Hi guys! It’s been an eternity since I posted. I went through a couple of moves and jobs and just lost my inspiration for a while but I’m back! I want to change the direction of the blog. I will still talk about beauty and fashion, but I want to incorporate home, organization, travel and a few other topics I’m passionate about.

My latest obsession has been home organization and decluttering using the Konmari method. I live in a 1 bedroom apt that’s a pretty decent size but I just had clutter everywhere. Papers here, shoes there, and my closet was jampacked. I new I needed a change so I asked a good friend of mine to loan me The Life-Changing Method of Tidying up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo and to say it’s changed my world would be an understatement.

The idea of this book is that you only keep items that spark joy when you touch them. Everything else, you get rid of. Instead of going room by room, you take everything out all at once where you can see it and choose what you want to keep category by category:

• Clothing and Accessories: This is where I had the most clutter. I was literally cramming hangers onto the rack and into my drawers. Even though I folded my stuff, you’d never know. Everything was all wrinkled anyway from being squished into my drawers. Once you’ve discarded the clothes you don’t need, the secret to tidying what you keep is to really more on folding clothes upright in your drawers so you can see everything at once. When you stack everything, you often overlook the items at the bottom and forget about them. Only hang items that want to be hung like flowy dresses, tunics, and chiffon, or other silky items that look better hung.
• Books: I love books, so this was challenging for me. Get rid of old college books, books you’ve had on your shelf for years and never read. Books you’ve read once but don’t plan on reading again (You know what they are). Only keep books that actually bring you joy. I’ll show you how I organized mine below.
• Miscellaneous also known as Komono: Linens, makeup, toiletries, CDs, extension cords etc.
• Kitchenware: Organize and get rid of mangy old tupperware, mismatched utensils and gifts you’ve never opened.
• Important Papers: Only keep relevant tax forms, banking items, wills, things that cannot be rid of. Everything else can be saved online, most people don’t write checks anymore, once your most recent bills have cleared get rid of statements from prior months, it’s all online anyway.
• Specific hobbies: (dance, photography, golf, crafting):Get rid of old damaged items and put them in one container that can be easily accessed.
• Sentimental: These items are saved for last because they are the hardest to sort. Organize loose pictures into albums, if trinkets are covered in dust, consider thanking them for the memories they gave you and let them go.

Here are my clothes before:

and After:  I ended up getting rid of 6 large bags of clothes. I actually now have room to separate my hangers in my closet. I moved all my pants to drawers folding them the #konmari way which also cleared up closet space. All of my small purses and clutches are in the bottom drawer and my larger handbags are stacked on top neatly. I used shoe boxes to store my socks and nylon/leggings.

The books I purged:

My bookshelf after: I ordered my books by Fiction, putting all series together like Harry Potter, Twilight etc. Then Cooking & Self Help, Writing/Education, Travel, Finance, Celeb Books and Misc Journals. At the bottom I have photo albums.

Jewelry & Accessories:

I’m most proud of my accessory storage. I did purchase a two plastic drawer sets by sterilite to have more storage in my closet. My necklaces were all tangled up on a jewelry tree so I’m now organizing them in shoe box lid. The rest of my jewelry is in pic #2. My watches and bracelets are in a box lid and my rings are in a separate box. The closed box is all of my loose earrings. I stored my stud earrings in an Altoid box. It’s fun to get creative with stuff already in the house. No need to spend a fortune on storage. The third tile are my scarves and the 4th is my belts and hats.

Linens & Towels Before: I didn’t think to take the picture until after I started clearing out towels. I basically filled 2 plastic bags with towels (Did I mention I love alone).

After I folded them the Konmari way: I could still probably get rid of a few more towels.

Shoes before: I had shoes on both sides of my closet drawer, in a pile by my dressers, and two pull out bins under my bed. Because I never really saw the ones under my bed, they were out of sight, out of mind. I  tossed/donated about 12 pairs. 

After: I got this shoe rack for around $20. It holds the bulk of my shoes now. I still have one set of shoes on the interior door of my closet. All of my flats/sandals are neatly organized in a bin and I have about 6 pairs of boots in a bin on the top shelf of my closet until winter.

I still have a bit more to do in my tidying progress, I’ve been at it two weeks so far. Once I started I couldn’t stop. Now that most of it is done, I feel much lighter and less stressed. I’ll update my progress as I go. If any of you have any tidying tips. I’d love to hear them.