the life-changing magic of tidying up

I know this book is everywhere right now. There is a reason for that.

I read this book last week on vacation and I couldn't put it down. It makes so much sense. I decided I would like to document my own progress as I work through tidying our house. I think it will be a great record to look back upon and will hold me accountable to finish the process, as well.

My goal is to be done by the end of January 2016. That's roughly six months from now.

I will do my best to blog regularly about it and will also share photos on Instagram: follow me @elletrain

Today I tackled my first categories of clothing: tops & bottoms.

Things I've learned so far:
_I'm already convinced this is a life-changing process.
_I love blue and black&white clothing (seriously, all the things are b&w or blue!)
_I should wear more pencil skirts

See! What valuable things I've learned after just one morning of working at tidying.

I managed to get 2 full garbage bags of clothing to donate and 3 shopping bags of clothing to sell...what they don't take will be donated immediately. I have an appointment already scheduled at the consignment shop for Wednesday.

Y'all. I constantly go through my clothing and sell at the consignment shop, but there's something completely better and different about my process now and it's thanks to the brilliant simplicity of this book...asking yourself with each item does it bring you joy?

That little sentence makes the decision process so much clearer. I'm loving it. I have dreamed of having a beautiful house for so long. It's impossible to have a beautiful space when you don't know how to care for your belongings and when you don't make room to honor your stuff.

Tackling tidying by category really seems to make sense to me, too. First, I put ALL the tops I own on my bed (making sure to get any seasonal items that might have been left elsewhere, stuff in the laundry room, suitcase that just returned, etc.) It was incredible how having all of my shirts in one place made it much easier to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. I followed with all the bottoms-jeans, pants, skirts, shorts, overalls, etc. I'm kind of a denim-aholic. I do wear jeans almost every day and now I feel great about the pairs still in my closet.  I don't have any more that don't fit quite right or that aren't quite the right wash/color.

Now, I feel confident about going to my closet and knowing I will love what I put on. This is huge. I know it will continue to get better as I finish the process.

I hope you're interested in trying this book out for yourself. I have no connection whatsoever to it, but I'm just so excited about the end result of this process that I can't help but share what I'm learning. Please share photos and comments if you are tackling this venture, too. I would love to see what you're learning, as well!