I am a hoarder.
I never used to admit it, I preferred the term ‘sentimental’ but when my friend sent me this GIF saying ‘THIS IS YOUU!!!’ I couldn’t deny it any longer. She was right.
Another friend recommended a book to me (it wasn’t an intervention, I promise) called ‘The life-changing magic of tidying up’ by Marie Kondo. Now, let me tell you about Marie Kondo. She is a super-tidier. Her job is to teach people how to tidy and live simpler lives. She’s more than zero waste, she’s zero EVERYTHING. We wouldn’t be friends – she’d probably try and throw me away – but she has taught me a thing or two.
When you read her book you can’t resist the urge to sort through alllll your stuff and throw away everything you don’t need.
I had known I needed to de-clutter for a while, so now after acquiring some new Christmas presents and the boxing day sales beginning, I thought it was a good time to make some space.
The perfect wardrobe
I started with my wardrobe because that’s my biggest problem area. I tend to struggle with throwing out clothes for a few reasons. Firstly, fashion goes in circles so my old clothes may just come back on-trend. Secondly, you never know whether they might be useful for fancy dress one day!
When I think about it, these are both stupid reasons – fashion takes ages to come back around, and I can’t even remember the last fancy dress party I went to.
I surprised myself. I had 6 bin bags full of clothes, shoes and bags to take to the charity shop, and somehow still a wardrobe sufficiently full of clothes.
I realised how much I had been feeding into such a damaging industry
Once I tied the knot of the final charity bag, it dawned on me that my new friend Marie was right, this really is life-changing! My mindset was completely changed. The majority of items that I was getting rid of were low cost, low quality, fast fashion. I realised how much I had been feeding into such a damaging industry, all for me to just throw the clothes away after a few wears.
It was the perfect time to have a mass clearout. The bargains of boxing day and January sales are usually very tempting, but this year I think I’ll give them a miss. All I need to do is picture those 6 bags full of clothes I didn’t wear and I’ll quite easily walk-on.
The life-changing magic of tidying up
So my challenge to you before you hit the shops is to try the clear-out for yourself. You’ll be surprised at how much you already have, and it might just change your life.
Here’s how I did it, the Marie Kondo way:
- Get everything out of your wardrobe. I piled it all on the bed!
- Try and sort the clothes into categories, e.g jeans, jumpers, t-shirts etc. so that you know how much you have of each type. You’ll laugh at yourself for ever saying ‘I have nothing to wear!’
- Marie Kondo says to hold each item in your hand and ask yourself ‘does this spark joy?’, it’s a bit epic, but take it with a pinch of salt. Basically, just make sure you look at every item individually and think if you really want it or if it could have a better home in someone else’s wardrobe!
- Have two bags, one to go to recycling, and the other to go to the charity shop. The items you’ll put in the recycling bag will be things that are too worn to give to someone else. Maybe it has holes in it, or is a bit too musty.
- Put the items you have chosen back into your wardrobe, and try and keep them in their categories as this will help you be aware of how much you already have, so when you’re considering whether to buy that new pair of jeans you’ll know if the 7 pairs you already own are enough…