So because I recently quit my job I also recently moved home. I’ve always known that I had some stuff in my parent’s attic. However, once I put the entire contents of my living room, kitchen, and patio into my corner of the attic my stuff took up almost a whole QUARTER of the attic. If you’re from Ontario you will be very familiar with the classic old square Victorian farmhouse that are seen all over the province. The attic is the size of the whole house so my parent’s attic is not small! This was also the first time that all of my clothes, books, and other detritus of my life were in one spot for the first time in nearly a decade. And because you cannot write cover letters full time without losing your mind, I decided to actually give a full college try to the KonMari method. I’ve had a digital download of the book for years but never actually done anything with it.
The KonMari method is so well-known that you probably already know her method but:
- Clothes (includes jewelry, shoes, and bags)
- Books
- Paper
- Komono (Miscellaneous)
- Beauty products (Hair, makeup, skin care)
- Scrapbooking supplies
- Needlepoint supplies
- Other craft supplies
- Kitchen items
- Holiday Decorations
- Linens
- Computer
- Sentimental
Your komono can be whatever you need it to be, this is what I think I need. I’m also separating computer from paper, because my computer is shocking.
So for day 1 is clothing. I got everything out of my closet and drawers and then ventured up to the attic, there was a full Rubbermaid bin of clothing, a tote bag of purses, and another Rubbermaid bin labelled “kitchen” that was 3/4 full of clothes. Marie then says to pile everything up, be overwhelmed, be shocked and horrified by how much you have.
This also does not include a bin of clothes under the bed that I had forgotten about and a small cardboard box of clothes in the attic that I missed until I got through all my clothes and realized I hadn’t seen one of my favourite summer tops.
My plan for my discard pile was split into: keep, donate to charity shop (good condition items), textile recyling (poor condition items or things like socks and underwear), consignment shop (in excellent condition, higher end items), and Plato’s Closet type-place (in excellent condition, lower end items).
My sizing has been all over the map since junior year of college and I have plans to make adjustments to my current size so I decided to only follow the “sparks joy” method and if there was anything smaller than a size 6 I would write it down and replace it, but not keep anything in a size that is wildly different from where I am now.
Once I got through all the clothes, shoes and jewelry I ended up with 2 bags of items to take to the charity shop and 3 items to take to a consignment shop and 7 items to take to a place like Plato’s Closet/Style Encore, and a half full jumbo garbage bag to take to a textile recyclers once the stay-at-home order has lifted in Ontario.
So Marie says not to organize anything until you have fully finished decluttering everything, but there is no way I have that kind of space and I definitely could not live with mounds of stuff around my room. She also recommends folding as much as possible, basically everything that isn’t super soft and flowy or super structured; but that is also not for me. And this is what it looks like now!
My closet and drawers don’t really look any different then they did before in terms of volume, but the were two empty plastic bins and an empty cardboard box as a result. Literally all of my clothes, bags, and shoes are in my closet and drawers! And my winter coat is downstairs on it’s coat hook by the door, I also didn’t even bring up my snow boots and everyday boots, even though I technically *should* have, but they don’t spark joy but I literally have to have snow boots. I live in the Ottawa area, like I actually have to have winter boots. But here are the empty bins for celebration!
I also had a bin of t-shirts from various college clubs, my sorority, 4-H clubs, and every other activity imaginable. I have been planning on getting a t-shirt quilt made but there were way too many t-shirts for one quilt. I also went through those and got rid of all but the best sorority t-shirts and a couple other club t-shirts, probably close to half. My dad likes t-shirts to wipe down greasy hands and parts when he’s mechanic-ing and I think he is set for the next 3 years now. I was cutting them up for him and had some wild realizations about my lifelong body dysmorphia.
I’m not certain how I feel about all of this clearing out stuff yet, I don’t feel lighter or relieved or anything like that yet, but we shall see how it goes!
Laura
Thoughtful Millennial 