“Your home is living space not storage space.” – Francine Jay

Your home is living space not storage space – Francine Jay

This quote has changed my decluttering thought process forever!  Let me tell you how.

For years, I’ve been reading minimalist blogs, they motivate me to get rid of a few things here and there. It has helped me to some degree, but I’ve never been able to fully commit to the minimalist lifestyle.

I always thought I would miss all my stuff if I got rid of it.

I usually take a couple of garbage bags to Goodwill every month. I knew there must be a better way to finally rid myself and my family of excess clutter, junk, and unneeded items. It’s so hard to stay on top of this with new items bombarding us daily.

 A few weeks ago, I read the book “The life-changing magic of tidying up”  by Marie Kondo.  You can order Marie Kondo’s book here

She introduces a unique decluttering system called Konmari. Her unique tactics helps you focus on what you love and then narrow it down to the things that really, “spark joy” then you can let go of the rest.

This way of thinking has been life changing for me!

My closet has always been a place of contention in my mind. I knew I could get rid of more things, but when I would go through my clothing every few weeks trying to find things to discard, I would usually come up empty-handed.

Lightbulb moment, enter Kondomarie System.

She recommends that you pull every piece of clothing from your closet. Then you go and find any other clothing, coats, sweater, shoes etc. you have stored elsewhere and then place it all in one area. To begin, she says you need to pick up each item and hold it, then ask yourself does this “spark joy?”  When I first read this, I’ll have to admit, I thought it was kinda silly and I didn’t think that it could work. I had heard of this concept before, but I always thought that it would take to long to take everything out and then put it all back. Marie Kondo’s reasoning for doing this is to create a shocking experience for yourself when you realize how much stuff you actually have!

I decided to try it since what I had been doing wasn’t working very well.

To begin the the process, I pulled out all my tops, which I had organizing by color already, laid them on my bed with the hangers still intact. Then I pulled out all my bottoms and did the same thing, dresses, winter coats, jackets, etc. She tells you to dig up everything you own, in order to really see what you have accumulated.

When all of my belongings were laying there in one big pile in front of me, it was totally shocking to see how much stuff  I actually  had!!!

Starting with my shirts, I picked up the first one and right away I knew I loved that one, but the next one not so much, as I began to go through that looming pile, it began to become clearer and clearer which items “sparked joy” and which items did not. To my surprise and delight, I had my whole closet taken apart and put back together within two and a half hours.

I ended up with two giant black garbage bags full of gently used clothing to donate. My closet looks

so much better now! Finding things is so much easier and it’s less stressful getting dressed in the morning.

If you would have told me that I could have accomplished this huge win in such a short time, I would have done it years ago!