see that shirt or those socks, you are better able to decide if you want to keep it or not. Marie Kondo advises her clients to ask themselves this simple question: “Does it spark joy?”
Does that shirt bring you joy? Does it make you happy? If yes, then keep it. If no, it’s time to get rid of it.
For those of you who are extremely frugal (like me!), it can be easy to begin rationalizing. “But, it was such a great deal.” “It just seems like a waste to get rid of it.” “I’m sure I can make it last a little bit longer.” However, that way of thinking is probably what got us all of this clutter in the first place! Remember your why? Remember the reasons that you decided to declutter your house? Put that in the forefront of your mind as you begin sorting.
Here are a few obvious things to get rid of:
- Items with holes in them
- Clothing that you don’t fit into anymore
- Duplicates
- That pair of maternity pants that you’ve hung unto, even though your youngest is now five
- Socks without matches
- Broken jewelry that you aren’t going to get repaired
- Items that you never really liked very much in the first place
Now, it is ok to be sentimental. Some items will spark joy for you even though you may never wear them again. I have a beautiful red dress hanging in my closet that I can no longer wear. It was the dress I wore the night that my husband asked me to marry him over eight years ago. You’d better believe I’m hanging on to it! However, the t-shirt I got for going to a conference? Not so much.
This will be the longest part of the process today, but take your time. Make sure that each item you keep will bring you joy. You may be surprised that you feel as if you have a bigger wardrobe than before, just because you actually like every item that you see!
3. Sort and Send
I recommend sorting your items into three piles: keep, donate, sell.
Some of you may have some designer label items that can bring some real money on eBay or at your local consignment shop. Other items more than likely aren’t worth the trouble. Donate them to the organization that you decided on yesterday (a homeless shelter, your church thrift shop, Goodwill, a charity you support, a family in need in your church, etc.). Many organizations will give you a receipt for your taxes that you can keep and use when you file in 2017.
If at all possible, try to get the items you aren’t keeping out of the house today. Or at least have them out by Saturday. The longer that you hold on to them, the more likely you are to lose momentum and find them again in another six months.
4. Organize What You Choose to Keep
Now you should have a MUCH smaller amount of clothing that will be going back into your closets and drawers. This is a great time to make sure that your organizational system is working for you. Marie Kondo doesn’t advocate getting special organization items to help you store all of your things. So, don’t feel the need to run out and buy a $50 shoe organizer from Ikea.
However, think about what makes sense for the way that YOU use your clothes. Do you want to hang up most of your items or fold them? Does seeing a closet organized by color make you smile? Would you be more likely to wear something if it was nearer the front of your closet?
Kondo has some great tips for organization in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. She is famous for a particular method of folding clothes (that I haven’t quite mastered yet!). You can see a video of it HERE. This method helps you to see all of your clothing at once in your drawers because each item is folded and stacked vertically.
If you’re looking for some more inspiration, I highly recommend this great article by Abby at Just a Girl and Her Blog about The KonMari Method: Organizing Clothes.
Today’s Action Items:
To recap, here are the action items to accomplish today:
- Take everything out of your closets and drawers
- Decide which items spark joy
- Sort all of your clothing into “keep, donate, and sell” piles
- Organize the items you are keeping
That’s it for today! I look forward to seeing you tomorrow for Day Two: Tidying Up the Kids’ Clothing.
What all did you decide to donate or sell today?
