I love a good sale as much as the next girl, especially when there's one at Anthropologie. Over the years my closet and wardrobe have filled up mostly because of good deals or bargains. I may not have necessarily been in love with the item, but I sure did get a good bargain! Worth it. Or so I thought it was. 

During my last move I realized how much stuff I have. I've always considered myself a minimalist; and I was totally fooling myself. Just because I don't own furniture, doesn't mean I'm a minimalist. I used to pride myself in owning 100+ pairs of shoes and keeping them in their original shoe boxes. Yet, the older I get and more mobile I become, the less I want to be tied down by stuff. 

Several people have recommended Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. And I've seen it be a success to those who have done the work and used the concept to minimize their stuff. I must admit...I am terrible at finishing books. I probably have about 9 unfinished books right now. This is one of them. So although I can't say I thoroughly read through Kondo's process, I did get the basic concept - if an item doesn't spark joy, it's time to let it go. Using this ideology, I began the grave task of cleaning out my closet. Although I didn't find any skeletons like Eminem raps about, I did come to the realization that most of my wardrobe did not spark joy. And I realized that it mostly consisted of darkness (lots of black, brown, and gray). So I began purging and purging and purging. Once I started, I couldn't stop. It felt so good and freeing to purge. 

In the end, I rid my wardrobe of 160 items of clothing, 2 gallon-sized ziploc bags full of jewelry, and 31 pairs of shoes! I donated items to Dress for Success and Goodwill. I now only have 25 boxes of shoes, which still seems like a lot! And my wardrobe has bright beautiful colors and less darkness. I love my closet now. It's a joyful place to walk into. It makes me so happy. 

I still have a lot of other items (kitchen, office, paper, etc) to go through, and this has been a great nudge toward freeing myself of owning so much stuff. I cannot wait to see what else opens up in my life because of the cleansing f my closet. 

Have you read Kondo's book or cleaned out your closet recently? 

Photos highlighting some of my process for cleaning out my closet. And yes, I did tally up each item along the way.