I meant to purge my belongings over the course of the month of March, one subcategory per day according to Marie Kondo’s method of organizing. As I started thinking about it and when I realized how fun this process was going to be, I couldn’t resist and finished three days later, before March had even begun.
The KonMari method, as it’s called, calls for you to do this task quickly, anyway. It’s better that way.
I touched each and every single item I owned and decided whether it sparked joy. If it didn’t spark joy, did I at least use it? Then I made a decision to keep, sell, donate, recycle, or throw away the item.
Most of the stuff that I thanked for its service and let go, I threw away. I donated one medium sized box of clothes and sold nothing.
Here’s my inventory. I think it’s less stuff than the average person in the United States. Do you have more clothes than me?
Category 1 – Clothing
Tops
Sweatshirts. 4/7 [This means I kept four out of the seven I had.]
Sweaters – 5/7
Work out tops – 6/7
Tank tops – 7/10
Cardigans – 4/5
Long-sleeved shirt – 3/3
Long-sleeved shirts lounge – 2/4
Short-sleeved shirts – 6/7
Bottoms
Jeans – 3/3
Capri pants – 1/1
Workout pants – 5/5
Pajamas bottoms – 3/3
Jean shorts – 1/1
Skirts – 3/4
Snow pants – 1/1
Hung clothes
Dresses – 34/40. [You can tell what I wear most of the time!]
Socks
Tights – 10/12
Socks – 18/19
Bags
Cloth grocery bags – 7/8. [I could have been more brutal in my culling here as I only use two of these every time I grocery shop, but I like having bags for some reason.]
Purses – 6/6
Accessories
Scarves – 7/7 [I don’t wear these, but I think they look pretty on the hanger in my closet.]
Shoes
Boots – 3/3
Gym shoes – 1/1
Heels – 2/2
Flats – 1/2
Flip-flops – 1/1
Casual shoes – 1/1
Books
This was an easy category because all of my books come from the library. I have one book a friend lent me and a book on self publishing I found in a free pile. I kept both of them.
Papers
I had a surprising amount of paper. I took pictures of ones I might possibly need in the future and threw out a lot. This step felt great.
Miscellaneous
Instead of going into each subcategory here, I went space by space. I sorted the bathroom cabinet and the kitchen with the fridge, cabinets, and pantry, and the hall closets with the over-the-counter medicine, extra toiletries, and cleaning supplies. Touching everything and assessing joy.
Oh, it was glorious. Thanks for asking.
Sentimental
I have some old diaries that I decided to keep and I kept all my pictures.
Clean
That’s the end of the purge! After that, I moved all my furniture and swept and dusted and mopped and vacuumed and bought and put up some pretty lights.
Happiness is a house that’s filled with possessions that bring you joy. Now I have a list of items for my wants list to make the space better. Fun stuff all around. I recommend you get her book and do the same. I’m itching to do it again.
The next time I visit my parents, I’m going to scour their house for my stuff and do the purge again. I know I have more junk I’ve stored there.
Nice article. I like to collect stuff (love ebay), but our cozy apartment and vigilant girlfriend keeps me from collecting too much. But everything I really care about (including said girlfriend) could be fit into my car if we every needed to make a quick move.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything off ebay.
With regard to books… Don’t you ever wish to read a book that isn’t available at your library? If so, what do you do? Curious because I’d love to avoid the cost of books if possible…
Yes, occasionally my book club will pick a book that’s not available at my library. There’s an option for my library to borrow from other libraries. If that doesn’t work, or doesn’t work in time, I will buy the book. It happens perhaps once every two years or so. I never buy the physical book though, only the ebook.
The bag thing is universal! My Dad does it and I do it. Bags full of bags. I guess you never know😂. I wasn’t surprised you kept all your purses (women love purses!).
In the interests of brutal honesty, I did look for a lingerie category in your list BUT you are too classy for that (obviously I’m not classy 😂).
Great idea though and you’ve inspired me. I have day dreams of living in a CamperVan (RV) in the middle future so this would be good prep for that.
Every single purse I own was a gift from my mother or sister. I’m happy to own them, but I don’t seek them.
I had that category in initially and my beta reader (my sister) was like, “uh, take that out.” Haha.
“I wasn’t surprised you kept all your purses (women love purses!).”
Generalizations like this spark anger in me. There are 3.8 billion women on earth. That’s 3.8 billion different brains, 3.8 billion different experiences, and 3.8 billion different opinions on purses. Some are brain surgeons. Some are plumbers. Some are garbage collectors. Some are homeless. Some are presidents. Some are prisoners. Some wish “women’s” clothes were made with large enough pockets that they didn’t have to carry their belongings on their shoulder.
I wish I had been a brain surgeon.
I did the KonMari process too. To maintain it, I have a one-in one-out rule. If I buy something new, I must get rid of a similar old item. Even better, sometimes I buy one thing and discard two things.
Also, my OCD really wants all of your closet hangers to be the same color.
Really? The colorful hangers make me happy. 🙂
I’m jealous, but then again I notice you didn’t have a lot, so you didn’t have to get rid of much. That’s one of the benefits of an occasional move, I think. Sometimes I have to tell myself ‘pretend you’re moving’ or ‘pretend you’re dying in a few months and your family has to deal with this stuff and won’t have the same attachments to this random stuff
Oooh, pretend you’re dying in a couple of months is so morbid. I like it. Lol
I have told you sometime back, this is my target for next 3 months, I could separate the stuff that is required (not what gives me joy) and extra stuff but the main problem is throwing them or giving away. After spending so much on buying them (I don’t do unnecessary shopping now but all the stuff I bought before) toughest part is discarding them.
I wait for giving them to the needy but hard to find the right person to give away, they are still lying with me in the house. Any suggestions?
It’s sunk cost. It doesn’t matter how much you spent on them. It will bring you more joy to discard things you don’t need!
What about your earring collection? I assume they all spark joy from your travels! And tights are for wearing dresses in the winter?
Oh, I didn’t throw away any of my earrings. That’s sacrilege! And yes, tights are so your legs aren’t so cold in the winter when you’re wearing dresses. 🙂
Your experience was so interesting to read: thank you!
This entire topic – of keeping because useful vs keeping because one likes it vs keeping just because – fascinates me.
For years now I weigh very carefully anything I buy (except food) based on the financial concept of “cost of carry.” In essence, there is a cost to buy something, but there’s also an ongoing cost to own it. With possessions the ownership “costs” are: where do I store it? can I access it easily? am I forever moving it around so my cleaner (ok … you got me: it’s me) can dust / clean / vaccuum?
This alone has saved me so much money from not buying articles.
I realised too that items one uses very rarely should be borrowed (or bought then sold*** on eBay or Amazon or Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree or NextDoor)
*** but don’t fall into the trap of never finding the time to sell the item …
Things one uses all the time, every day, are worth buying. In my opinion.
Every year I (try to) go through every closet in every room. I always find things to donate or sell or just bin.
I started this year’s go-through with a twist: “if I were moving RIGHT NOW, what would I do with this item?” This is proving tremendously helpful to massively shrink what goes back in the closets :).
Love your blog / website articles – please keep writing!
PS. A tip I read in a magazine regarding keeping / donating / binning clothes: everything that’s on a hanger (hanger? one’s for aeroplanes the other for clothes but …) turn the hangar round so it’s harder to get off the rail. When you wear something, turn it’s hanger the normal way round. In 6- or 12-months time, it’s immediately apparent what you don’t wear and can donate / bin / sell.
I just googled it. It’s clothes hanger and plane hangar. 🙂
Now I know 🙂 – thanks!
Nice post. I like the bathroom mirror lights! I hate blinding myself with overhead lights when I use the bathroom after dark. What else is on your list to make your space better? Do you have any houseplants?
I do have houseplants! I’m currently looking for a jewelry armoire to store all my earrings and such. I’d also like a new rug and new vacuum cleaner. 🙂
My favorite part of this blog is the toothbrush you are holding in the bathroom picture. You must have been testing it for a spark of joy and then spontaneously took the photo. Did it survive the test?
I am stuck halfway through Marie Kondo’s book, I want to finish before I do the cleaning step, I think a lot of clothes are going to go when I get around to it though.
No, my travel toothbrush didn’t make the cut.
What step are you stuck at?
I’m at the halfway mark, where you are not supposed to let your family get involved in the tidying task: “Don’t let your family see”. But I mostly only read books on Audible, so that translates to 3 hours and 40 minutes from the finish line.
Really enjoyed reading! It inspired me to start purging my own belongings. And I want to put lights in my bathroom too! Lol
It’s been over a month since I did it and it’s still really satisfying to look at my closets. 🙂