Let the Tidying Begin!

Everything we own makes us feel a certain way.  Some things make us happy. Some things don’t.  Some things we hold on to out of obligation.  Maybe we inherited it from a lost parent or it was a gift.  Regardless of how it came into our lives, our possessions make us feel something. 

I started this tidying process in my closet.  Marie recommends taking everything out.  You have to be able to hold each item in your hand and see how it makes you feel.  Happy and good?  That goes in the Keep Pile.  Sad or yucky or repulsed? That goes in the Trash Pile.  Very simple concept, right? 

What about the things you don’t like or haven’t ever worn that make you feel sort of guilty for getting rid of them?  Clothes, shoes, possessions feel good only if they are used.  They are sad if they just hang or sit day after day and never get to see the light of day.  If you hold something and you have no love for it, but you feel a little guilty for letting it go – thank it for its service to you and tell it you are releasing it.  Ahhhh.  That felt good.  Those blue jean jumpers in the back of my closet – gone!  They were released to be of service to someone else.  That suit coat I got and never wore – gone – off to be of service to someone else.  My bulging closet already felt better!

After you have sorted into your Keep and Trash piles, the next thing to do is put all your clothes away.  The author says to stand everything up on end.  Our clothes don’t like to be stacked because they are all squished, can’t breathe, and the likelihood of being chosen to be worn when on the bottom of the stack is slim.  I like this, too.  My socks and workout clothes are much happier now because I can easily see each item and choose what I’m going to wear.  It makes me happy to know my clothes are happy.