The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

You guys, I drank the koolaid that is the KonMari method and I have to admit, I am a true convert.

For those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about: I'm referring to the KonMari Method from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Basically, the book shares the Japanese art of decluttering.

For a quick recap the method most simply stated is this: keep only things in your life that spark joy.

The long version of that means you'll be standing in your bedroom surrounded by every single piece of clothing that you own, running your fingers over the fabric, ruminating over the memories you've had in the shirt, and trying to decide exactly how this piece of clothing makes you feel.

It's all very new age-y and you feel incredibly silly during the entire process, especially when you're made to thank the clothing you're giving away, but honestly, I got super into it.

The KonMari method is supposed to declutter every aspect of your home, but Marie Kondo suggests you start with clothing first. Shauna is a now self-proclaimed minimalist and offered to help me through this gargantuan process, so I quickly took her up on her offer. Shauna stayed the night after a party and in the morning, hung over and fuelled with a breakfast generously cooked for us by Jordan, we began.

The first step was to get every piece of clothing I own into one place. This is apparently a very serious rule that you're not allowed to break. If you forget something you have to agree to immediately throw it out once you find it again because if you've forgotten to add it to your pile then it must not mean that much to your life.

After pulling everything from my two closets, countless plastic drawers, and Rubbermaid's from the garage I was pretty sure I was ready to go. I immediately realized that Shauna was going to be a great companion for this job because she was super supportive and encouraging, while also a bit of a hard ass. I made a mental note not to mention that I thought I forgot a sweater I actually wanted at work.

Once the clothes were all sprawled out across the floor, we began. The process is simple, but also not at all. I picked up my first shirt and tried to get really introspective with it. I thought a lot about the shirt and tried to feel the fabric, remember what it looked like on me, think if it brought me *joy* before I realized yes, I did like this shirt. The next shirts became easier as I realized this wasn't about thinking, it was a gut instinct thing. Shauna pointed out to me that when I knew I wanted something and I knew it *sparked joy* that I immediately threw it into the "Yes" pile. When I spent time holding the shirt and thinking about it, this was me trying to convince myself that I needed and wanted it.

Once we got through every.single.shirt I own Shauna looked at me and said "again." WHUT?! I had to go through the pile again!? I did the process again and when I got to a shirt I had been lying to myself about I held it once more, stared and stared into it's every fibre, and then threw it into the "No" pile, with a "thank you" of course.

The main thing I realized was that I truly did have clothing that didn't bring me joy. I had a lot of clothing I liked but that when I thought about them, I got a little bit of anxiety. I felt anxious that they were taking up space in my already stuffed closet and hanging around to remind me of how I felt in them. One of the number one things I found was that I was hanging on to things because they held a happy memory for me but in actuality, I didn't really like them and truthfully, the memory was more soiled by keeping it around. For example I had a blouse with a Peter Pan collar and tiny little bow ties on it that I kept because it always made Jordan laugh. He told me he really liked it one day and laughed because it was cute and silly, like me (this is a direct quote but also a humble brag about me. Deal with it). So I kept the shirt, but when I would try the shirt on I wouldn't smile about it because it didn't fit right. It was tight in the bust and a little short and generally just made me feel uncomfortable. Really, I like the memory of Jordan smiling at my shirt, not the shirt. I had to get rid of what didn't bring me joy and hold on to what did.

Another thing a lot of people hold on to are gifts. We feel bad throwing things out because someone else spent money on them and we think it would upset them if we got rid of them. Shauna was great in this department because she would always remind me that once a gift is given, it has served it's purpose of sparking joy. When someone gives you a gift they feel joy in giving you something they think you would like and you feel joy receiving the gift. If the joy goes no further than that then that is okay. I was holding on to a lot of clothing that had been given to me out of guilt. It no longer brought me joy, or maybe never did, but I kept it because it felt rude not to. Letting go of a lot of those things was like letting go of a big breath of air I'd been holding on to.

Shauna was also a great pusher that day. I was pretty much wiped out by the time we finished shirts but she kept my momentum going. We went through workout clothes, pants, socks, jackets and shoes. Shoes were something I knew I had too many of but I just couldn't part with a bunch because I was always thinking about "just in case." Which is why I had about 7 pairs of high heels when I have worn heels approximately 5 times in my life. The numbers do not add up and that is my point.

<<Lost a bunch of shoes. Found this cat>>

KonMari is a big proponent of folding, so Shauna taught me her folding method and it is truly a game changer. I didn't realize that I was losing a lot of joy just by feeling completely overwhelmed with my things. I've always been a quantity over quality type of person. I hate a uniform and like to have lots of choices depending on how I'm feeling that day. This led me to own 15 pairs of pants, countless workout shirts, and probably 50 pairs of socks. What I didn't realize was that I was actually feeling stressed out by these things because I had accumulated so many that every time I had to retrieve a pair of pants I had to pull them from the leaning tower in the top of my closet and make a huge mess. The same went for socks, which I used to treat like basketballs trying to get into the basket in the top of my closet, and workout shirts which I shoved in a basket below my hanging clothes which often caused them to fall out of the basket and behind a set of plastic drawers. Now I've wildly downsized my collections of all of these things and they fit beautifully in their designated areas.

At the end of the day I ended up with a gargantuan pile of things to get rid of and it felt so.good. I donated a large portion to the homeless shelter I work at, threw out a bunch, and am selling the rest. I took some to a consignment shop last week and they didn't take a lot of things because they were out of season *womp womp* but I still got $50.00 for 9 things. Only about 30 more things to go.

My favourite part of this entire thing has been how free I feel. I don't feel weighed down or overwhelmed by my things anymore. I don't notice that I've given away half of my things because I only kept the things I want to wear anyways. I do get a bit nervous still seeing my teeny tiny workout shirt collection and wonder if I've shot myself in the foot but I continue to repeat the mantra that if I ever need for anything I can buy it again, but this time I'm buy something that I truly love.

Now for my favourite part: the before and afters. Guys this stuff is like porn to me. I seriously went on the Marie Kondo Instagram and just drooled over the before and after photos leading up to my purge. Please enjoy my masterpieces.

Bedroom Closet:

<< No more basket on top of my plastic drawers and no more leaning tower of pants(a)>>

Office Closet (My 2nd Closet):

<< These dresses all used to be stuffed into the drawer below them. 

Getting rid of half my clothes made room for them to hang happily! >>

Coat Closet:

<<So many shoes and scarves gone!>>

Honestly, if you're thinking about trying to simplify your life I think you should consider at least peaking into Marie Kondo's book. I've been really trying to focus on stepping away from my obsession with "things" that actually just end up stressing me out and clogging up my life and stepping towards having the freedom to breath and experience life. I'm not saying this is some sort of cult (although I did reference drinking the koolaid) that is going to change your life, but maybe it will. If nothing else it will free up SO MUCH MORE ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!

Thanks for reading this uber long post but I hope it may help someone because I did a lot of reading articles like this before I took the plunge and it really helped me.

Happy decluttering!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

KonMari Convert

Baby We Were Born to Run

Earlier this year in a fit of what some may call insanity I took the plunge to sign up for a running clinic. Jordan agreed that he would do one with me. I’ve been a completely unmotivated runner over the past couple of years and I really needed to find a way to get my groove back.

In highschool I took my first running clinic through the Running Room. It was the Learn to Run clinic and it slowly taught me how to run 5k by including walking breaks in your run training. The first week we ran one minute and walked one minute. Each week we added another minute to our run until we were running 12 minutes and walking one minute until, we had run 5k. These were pretty humble beginnings and they were just the baby steps I needed to get into running.

After realizing that I actually could physically run 5k I didn’t stop. Over the next 10 years I continued to run, sometimes often, sometimes not. I would cycle between 3 and 5k runs and would occasionally sign up for a 5K race to keep myself motivated.

Over the past two years of having a house, running really fell by the wayside. I had a lot less free time and it felt like every run I went on was a struggle. I took up rock climbing and cycling instead because I was bored and frustrated with running.

All of that led to this year when my friend Laura and I started doing some 5K training together. I knew I could run 5K just by sheer will of determination but I also knew I was way out of whack when it came to my distance running. We signed up for a 5K together and then I signed up for one with Jordan, and then Laura and I signed up for an 8K at the end of the summer. The ball was officially rolling.

In that whirlwind of motivation I started talking to Jordan about doing a running room clinic to keep me accountable. I wanted a group to run with that would ask where I was if I didn’t show up and I wanted to put some money on the table to up the ante. I was originally going to take the 5K clinic and Jordan was interested in the 10K. The 10K was a mountain I did not see myself even daring to imagine scaling. I’d never purposely run anything more than 5K and my slow and steady pace made me scared to try to run any further with a group.

I don’t know what came over me one day though because I clicked on the signup for the 10K clinic for myself and Jordan, entered my credit card info and all of a sudden we were both signed up.

I figure that if I’m scared to do it, then I need to do it or I’ll always be running the same 5Ks forever. There was once a time when I didn’t know I could run a 5K and the Running Room changed that, I was ready for that thinking to be changed again.

We’re currently in the middle of the 10K training and I’ll tell you: it’s been damn hard. We meet three times a week: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sunday mornings. The first run we ran 5K and I was quickly found myself at the back of the pack and I’ve stayed there ever since but it doesn’t bother me one bit. I show up every week, and straggle at the back running the exact same distance as everyone else, just at my own pace. Jordan told me I may be slow, but I’m a machine that doesn’t stop and I’m proud of that.

I’ve already surpassed what I thought I could do. I’ve done hill training, I’ve showed up when no one else has and ended up running a long run on a hot Sunday morning with just the instructor, and I’ve run over 11K now and felt amazing when it was over.

<< My very 1st 10K- which I can thank to hill training. 

A true killer that also racks up the kms apparently>>

<<My longest run to date!>>

I still get a little bit of dread on run days but I go anyways and that’s all that matters to me. I also get a whole lot of dread thinking about the fact that we’re supposed to run 13K in one go by the end of this but I’ll save that dread for another day.

For anyone interested in a running group like this one looking up the Running Room clinics in your area. They’re game changers!

<<Honestly, this photo just needed to see the light of day because it's amazing>>

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

The Turtle to your Hare

We Don't Believe What's On TV

A week without tv. It doesn’t sound like much, but you’d be surprised.

I had tried to go a week without tv earlier this year and failed miserably when I spent a whole day sick in bed and used tv to ease my pain.

This week however, was surprisingly easy.

I truly enjoyed all of the free time I found for myself when I didn’t throw tv on in the background of my life. Not only was I super productive, but I was super busy. I had school appointments to worry about, I had a wedding shower, I’m part of a running clinic, and my parents were moving. I did still have downtime though during the week, I just spent it differently. Instead of lying in bed watching tv shows I’m not really even into, I worked on a weaving that I have previously been ignoring. I worked on paiting a cookoo clock I meant to paint like 3 months ago. Jordan and I even played board games in bed a couple nights instead of watching tv.

Mostly, watching less tv made me feel more productive and less foggy. My attention was always on what I wanted it to be on. I didn’t feel like I was ever having to multitask to get something done and I definitely didn’t feel like I was pulling myself away from a screen in order to get things done.

When we had exhausted our board games in our house and did just want to unwind together, Jordan and I did throw a movie on one night but I almost immediately fell asleep. At this point I feel like I’m not used to sitting down and not having to do anything. Having the tv do all the work for me made me immediately drowsy.

I’m definitely going to keep trying to keep tv at a distance in my life, at least for now. I’ll be watching tv again, but for now, I don’t want it following me around, or becoming my main priority for the night. Me and tv are “just friends” for now and “it’s complicated.”

So for now, I leave you with this lovely song: We Don't Believe What's on TV.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

TV Addict in Recovery