Clothing Edit

 

I love clothes. I’ve hung on to all my favorites from high school, that one year at college, and my early 20’s. The goal, that I assume most have, some day they will fit again.

It is 2021 and Marie Kondo was all over my tv and my brain. The idea of having a streamlined, beautiful space for my clothes to live is everything I wanted in this moment. The problem: Marie’s method requires me to get rid of all the things that don’t fit me right now. When someday comes, new clothes can too. I put off going through my closet (and totes in storage) for so long because of  this. Each piece I own is unique, and there will never be another one again. If I have held on to it thing long, it is special and loved. Irreplaceable.

After dealing with this struggle for quite a while, it was finally time. The realization came, even if I did fit into these clothes again, would I even wear them? There was a lot of cleavage in my younger days. More than I would be comfortable with now. Putting the Kon-Marie method to the test, I gathered every single piece of clothing I owned. All of it. Anything forgotten automatically goes. 

Looking at the mountain of clothes laid out on our kitchen table, I had to laugh. It is ridiculous for one person to own this much clothing. Even more so, since 80% of the time I am in a work polo shirt or pajamas.

I held each item in my hand. I was easy to know what brough me joy. I was honest with myself about what I would never wear again. Anything showing significant signs of time, I thanked for being part of my life, and let it go.

By the time I finished the pile leaving my home, was almost twice as big as what was staying. Three empty totes. Three totes of clothes that I had carried with me all these years, all the houses, all the states. I’m writing this in 2023 reflecting, so I can’t say for sure, but my memory is telling me less than 10 of those items stayed.

  

There was a lightness in my space. Everything fits with room to grown. It was so much easier to get dressed when my only options were ones I wanted to wear. No longer was I carrying around past clothing clutter, taking up valuable space in my home, my mind and my life.

From left to right I hung work shirts, any shirts that were not casual (such as athletic wear or t-shirts). Tank tops, short sleeves, long sleeves. Followed by skirts, sweaters, dresses, and lastly coats. As you can see I have a baby gate that kept our youngest from getting underneath and pulling it all down. (if you curious about the curtains see my closet nursery post).

My dresser has 4 drawers. The top has underwear, work socks, and regular socks folded and separated with whatever basket and box I could find that fit. The best thing Marie taught me was not to roll my socks together, but fold them. For ankle socks, just fold in half. For longer socks, fold in thirds with the toes facing in.

The next drawer I did tops. Using the tri-fold method of folding: under shirts went to the left, tank tops in the middle, and t-shirts on the right.

The third drawer had jeans on the left and leggings on the right. Folded in thirds and then in half, the goal is to make a triangle that can be vertically filed.

My bottom drawer was for pajamas, folded in the same way as my other tops and bottoms. Bras were kept in the bottom drawer of my best side table. This has always worked best for me because the drawer is the perfect size. I could not have been happier with the way things turned out. I was surprised how much pressure I was carrying to fit in those out of style clothes someday. It was a very real spark of joy.