As I mentioned last week, I finally got ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo from the library. I have to admit, that with the craziness of the season, I didn’t manage to read the whole book before it was due back (it is so popular that it is still on the fast reads shelf at the library), but I did read most of it and took notes on what I need to do to start…
So, this weekend I am going to tackle the first category: clothes.
When I starting making up my decluttering goals for the year, I had my closet and dresser (ie my clothes) as my tasks for week #10 & #11. That would have been in March, right? Ha ha ha! Better late than never!
A while before I started my own blog, I had been reading blogs about minimalism and the capsule wardrobe (like into-mind), and I was inspired to start making some drastic cuts… or so I thought… so this starting place that I am at now, is actually after I have already gone through and purged a lot of pieces.
Anyway, I have spent a lot of time reading about capsule wardrobes and seasonal wardrobes, but Marie Kondo is of the mindset that you shouldn’t store seasonal clothes away, but keep all your clothes accessible all the time. But she is also seems to be of the mindset that you won’t have that many clothes if you only keep those that “spark joy”. I want to use her process, but I also want to explore the idea of a capsule wardrobe or limited wardrobe. So I want to only keep what sparks joy, but also keep the number of items down to only what I really need.
First step was to figure out what I needed for my life, and Caroline over at Un-Fancy.com has a handy work sheet that helps you lay out what your lifestyle activities are. I took some time this morning to go over the worksheet and this is what I came up with:
Some notes about my lifestyle:
- For work, I spend most of my time in the office, until I go away to site for extended periods of time… My office is pretty casual, so I could get away with jeans and a hoody on most days, but for important meetings with clients, or going to conferences, I need to be able to look nice, plus, I’d like to look nice most days, I just get lazy… When I go away for extended periods of time, I want to have enough clothing to go 2 weeks before having to go to a laundromat if possible. What might be appropriate though is that I keep these “site clothes” separate from my normal clothes… They tend to be clothes that I don’t mind getting dirty from oil or dirt or grease…
- I play a lot of sports and try to run or work out almost every day of the week. I want to keep enough workout clothes to allow me to go 1 week of normal exercise without having to do laundry (I only like to do laundry once a week if I can help it).
- My “at home” time is most likely spent on the couch… so some casual and comfy relaxing clothes are required. (But Marie Kondo doesn’t seem to like sweatsuits… I love my big cozy sweatpants…) But, these clothes don’t really tend to get dirty quick, and if I’m not leaving the house in them, I can wear the same comfy clothes every day… I probably have way too many comfy clothes…
- I also like to work in my garden and get dirty, but I don’t want my “nice” clothes to get dirty… so I’ll need at least one outfit for garden or dirty house-work (for when we get started on the DIY home renos).
- When I go out with friends, we tend to gravitate to the casual drinking locales, so the clothes in my “work” section will probably do for this section too… I don’t need special bar clothes or anything.
Some facts I should disclose… I am not fashionable. I never was, and I never will be… I have clothes that I bought in 2005 that I still wear occasionally. And I don’t know if I have bought more than athletic clothes and jeans in the last year… Oh, except my wedding dress… and the crazy 80s bridesmaids’ dress that I wore on a bachelorette weekend for a friend back in May…
Another thing to point out is that in the last couple years, I have lost probably over 20 lbs (though apparently I’m back up a bit right now… so much for that weight loss goal…). Some of my clothes just don’t fit right anymore. I would like to, and plan to, stay at my lower weight, so I should really let go of the bigger items and work on getting clothes that fit properly. This also means that clothing that I was hanging on to before, and not wearing because it was my “skinny” clothes, are now fitting. This is great, except I am so used to ignoring them… also I’m realizing that my style has changed a bit over time, and now some of those items I’m not as in love with as I once was… Last time I was “skinny” I was quite a bit younger, and it shows in the clothes that I have.
Tonight I’m going to try and get all my laundry clean so that I can have almost all my clothes available for my purge on the weekend. Then I think on Saturday, this will be my plan:
- Collect all my clothes and accessories from the closet, my dresser and all around the house… (Marie Kondo says anything not included in the initial purge doesn’t get a chance to stay… it is immediately tossed… so I really don’t want to miss anything…)
- Follow Marie Kondo’s order and “spark-joy” method:
- Tops
- Bottoms
- Clothes that should be hung
- Socks
- Underwear
- Bags
- Accessories
- Clothes for specific events
- Shoes
- Take stock of the numbers left that “spark joy” and make sure that I have only enough fitness clothes for 1 week, and enough work site clothes for 2 weeks.
- Try things on to make sure everything still fits like I want.
- Explore some of the trends in my clothing to try to define “my style.”
- Determine if there are any holes in my wardrobe and make a shopping/wish list.
- Learn to fold using the KonMari methods (I’ll be doing a lot of YouTube watching) & put everything back.
- Marvel at the extra space that should now exist in my closet and dresser.
Am I missing anything here? Have you done a clothing declutter using the KonMari method? Or have you made yourself a capsule wardrobe? Do you have any tips or tricks you can pass on before I start?
All-Round Better Me 
Best of luck with the wardrobe. I don’t have a capsule wardrobe as such but 90% of my wardrobe is mix and match. I stick to black, white and grey and of course, denim for jeans. It makes it much easier to get dressed in the morning! I’ve heard some people like to get a neutral palette sorted and then pick an accent colour with some pieces of that colour thrown in. M
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I do want to move towards having a wardrobe that is very mix and match, but I also don’t want to go out and buy a whole bunch of new (or new to me) clothes… I hope that by doing the big purge today, I’ll be able to refresh what I already have and maybe just have a small wish list to complete it. I do like the idea of the neutral colour theme though… Will keep that in mind as I work today. Thanks!
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I really like how you are combining the different lessons from Marie Kondo and Un-Fancy to curate your wardrobe. Combining all the different life editing ideas together always makes for a better, more personalized method. I don’t feel like you’re missing any steps, but I know I put a lot of time and focus into the “determining your style” step. Picking colors that work best for my skin tone, clothing for my body type, and a style that does not feel too casual or dressy were all steps I took. I also found it easier to combine my clothing categories/needs so that my wardrobe didn’t feel too compartmentalized. In your case, you could wear the same clothing for work/outings, add some fancy accessories to your work clothing to make it special occassion-worthy, and also have the same clothing for team sports, fitness, and lounging. Depending on how often you’re on site, you could get away with having only 1-2 outfits. I know I always just wore a polo (with my company logo), dark chinos, and sturdy shoes for the days that requires some extra elbow grease aka trashing out vacant units and scrubbing dirty bathrooms…property management is super glamorous 🙂 Clothing was my favorite part of the tidying process so if you feel stuck or overwhelmed, don’t hesitate to contact me. I would be delighted to help you!
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Thank you for all the tips. It is super helpful to hear from someone who has gone thru the process. I’ll start today after I fuel up on breakfast and hot tea… I’ll let you know if I get stuck and maybe need some advice/help. Thanks so much!
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Thank you for the tips on decluttering our closet. We have all of our clothes for all seasons in our closet; I like layers, so this has worked well for me over the years. Also, we have all of our hangers reversed right now (helps us identified what we’re not wearing), but your tips will help us get rid of more clothing. Thanks again!
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The reverse hanger trick is definitely one that works if most of your clothes are hanging up… I actually don’t have too much hanging up (especially now that I’ve purged and organized), so I don’t know that it would work well for me… Glad that you found some helpful tips in my post!
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I really need to do a purge of my closet. I haven’t bought new clothes in ages and keep wearing things I don’t like or that don’t fit properly. It would be nice to have some better clothes – maybe if I made space for them I could justify buying some 😀 Good luck with the purge!
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Thanks! Yes, if you are wearing things that don’t fit right, I doubt that they would “spark joy” so you should totally do a purge. I actually feel really good about the amount of stuff I got rid of, and I am really enjoying the nice organized clothing selection I have now. I still have way too much, but I’ll get there…
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