Clothing - Part One

The first step is clothing. Marie says you have to get everything from the category out, all at once before you start deciding what you'll keep. I have TONS of clothes. My weight has veered from 25 stone to 13½ stone over the last few years, and whilst I've got rid of the biggest clothes, I still have way too many, this is my wardrobe after a quick sort out when I got some new hangers...

...still stuffed to bursting point, with clothes over the doors, plus other clothes in other wardrobes, and in drawers! Here is the rather terrifying pile of clothes I found around the house. Bear in mind I live in jeans and t-shirts!

Time for honesty here, it took me nearly a fortnight from first blogging and deciding to give this a go to getting those clothes on the bed, and it's taking me just over a week to finally get through them all. It WAS hard to figure out what sparked joy for me, as not a lot did, but I started with the clothes I wear a lot, that I know I like, and I went with the warm, friendly feeling I had with those as a starting point.

I also tried on a lot of the clothes, I know that Marie says you shouldn't really do that, but as my clothes are all sorts of sizes, I had to, as I had to see them on to see if they really did spark joy or not. This also helped me realise why a lot of clothes I really like don't get worn, as it became obvious when putting them on that they were uncomfortable, didn't look good, or didn't suit me. Goodbye, and big thank you's to quite a lot of clothes I have for a very long time!

So after just over a week, here is my wardrobe now - my clothes can breathe in there now. I know that everything in there fits me, it's not a game of russian roulette every time I open the door.

This is what the pile looks like now, all that's left are my t-shirts. I love my t-shirts, and these are what I spend my time wearing, so I'm going to be keeping most of them, but they've been beautifully folded in their drawer since I read the book four years ago anyway! The ottoman and chest of drawers full of folded clothes have been reduced to that washing basket in front of the bed. 

I do hope that my local charity shops are feeling a bit empty, as they have quite a bit heading their way!

I feel so proud of myself for getting this done, I know it's taken a while, but it's done, and it doesn't need doing again - that feels pretty good! Next step is to get everything freshly washed and then I can get folding :o)

Guessing buying those hangers in preparation was a wee bit premature though eh? Oops!

The Journey So Far

I've been starting to play around the edges of the KonMari method - have just realised the method has the same initials as me, that has to be a good omen - for the last few days after finally catching up with the show on Netflix. I'll be honest, at first I was just as overwhelmed as I was with the book, but by the end of the series I was feeling seriously fired up, although still a bit daunted by tackling this from where I am now.

I'll admit straight away I have not started properly. I should have taken all my clothes out and sorted from there. I decided to start off very small and see how I went. Over the last few days I have sorted out my socks, not necessarily keeping those that spark joy, more a first run of getting rid of those with holes, single socks and the pairs I hate. The survivors are now taking up a third of a drawer instead of a whole one, all nicely folded. I did the same with bras and knickers, and then moved onto my wardrobe. Once again this was more of a pre-emptive strike. I'd bought new hangers, and so went through the wardrobe to replace the old hangers, and throwing out clothes I knew 100% I didn't want. Whilst doing that, I did have some items of clothing that I was unsure about and so practiced holding them and seeing if this spark joy thing was even a thing. It did help me decide on a few things, and weirdly enough, thanking those things before putting them aside does help.

I've also bought Marie's new book, and reading that has helped explain in more depth some of the concepts I was struggling with, like how you decide if practical items spark joy. I've found a checklist which breaks down the "komono" section into smaller, more manageable ones to help cope with the enormity of that task. I have friends who are feeling like they want to give it a go too. There's no reason for me not to give this a go, just follow the steps and see where they take me, in fact, after doing the few practice/pretend runs on my clothes I do feel ready to start properly, get the whole lot out, pile 'em on my bed and go for it. 

Little steps so far:

Feeling Positive

There are several reasons why the KonMari method has intrigued me, and made me believe that I can finally have a tidy and organised house. I guess everyone has different reasons for wanting to de-clutter, but for me, many years of half-hearted tidies, two long term partners leaving the house and a tendency to keep everything has left me living in a three bedroom house with two unusable bedrooms, a cupboard under the stairs I can't get into, boxes of "stuff" waiting to be put away or thrown away and no idea whatsoever how to change the situation.

One big reason in my belief is that it's a step by step method. I have instructions to follow, if I follow those instructions, I will reach the end. For someone who doesn't even know where to start, knowing there will be a definite end, and steps to follow to get there is wonderful.

Another reason is that I am totally on board with the concept of only keeping things that spark joy. Right now, if I walk around the house I feel anger mostly, but also guilt, sadness and a heaviness at the sheer amount of stuff everywhere. I can very definitely feel the negatives of having clutter, so of course it makes sense that not having stuff everywhere makes you happy, that's obvious, but by only keeping things that spark joy, any part of my home will make me happy, as nothing is there that isn't sparking joy.

The sparking joy gives another reason I like this whole method. Usually when I try and have a sort out I decide an item's fate on whether I need it or not. This means I get bogged down as I want to keep things I don't "need" and then feel bad for keeping things, which always leads to me giving up all disheartened at being such a hoarder. By judging items on the joy they spark, it should make those decisions easier - of course, this does depend on me being able to identify that spark...time will tell! Without that I'm screwed :/

So...that's why I think I might actually be able to do this, and it could be interesting to chart my progress, and see what issues arise, what's easy, what's not and if autism is too great a challenge for KonMari!

So....Can I Do A Kondo?

I'm sure I'm not the only person who's become rather enamoured of Marie Kondo and her methods of tidying. As someone who is a hoarder of a quite impressive level, with the added bonus of autism messing with my executive function, the levels of clutter and general stuff in my house is rather overwhelming. So overwhelming in fact that I had no idea where to even begin despite getting angry and upset at the state of my house. 

I first became aware of KonMari when I read her first book about 3 years ago, I managed to fold my t-shirts, and that was about it. Whilst I thought the book had some good ideas, I wasn't completely convinced, feeling especially stressed by the "komono" category of miscellany - which is around 99% of the house! So when her series appeared on Netfix I didn't immediately bother watching, that's how convinced I was at the time that I was a lost cause! Well, now I've watched, and actually seeing her methods in action, on houses with just as much clutter as mine, has actually got me feeling inspired to give it a go, yep, really!

So, as blogging has helped in the past to keep me inspired and motivated, I figured I may as well document my progress like this. Right now I have faith in Marie Kondo, only time will tell if I still love her at the end of this, or if I end up sobbing and rocking in a nest of never-ending junk...