It’s true, I’m going minimal. It’s been a long time coming, but decluttering my closet was the first step towards my intentions of living simpler and making more room for joy. Let me start by giving you a little background. We’re a baseball family. My husband plays professional baseball in the minor league system, and because of that, we move three times a year. In our very first baseball season, we showed up to Greenville, SC, newly married, excited for our first season together, and with two large cars packed to the brim.
When I say to the brim, I mean you couldn’t have squeezed a penny in there. Cookbooks, lamps, home decor, full sets of our silverware, plates, bowls, small plates, pillows, placemats, televisions, 18 pairs of shoes, every single clothing item I owned (hundreds), and every kitchen appliance that we owned as well. Oh, and we were only planning on staying in Greenville for five months. The first time we unpacked, I thought to myself, “hmm, this is a lot of stuff, isn’t it” let out a little giggle, then continued to unpack. Fast-forward four years, and here I am, giving away or donating over half of our belongings and roughly 65% of my closet. Why? Because it was taking away from my ability to live.
By no means am I telling you to get rid of your things. I’m simply excited to share about the awakening that happened inside of me before, during, and after this process. Maybe it inspires you, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it makes you think before you buy another item, maybe it doesn’t. If it serves strictly as a piece of entertainment, I’m more than happy with that. If you’d like to see me decluttering my closet in real-time, and it’s really quite dramatic, I posted it onto my YouTube channel, here. I’ve enjoyed seeing the responses of people watching me talk myself into letting go of certain pieces.
It’s been about three weeks since I decluttered my closet, and I haven’t looked back once. In fact, I’ve decluttered even more items over the past few days. Aside from the fact that my laundry is much, much easier to handle, the best part of this process has been the change in mindset.
To put this into perspective, in high school, my goal every year was to attend school every day without repeating an outfit. Believe it or not, that’s what I was known for. It was an incredibly toxic mindset, and in my Youtube video, I use some pretty strong words such as greed, jealousy, and discontentment to describe the root of my clothing obsession. I was aware this process needed to happen, but I simply didn’t have the courage to face those demons straight on at the time.
How’d I do it?
I didn’t plan a thing. I didn’t tell anyone I was doing it. I just turned my camera on and started pulling items from my closet. The numbers still shock me: from 134 items to 47. Whew knew going minimal would be so invigorating and freeing? This won’t be my last piece on decluttering and living minimally, I can tell you that. It’s as if I unlocked a superpower that allowed me to immediately live with less stress, less mess, and more clarity and joy. Is that a bit dramatic? If you’re curious and maybe willing to give it a shot, here’s where to start.
- Count every single item in your closet. Undergarments can be excluded, along with shoes. Both of those categories are very minimal for me, but some people need more than others depending on their circumstances.
- Set a goal number. I went with 40-ish: 10-15 tops, 5-10 bottoms, a few sweaters, leggings, shorts, and a winter coat.
- Round 1: Pull duplicates, uncomfortable pieces, any items that don’t fit, pieces that you haven’t worn in the past six months, and specialty items that you’re saving “just in case.”
- Round 2: Go back through the items left and make sure they’re worth keeping. I got rid of about eight items in round two; mostly items I kept because of attachment problems, ha.
- Donate or give away. Think of your friends, sisters, families at church or school, there is almost always someone who needs clothing if you do some digging. If no one comes to mind, search thrift shops near you, find their drop-off schedule, and follow their COVID precautions at drop-off.
- Decluttering your closet doesn’t have to end here. Look into sustainable and ethical clothing shops and strive for that capsule wardrobe.
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