Phase 1: The Great Clothing Purge, Pt. 1

Whoaaa. I’ve had this in my drafts folder forEVER. And I still can’t find a way to get my pictures from my camera to my computer. This is ridiculous. So I’m just going to publish as is, and update as soon as I find that stupid CD, or buy another one, or figure out some other way to get those pictures on my phone. Geez.

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On Wednesday, I shared why I want to tidy my home with you. Today, I can’t wait to show you the beginning of the first phase – our clothes! Yes, just the beginning. It’s probably common, but I just didn’t realize how many clothes we had accumulated as just a family of three.

This past winter, I decided I was going to have a “capsule” wardrobe. I went through my clothes and picked out only those items which “went” with all my other clothes. I felt like I had done a pretty good job. So when I pulled out a garbage bag yesterday and piled all my clothes on the bed, I was sure I wouldn’t have anything to give away. But then I noticed that dress. The one that I love the fit and style, but hate the color on me. It makes me look drab. And then I saw the other dress, whose color I also hate wearing. And then that button up shirt, you know, the one that everyone has to have? But that I never wear. And slowly at first, then with more energy, clothes started filling the garbage bag. Between scarves, purses, and clothes from the closet and dresser, I filled up an entire garbage bag. It felt great.

Next, I set myself to the task of putting everything away. It seemed daunting, having to put all of my clothes away at once, but I was determined to finish this the same day. I started with my dresser. As I was folding (KonMari style), I noticed something unusual. I have 7 drawers in my dresser; 3 tiny ones for personal clothes, then 4 average size ones. I originally had them organized thusly: 1 drawer for bottoms, 1 for tops, 1 for out of season, 1 for maternity, 1 tiny drawer each for bras, socks, underwear. The drawers were pretty stuffed originally and while I expected them to be roomier after getting rid of an entire garbage bag full of clothes, I was not expecting to end up with two completely empty drawers! That’s right, after purging and then folding and organizing KonMari style, I was able to combine out of season clothes with “can’t wear that while pregnant” clothes, as well as combine socks and underwear into one drawer, leaving me with 1 empty tiny drawer and 1 empty larger drawer. It’s hard to describe how excited this makes me, every time I think about it. Sometimes I open the empty drawers just to look at them, they give me so much peace.

After dancing a little about the freedom in my dresser, I turned my attention to our closet. Ryan and I share a closet and he is not currently participating in this purge. Maybe he will one day, maybe he won’t, that’s his decision. Since nothing changed in his clothes, and he takes up 90% of the closet, I was sure there wouldn’t be much of a change. Nevertheless, I set to work rehanging all of his clothes, starting with the heaviest/longest/darkest items and working my way to the left. Once his clothes were reorganized, I put my clothes back in. This is where I differed a bit from the strict KonMari Method. Those who have read the book know that Kondo recommends having clothes from heaviest to lightest, starting at the left and going right. Since Ryan and I share a closet though, and it is one of those single bar standard ones, not a walk-in, I had a mini dilemma. The closet just didn’t look right when I started over with my heaviest clothes beside his lightest ones. It felt unbalanced. Plus, we keep my hope chest in the closet right now and I hate seeing clothes pooled on top of it, which is what would have happened if I had hung my maxi dresses to the left of the rest of my clothes. So in order to not lose the flow, I decided to work backwards. I hung *my* heaviest clothes to the right of the closet, and worked towards the left. I felt like that balanced the closet out the best, starting heavy at the left, working over to the lightest clothes and then starting the slope back towards heavy again on the right. Taking a step back, that was totally the right decision for us.

Later that day while Lucy slept, I turned my attention towards *her* dresser and closet. But that is a post for a later day.