So, as I’ve mentioned, I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up several months ago. At the time I thought it sounded like a great idea, but I have small kids, and a husband who wasn’t really thrilled with the idea, and plenty of other things going on. Making it a reality just didn’t feel like something I could do.

But our house is small and our stuff is plentiful and I kept finding myself frustrated at the situation. Anytime we got something new it felt like a monumental feat to make space for it. Finding infrequently used items was becoming more difficult. The garage was becoming unusable. It was time to KonMari this house.

Now the author, Marie Kondo, has a very specific method and order to do the tidying. While skeptical of some of the specifics, I figured if I don’t do it the way she says I’ll never know for sure if it works or not.

So I started with the first category: clothes. This is my closet before:

Compared to many closets, mine is pretty pared down. Since discovering the concept of the capsule wardrobe I’ve really tried to embrace the idea of fewer clothes and this past summer I was able to slim down my wardrobe pretty significantly. But I knew there were still some things that didn’t need to be in there.

And here is everything out of the closet and on the bed.

Marie Kondo says you have to put everything out on the floor (or bed, in this case) and touch each item to decide if it’s something that “sparks joy.” If it does, you keep it. If it doesn’t, you get rid of it. I was a little skeptical of Marie Kondo’s insistence that I ask “Does this spark joy” for everything in my closet. I don’t often think that hard about how I feel about my clothes. But it turned out to be a pretty helpful question.

Old ratty t-shirts that I kept around in case I needed them (For what? Painting? Repairing the car? Some other activity that I never do?), socks with holes, a random assortment of tank tops that I kept for layering even though they didn’t fit that well. None of these things sparked joy.

Surprisingly, I also discovered that there were several other perfectly nice things that didn’t spark joy either. Shirts that were pretty, but always full of static, or that felt scratchy, or that I just never had occasion to wear. If I don’t feel like I can crawl around on the floor in it, I don’t want to wear it.

So I did what Marie Kondo said and went though every item. I ended up with two garbage bags of things to donate.

The next step was to put everything away. Marie Kondo spends a lot of time describing how clothes should be folded and stored. Another thing I rolled my eyes at a little while reading the book. But she says that a large percentage of people’s storage problems would be solved if they would only learn to fold properly. I decided if I’m going to do this method I might as well do it right.

So here are my drawers:

Just as I expected, folding all those clothes is a pain.

But …

What!? What?! Look at that empty closet! I have a handful of hanging clothes on the one side, but most of it is just empty space. I am envisioning craft storage, my own little work space, maybe even a drop down desk! I haven’t had a good space for my crafts and projects since my children were born. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!

Who knows. Maybe this really is life changing.

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Linking up with Tina and the other ladies at Tuesday Talk.