It was only a few years ago we were told to hold our clothes to our chests and consider whether they spark joy to decide whether to keep them, and to thank them if they didn’t have a place in our lives any more.
Since then, any number of decluttering methods have made the rounds, but none seemed to really apply to my mindset and my life
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That was, until I came across the crude decluttering method that asks people to imagine their belongings are, for lack of a better word, soiled
If you’d be bothered to go to the effort to thoroughly clean and sanitise the item and use it again, then you should keep it. If not, throw it away.
The lack of pretentiousness appealed to me, and with the added toilet humour? I was sold
What I didn’t expect is to have gained a life lesson by sifting through my (imaginary) soiled clothes.
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I am very much a hoarder, and I knew my biggest challenges with decluttering was a) finding the time and motivation needed to do it, and b) letting go of things without getting sentimental.
In the second point’s regard, this method is perfect as it balanced out the deeper meaning I gave to my clothes with the disgust (and accompanying humour) I was experiencing
Past Me already organised my clothes into different categories going into different baskets, which helped a bit as I simply took out each basket and sorted them one at a time.
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Over time, these baskets had started to overflow, partly due to poor folding and partly due to buying new clothes
As I started to sift through my clothes, I noticed one thing in particular – I actually didn’t need to employ the method as much as I thought I would.
Before doing this challenge, I pictured myself sitting on the floor, holding each garment to my chest before asking myself if I would go to the trouble of cleaning it a la Marie Kondo
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But I found once I finally unleashed the clothes from my closet, I was sorting through them at a speed I never could have imagined. I knew exactly what I would be doing with each article of clothing, and sentimentality was not getting in the way.
When I did find the gross method useful, however, was when I had two or more articles of clothing that were very similar (side-eyeing my 10 black t-shirts) and I had to decide which one I would keep.
I had been putting off organising my wardrobe for close to two years, so to find I was zooming my way through it with no hesitation shocked me.
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But when I really thought about it, I realised I had the capacity to discern what needed to be saved and what didn’t. All I needed to do was take action.
Not to get philosophical, but this is a recurring theme of my life. I have so many things I want to do, and I fantasise about how I’ll feel once doing them, but I never have the momentum to just start in fear of all the effort it would take.
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But now I know that, much like the simple yet gargantuan task of organising my clothes, all I need to do is get started, and the rest will fall into place
In the end, I came out of this challenge with one whole bag of clothes to donate, and a renewed lease on life
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