Hey girl, at least KonMari your clothes!
In this recent life update post, I told you about how I love the effect of KonMari on my clothes. It has resulted in me having the best clothing collection ever. I don’t have the 80-20 thing going on. I don’t wear 20% of my wardrobe 80% of the time. I don’t have clothes I don’t love. Every single piece is cherished. Every single piece I wanna wear every day.
And that’s the kind of wardrobe you should have. One that makes your heart swell with joy when you look at all your beautiful, beautiful clothes. Every piece fits like a dream. Every piece flatters your body AND your personality. Every piece makes you feel like a goddamn goddess.
There are no pieces that you’re waiting to wear when you lose weight. No pieces still with their tags on, in shopping bags at the bottom of your closet. You’re feeling guilty reading this because you have such pieces in your closet, amirite?
In this post, I’m going to show you how to stop that once and for all. The best way is by KonMari-ing your clothes. Because once you do that, not only do you have a collection that sparks joy, but also when you buy new clothes, you won’t buy something you’ll go home and regret getting. Because the only deciding factor you’re going to use in decluttering your wardrobe and buying new clothes is: “Does this spark joy?”.
Also, KonMari-ing your clothes is the first step in the KonMari method of tidying your home. It’s the first category she {Marie Kondo, founder of KonMari} asks you to start with. So even if you were deciding to try the KonMari method for your entire house, you can follow this blog post and start with your clothes. It won’t spoil your KonMari flow if you decided to do the entire home later.
If you don’t ever want to do the KonMari method for your house, I want you to do it at least for your clothes. Because it’s so crucial you have a collection you love to death and that makes you feel good no matter what you pull out of your wardrobe any given day.
And there are only two steps to it! So let’s begin.
Step 1: Remove all your clothes out on the floor.
Yes, ALL your clothes. Every single item. Underwear. Socks. Go fish out the clothes from the laundry basket. Ask for clothes back from your sister or friend who borrowed them. The point is to do all of them at once and get you in the flow of knowing what sparks joy. It’ll be irritating if you find a dress or top later.
So just make a big, big pile of your clothes on your bed or floor. As Marie Kondo says, and I’m paraphrasing here, when you see all your clothes in one gigantic pile, you realize just how many clothes you really have. And then you wanna slap yourself for hoarding so many. Okay, she didn’t say the slapping yourself part. I added that.
P.S: you can do clothing category by category, too. So you can start with all your tops and bottoms, then dresses, jackets, and so on. But I liked doing them all at once.
Step 2: Touch each piece and ask yourself if it sparks joy.
Sparking joy means that it makes you feel that zing of happiness when you touch it. You just have to mentally ask yourself- does this spark joy? And you’ll hear your heart say a distinct “yes” or “no”. It’s so on point it’s almost a little creepy.
The two imperative rules for this bit are: 1) you MUST touch it, and 2) it must spark joy for you to keep it. Also, LISTEN TO YOUR HEART DON’T LISTEN TO YOUR BRAIN. The heart will say, “no, it doesn’t spark joy”, while the brain will cry, “BUT IT’S SO EXPENSIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE”, or “BUT IT’S SO BYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTIFULLLL”. Or it might even look really good on you. But that still doesn’t mean that it will spark joy. So, keep only the clothes that spark joy.
And that’s it! That’s how you KonMari your clothes! Keep the ones that spark joy when you touch them and ask yourself the question, and donate the ones that don’t. Don’t do this with clothes hanging in your closet. You must take them all out, then pick up each one and ask yourself if it sparks joy. You can do this with your clothes, hats, scarves, bags, jewellery, and shoes.
If you really don’t know if a certain piece sparks joy or not, wear it, then ask the question. You’ll know. For me, if I’m really confused about a piece, I leave it in my wardrobe, then a few weeks later I remove it, hold it, and ask myself if it sparks joy.
When you’re doing it, you might realize so many of your clothes don’t make you happy. You might be alarmed at how many clothes are in the ‘no’ pile. You might get scared that you won’t have any clothes left to wear by the end of the process.
That’s okay. Look, it’s better to have even very few clothes that actually make you crazy happy than a lot of clothes that don’t make you happy at all. And you can always buy more clothes that spark joy.
This sparking joy business is a great way to firstly, train your heart or intuition to know what makes you happy, and secondly, it’s a great way to know exactly what you like. After doing a KonMari, the results may really surprise you. Let me give you an example. I had a LOT of statement necklaces. Like maybe 15 to 20. After KonMari-ing them, I was left with just four. And guess what? ALL of them have flowers on them. So I realized, hey, I really like flowers on a statement necklace. Weird but cool, huh?
So give this a try for yourself. And remember- when you go shopping after you’ve KonMari’d your clothes, you must touch or try on an item and ask yourself if it sparks joy. Only if it does, buy it. Trust me, it makes the shopping process soooooo much easier. You don’t need to ask a friend or your mom how something looks, just ask your heart if it sparks joy. If it’s a yes, get it. Easy, right? And that’s exactly how I came to have a clothing collection that sparks joy.
Please note- you will reach a point of saturation. You’ll know it when you have enough clothes. As a fashion blogger and someone who is genuinely mad about clothes, I do have more than the normal share than most women, but I’m not ashamed of having so many. Because they all spark joy. So as Marie Kondo says, if something sparks joy, even if you have a large collection of it, keep it with confidence.
I really hope you give this method a try for your clothes. You’ll train yourself to know what makes you happy. You’ll end up with a style collection that is very uniquely you and that you’re proud of. You’ll get compliments very often on what you’re wearing.
And who knows, maybe you’ll end up doing the whole KonMari method for all the things in your home, which is just the best thing ever. Leaves your mind feeling so peaceful. {Click here to know how KonMari-ing all my stuff changed my life.}
If you want to do it for all your stuff, too, I highly recommend you follow her books The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up and the Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up (The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up). DON’T try to do it by watching the Netflix show. Just don’t.
Dress: Khaleeji Girl Kouture, Earrings: from India, Bangles: Gifted, Watch & Bag: Parfois, Shoes: New Look, Photos: Arif Feroze
If you KonMari your clothes, please let me know what the results were or how you feel now. Leave me a comment on this blog or reach out to me on my Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to hear about your results!
Until next time
xoxo #OutfitPost #KonMari
