The Look: How to KonMari Your Wardrobe
One day as I stood in front of my overflowing closet and had a minor identity crisis, I decided it was time to take control of my life and rediscover my personal style. We are practically sandblasted with the idea that we always need more and we’re required to make seemingly small decisions according to the thousands of brands offered, which may contribute to the other stressors in our daily lives.
After hearing about the notoriously life-altering Marie Kondo and her method of removing excess, I tried to adopt some of the values she spells out in her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. She aspires to teach us the importance of Japanese Zen values like being mindful, introspective, and optimistic and preaches having respect for all of our belongings as if they have a life of their own. I’ll admit I skipped thanking my clothes for their “service,” mostly because it felt a bit insane talking to my belongings as if they just offered to pay all my credit card bills.
Much like your Karl Lagerfeld or Alexander Wang, I typically revert to my daily uniform of jeans & a T-shirt, but my closet still overflows with remnants of my past identities. I even customized a second closet to fit those belongings… yes… a second closet. Whether it was an expensive designer piece I’d saved for my next editorial shoot or a latex bodysuit I wore one Halloween, it just sat in the back of my back-up closet collecting dust.
The end goal of tidying up isn’t just to help you de-clutter your life, but rather to help you make more matter-of-fact decisions. Like, do you go for the crunchy, creamy, or cinnamon swirl peanut butter? Skippy, Peter Pan or Reese’s? Organic or fair-trade? What the #@!$%^&! I believe the inability to choose isn’t coming from a lack of options but actually because we have too many of them.
The Steps for KonMari Method:
1. Pick a day and stick to it. 2. Visualize your ideal home- why would you prefer to live there?
3. Tackle categories, not rooms. Starting with the least emotionally loaded items.
4. Hold it. Does it “spark joy”? Try to choose what to keep rather than what to get rid of.
5. Organize by category. The KonMari folding method allows us to easily see each item.
Marie Kondo stresses the importance of following the order in which to tackle the process, the idea of this method is to take a moment to slow down, be thoughtful with your belongings and establish that the things surrounding you serve a purpose and bring you joy. De-cluttering put me in a clearer, happier, and less overwhelmed state and gave me the chance to reconnect with my current personal style. With more space in my closet and greater peace of mind, I can put my newfound energy and focus into the important things in life…. Like French Fries ;)
