Folding like a boss. The game-changing way to tidy up. Part 4
Laundry…often one of the most dreaded household chores. And why? Most likely because of the tedious task of having to fold the laundry to put it away. Most of us probably fold our items as flat as possible so they will stack neatly in the drawer or we pack as much into the closet as possible to avoid having to fold at all – something I have done my entire life. But as Marie Kondo suggests in her book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, most of us are folding our laundry the wrong way! Hoarding clothes, filling drawers and stuffing the closet is wrong. Often, we forget about items in the bottoms of our drawers or tucked in the back of the closet and they go unworn for the longest time.
Fall in Love With Your Closet
A clothes closet is one of the most common places to become cluttered with random stuff. That empty space at the bottom often becomes a spot to hide boxes of junk (yes, I have now used the term junk because that’s basically all it is!) An effective clothes closet should provide room, not only for wardrobe pieces, but also for other items like accessories, shoes, bags and hats. Clothes should be paired down so that breathing space is left between each item. Who really needs a dozen sweatshirts anyway? Some people prefer to organize their closet by colour, while others like to have wintery items at one end and summery items at the other. However you choose to organize yourself, you should be able to easily see what you have and those items should only be ones that you know you will wear. Use the space at the bottom of your closet to set up a small shoe rack (the key word here being small). Then neatly organize extra shoes. One or two pairs of everyday shoes can be kept at the front entry. Store handbags, hats, or a small box for wallets and accessories on an upper shelf in the closet.
Often times clothing items get forgotten about. You wear the same old trusty items on repeat week in and week out. By going through your closet and drawers, you can discover a new sense of style for some items you may have forgotten about, or you will discover the holes in your wardrobe; the pieces that you actually don’t have. And here is where I found the hole in my wardrobe…maybe you have 10 pairs of jeans but not one of them offers that amazing fit you want. Get rid of them then and invest in one good pair. Once you have become satisfied with your closet, you will feel more encouraged to mix and match and create new outfits using your staple pieces.
Fold, Don’t Hang
When it comes to clothes, Kondo recommends folding items in a neat and tidy little package rather than hanging them willy-nilly on a hanger. Kondo’s special method of folding allows for each item to stand up in a vertical row to be visually seen each time you open the drawer. Think about it… if you fold your laundry to stack it, do you remember what is on the bottom of that stack? The answer is probably no. If you line your clothes up in rows, each piece has a standing chance of being worn again sometime. When arranging your neatly folded packages in the drawer, think about colour coordinating. Keeping like colours together will help you to easily pick the perfect piece to pair with an outfit when you are in a hurry. And remember Marie Kondo’s trusty storage tip about boxes! Boxes can easily fit into drawers to keep your vertically-arranged items from falling over, or to create a divider between types and styles of clothing. Use dividers to distinguish between tank tops, tees or long sleeve shirts, or perhaps to differentiate between pants and shorts or crops. Even small items like socks and underwear can be folded neatly and arranged in rows based on colours and styles. Seeing a neatly organized wardrobe each morning is a sure way to start your day off on a positive note! For those of you interested in learning how to fold like a boss, see instructions below:
So What Have I Learned?
Starting this journey to get organized, I wasn’t sure what to think, but after reading through Marie Kondo’s book, I knew I was in for a much larger task than I first anticipated. As I have picked through the items in my home, I have discovered that I have been holding onto a lot of things that I really don’t need, don’t want, or aren’t useful. With some practices, the decision-making process as to whether to keep, throw away, or re-home things has become much easier. If it is serves a purpose, is worthwhile or meaningful, then I keep it. If it is not making a positive impact on my life, I can part with it. Okay, maybe not everything is quite that simple, but you get the idea.
One thing is for sure, this tidying up exercise is definitely going to stick with me. After spending so much time sorting and organizing, I do not want to fall back into the habit of hoarding ever again. To be completely honesty, putting my own things in order is still a work in progress. As my earlier post stated, make sure you are dedicated to getting tidy and organized as it will take a significant amount of time. Once it is done, though, you can breathe a sigh of relief and feel a whole new sense of accomplishment. Cooking and baking in the kitchen will be so much more enjoyable when you can easily find equipment and pantry items. Getting dressed each day will be so much easier when you can easily see your wardrobe. And living a less cluttered life will just perk up your overall mood each day. If you’re looking to sell your home, following Marie Kondo’s suggestions will help you create a homey environment that is more spacious, organized, and enticing to buyers.
Take this one simple piece of advice from Marie Kondo: “The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.”