My Wardrobe Makeover – The Konmari Method

The De-Clutter History
We are all aware of my long-term desire to finally declare my house a clutter free zone! I have blogged about my grand plans and followed them up with some progress thoughts, but still the battle continues in my house! I recently discovered the “Konmari Method” for de-cluttering and organisation and am beyond excited. Everything that I read about the process suddenly made sense to me and most importantly, I actually couldn’t wait to jump in and give it a try!

I came across it via Just a Girl and Her Blog, where the author, Abby, had read Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and was implementing the steps one week at a time. I finished reading her post about changing the wardrobe and got immediately stuck into my own (with Nick reluctantly, but supportively in tow!).

First Steps
The Konmari Method de-clutters and organises in a step-by-step way, focusing on types of items to de-clutter instead of trying to work from room to room.  You start with the intention to throw every single item in that category away…true story! You then slowly go through the items and thank the ones that you no longer have a use for and only keep those that ‘spark joy’ for you.

So Nick and I piled our never-ending clothing onto the bed and gawked, guffawed and embarrassingly photographed the seemingly insurmountable pile. Then, we began picking up individual items and consciously assessing whether or not they ‘spark joy’ and therefore could be returned to the wardrobe. ‘It was really expensive’ or ‘I guess it’s not broken’ were not good enough reasons to keep an item, which was a mindset that took some getting used to. However, as the pile of clothes to keep grew slowly and the pile of clothes to sell and donate grew quickly, it became a little bit addictive!

The Results
In the past, Nick and I have managed to clear out approximately one rubbish bag of clothes each, every six months or so. I have previously been proud of this and usually rewarded myself with a few new purchases! The problem was that I was still rotating the same few favourite outfits each week and not touching three quarters of the clothes in my wardrobe – the things that didn’t quite fit, that weren’t quite right, that just needed to be fixed, etc.

At the end of our wardrobe de-cluttering, we had SEVEN rubbish bags full of clothes to sell and donate! And still our wardrobes were more than plenty full – this time with clothes that we really, truly did want to wear.

Where to From Here?
I am hooked! I am going to buy the book now and learn a little more about the process and where to go from here. I loved getting started though and would love to share the excitement further! If you would like some help getting started on clearing out your wardrobe (or pantry, hall cupboard, kitchen cabinets, ‘junk’ drawers!) give us a call! Or if you have tried and loved this method, please comment below – it would be great to hear from you about your experiences!