TIDYING UP - CLOSET | CLEAN WITH ME | MINIMALISM

I still remember you guys after the holidays I feel like we are all super inspired to get our homes clean especially this year with all the conari craze after the show tidying up came out on Netflix I feel like it really really sparked some motivation for people to go through their things and figure out what they need and what they don't need this is something that I've been doing for the past year and a half and I will say that it was really difficult in the beginning to kind of differentiate what I was ready to let go of with con Marie her entire thing is about sparking Joy if something Sparks joy for you when I first started just decluttering and trying to live more simply I didn't know what that meant I couldn't tell if something was sparking joy for me or if I just felt too guilty to let it go because of a sentiment that was attached to it so I wanted to share with you guys what I found over the past year that has really helped me to determine what I can let go of so that I can create spaces that actually do spark joy for me this is our master closet um and this room is probably way bigger than it needs to to be which used to be a problem because I used to use it as a catch all for things I would just shove stuff in here whether I was cleaning our room or our bathroom or whatever it would all just get pushed in here at one point you really couldn't walk around in the closet our clothes were actually living on our bedroom floor and this was a room I just avoided I shut the door and pretended it didn't exist because it was a mess so I want to walk you through my thought process and how I was able to transform it so let me just show you a tour of what my closet currently looks like obviously aside from the stuff I'm [Music] sorting okay so the game changer for me was visualizing the space that I wanted before I started okay so you can go to Google or Pinterest for in spiration look up closets and you can get a feel from that for what you're looking for like what kind of vibe do you want what is your style once you have that idea so once you have that idea then you can make a plan to recreate it so start by clearing out everything and then slowly build your space into the vision that you've come up with so for me I just pictured this clean neat space my clothes hanging I love neutral colors I love textures and soft comfortable things so when I picture my closet that was all part of it I really love the look of wooden hangers I know how silly that might sound to some of you but just things being uniform brings me joy it brings me a sense of Peace when I look at it because it's not all chaotic and jumbled so that was something that was important for me what I did first was I ordered hangers and then I made sure all of my clothes were clean I started hanging up the things that were my most favorite I hung them all in one spot so I could see I had things that were maybe that I'd put on a different level once they were hanging all together I was really able to look and say no I know it just when when I'm looking at my closet this isn't something I'm going to pick this is not something that I'm going to pick to wear I will pick this this and this first it was a lot easier for me to curate the space that I wanted that way um as well as realize the things that I had that fit but I probably almost definitely wasn't going to wear and that made it a lot easier to let go the next thing I did was arrange my clothes by season um and by texture so I have all of my dresses t-shirts tank tops things like that for the spring um and the summer months because we're currently in the winter I have all of my sweaters um button-ups anything that's a little bit warmer I do not like to fold clothes okay con Marie has her methods and I think they're wonderful but with six kids I don't have time to fold clothes and I'm okay with that so literally almost everything I own and John owns and our kids own are is hung um including our pants so I bought these I also don't wear shorts which is why I only have two Paar um but I bought these which I think are really awesome I can hang my pants up then I can fully see how many pairs of jeans I have that was something that really helped John when we got to his pants um hanging his he was able to say yeah I won't wear these when I see them next to all these other ones these are the ones I wear I don't wear these and he actually got rid of like three or four pairs of pants that he probably hasn't worn in longer than either of us remember but what helped the most was having a defined space for those items first and if it didn't fit in that space for me if it didn't fit with the aesthetic and if as a whole I could look in my closet and say okay that throws everything off from my vibe and the way that this space is making me feel it's so much easier for me to let go of this box up here has my maternity things in it I saved I think four maternity tops a pair of leggings and a pair of pants um aside from that everything else I was able to let go of because I don't even think I really wore it during pregnancy I may never have another child but these are the things that I would want to keep if I do so I'm going to hang on to them for a little bit longer until we're 100% sure on that over here we have our extra bed linens cleaned folded up so we can see them know where they are empty suitcases for when we travel and that tote has all of the snow gear for the kids for when it does snow in North Carolina which doesn't happen often but just in case we have a bin full of things that they can wear because Marin is still sleeping in our room she doesn't have her own space or her own closet instead of going into um one of the other girls' rooms to get her clothes every day I bought this little wooden rack to hang all of her things so everything baby specific is right here we do not have a dresser in our bedroom but we do have one in our closet I use this for the things like bras and underwear and then any t-shirts or active wear little like undershirts anything like that that doesn't go on a hanger John has a nightstand so funny that our bedroom furniture migrated to our closet uh when we move but John has a nightstand that has his socks and underwear and then he also can fit his sweatpants loung pants and running shorts in here lastly the least aesthetically part of my closet is on this side in these bins I have things like gifts in case we have um like a baby shower birthday party to go to I have some gifts that I keep on hand just in case we don't have time to shop before up here we have gift bags and wrapping paper and then this is a box of gifts that we will donate this year to Angel Tree a lot of times I will buy things that are on sale and I'll either save them for AR kids or save them for angel tree or other donations so I keep them up in that box the last tote is that one that is full of Christmas wrapping things like boxes and ribbons and string and all of that okay so that was the tour of the closet I'm going to head out to our bedroom to show you another example of how I use this method to kind of minimize and create spaces that may me happy okay so like I said I like to visualize the space I want kind of curate it in my mind and and then whatever doesn't fit with that as I'm going about um cleaning and putting things away goes it either finds a new place to live in our home or we get rid of it because if it doesn't fit somewhere that makes me happy to look at I don't want it it's going to add stress to me not everybody's like that but for me clutter makes me stressed so let me just show you an example with my [Music] bookcase so when it came to these spaces I took everything off there was a whole lot more stuff just piled up stacks of papers and whatever else we had diapers and wipes everything everywhere I took everything off and started putting back the things that looked nice as though I was decorating so I decorated the top shelf with the oils that I wanted and that we use um in our bedroom and then I stacked these books here cuz I like the way they look and they're daily journals that I can jot a quick little note down every day there's somewhere I can easily access them wipes pacifiers things like that that we need where we can easily reach them this space was empty for a long time so for me I would rather have an empty space just waiting until I find the right thing to fill it with than just to throw something up there it's a perfect spot for my purse because the kids won't get into it if it's in my bedroom I can easily find it and grab and go those wires need to go they're thrown off everything but aside from that the books that are over here it took me a while I'm not going to lie it took me a little while to stack them in a way that I thought was organized but also pleasing to look at and then I was able to get rid of any books that I wasn't going to read or that didn't fit with it John has books on his side I have books on my side we have some shared books in the middle but otherwise we've got things that we need we do still have a newborn so we've got blankets and bows and extra diapers up here um but other than that I like to keep things simple we used to use our bedroom to catch everything we couldn't find an actual home for and now everything in here has a purpose and a space and I can't tell you the difference it makes and how relaxed I am in our room as soon as it starts to get cluttered I start to feel un rested and unsettled um because I know I need I need to clean it I need to do something but this space getting rid of everything that wasn't necessary making everything nice to look at has made it just a a retreat for me a place where I can go I can rest I cannot feel overwhelmed by mess or clutter or disorganization um and I really really feel like it's a place that I can just recharge for the next day with six kids cuz life is crazy that said I hope that helps you guys at least maybe find a starting point or if you feel stuck if you're stuck in that same trap of I kind of want to keep this I don't really want it but like somebody gave it to me those things that are guilt that you keep or maybe you're stuck in that same trap of not realizing you've outgrown something either physically or just your tastes have outgrown something uh hopefully this starts as like a launching point for you in really simplifying your life organizing your things and getting rid of some of the stress that we face as moms happy cleaning we'll see you [Music] later we give it everything we got where we are I still remember