The Life Changing Weekend I Tidied Up

Throughout this past year I have been feeling more and more cluttered in my personal life. I feel stressed and disorganized. The weird thing is that I live in the largest apartment I have ever lived. Thats when I started realizing that I also own the most I have ever owned. Buying things was a hobby of mine and every time I traveled I liked to buy something that represented that place. This becomes a lot when you travel as often as I do.

So I started getting interested in minimalism. I'm the opposite of that but, hey, a girl can dream right? I purchased Marie Kondo's book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I decided that I was going to take this serious. Some of you already saw my pre-cleanup that I did earlier this year but now it's the real thing. I highlighted key points, ear marked important pages, and made sure not to begin tidying up until I finished reading the entire book. Once completed, I booked an entire weekend to tidy up my apartment. Keep in mind, I did not touch my boyfriends property.

The Results?

For Clothing alone I got rid of 40 tops, 13 bottoms, 4 dresses, 4 pairs of gloves, 3 hats, 7 scarves, 4 bags, 6 pairs of shoes, 2 jackets, 5 bathing suits, 3 bathing suit cover ups. Here are some embarrassing, yet impressive photos of those clothes I donated.

I ended up clearing out a large IKEA blue bag full just from the kitchen. The Refrigerator was fun too. You'll enjoy throwing out the numerous saices and condiments that don't bring you joy.

The rest of the home was mostly trash. Clothing was the first step and took a good amount of time. However, the bathroom and photos took the longest. I can't believe how much hotel samples and other small crap I accumulated in the bathroom. I poured all of the hotel shampoos into my large shampoo bottle, combined all ibuprofen into one bottle, and threw away all the makeup that I never use. I can imagine many of you will have a hard time parting with photos that you tie to memories. This was easier for me than I thought. Realistically, I don't ever look at my photo albums or books and hardly ever go through my box of photos. So why keep them? I have those memories in my head. I threw away every photo book I made because all of those photos are saved digitally. As for the old photos, I followed the Konmari method and truly kept about 1 or 2 from each significant event. only the best were kept. And these I can use as a rotation on my wall I have of photos. The best part about this was that all the existing photos fit in a very tiny box.

I thought I had gone through the entire house by the end of that weekend but strangely enough I still found items, hidden in plain site, that I completely overlooked that weekend. That weekend was so life changing for me that it sparked joy in me wanting even less. I am still going through my drawers and cabinets and challenging myself to clear out more. I already have a large box full of items to donate. At the end of the weekend I had approximately 20 bags of donations along with a few furniture items.

I don't shop the same either. I no longer buy things on impulse. I know what I need and I spend a lot of time and effort making sure I find the right one. This past weekend I managed to find a pair of black boots that I have been looking for for years. These 1 pair of boots were able to replace 2 pairs I had at home. That means I successfully downsized again. This has changed how I see holidays too. I really don't like bringing more into the home and that includes gifts.

It felt refreshing to get these things out of the home. I know it sounds weird but having less items in your home, and only being surrounded by items that bring joy really does make a difference. Take some time to reflect on the amount of things you bring into your home daily. Many women are addicted to fast fashion and feel they need to buy a new outfit all the time. It's really heartbreaking how much we all waste and buy just because we are in a routine of buying. I challenge you to slow down your spending and question why you bought everything you have. You will save tons of money if you can get behind this way of thinking. If anything, just read the book and decide from there.

About the book, the first half of the book is some background information on Marie Kondo and how she perfected her method. I started losing steam because so much of it was background and I questioned if it was all hype and no true solution. Its not until the last half of the book that she starts explaining the process. Just read the whole thing. You'll understand once you are finished.

If you are interested in this book then do me a favor and buy it from the links below. It's the same price for you but you'd be doing me a solid by allowing me to earn a tiny bit of cash from recommending it.

Get the ebook here

Get the regular book here