Funky Junk Interiors

Welcome back to the 2020 Cleaning Challenge! This week we will tackle how to purge your clothing!

NEXT – Visit week 3 HERE

Visit all the series to date HERE

Recap and outcome of Week 1: Clean all your surfaces

Last week’s challenge HERE was to clean all your surfaces.

After Christmas my home was still in chaos with most things not having been put away. So there was no way I was ready to purge deep, only to create more chaos! I needed to get my life back on track first.

So I gave myself a week to clean every surface and challenged you along for the ride.

I was so tired of tripping over stuff, getting frustrated when I couldn’t find the right stuff, no surface space to work from, etc. As I was hustling tonight, I ended up finding cheques that needed depositing (good grief!), paperwork I had forgotten about, unpaid bills (not overdue thank goodness!)… but you get where I’m going right?

Everything just went back to it’s rightful home. The end. And as of Sunday night, 8pm, it was done! All on Sunday night I might add…

Did you catch that? Thanks to this self imposed deadline, I got it done at the 11th hour. BUT it did get done!

Honestly?  I just couldn’t put more time into cleaning this week. And I think that’s why my home gets so jumbled. I think, if I don’t blog about it, what’s the point? So then I let it go.

But that’s not going to happen this round! I’m cleaning whether I have something epic to show you or not! This is a year-long commitment and there’s lots of opportunity to show you my outcomes as there’s SO much to do.

(although moving forward, I will only share here once I’ve got something sorda outstanding to share… I don’t wish to bore you! Join us on Facebook if you’d like to actively take part in the challenge!)

So let’s move on with this week’s challenge… will you be joining me?

Week 2 Challenge – Tidy up your clothes / closets

How are your closets? Are they major mayhem or neat as a pin?

Well, my OWN closets start good in the new year, but slowly slide downhill until they hit bottom. Some clothing could seriously stay put even without hangers at this point. So it’s time to do a clean sweep once again and that’s what I’ll be working on over the next week.

Yup… a deadline of 1 week to get all my clothes done! ALL OF THEM. And I’ll be sure to share a before and after next round too!

This post contains some (affiliate) links so you can find the supplies I love to use.

Why clothes first?

According to Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, clothing ought to be the first thing you start to purge. Reason being, we don’t hold sentimental value towards it, so if we don’t love it or don’t wear it, it should be relatively easy to let go of it.

This is your training period if you will. Once you learn how to relinquish now, you’ll find getting through the harder stuff later so much easier. Or so we hope.

You can work with clothing categories, such as outerwear / shirts etc. if you wish. But I don’t own all that much, so I’ll be doing it all in one fell swoop.

Is Marie Kondo’s book worth it?

So is Marie Kondo’s book really worth the purchase? YES.

The book gives you all kinds of really good tips, such as why folding clothing saves you a ton of space, and why it’s best to work from left to right with heavy to light (in colour and weight). It all makes sense, so if you have the book, it’s worth giving the clothing section a quick read-through so it can guide you with your chosen plan of action.

It’s a huge encouragement. And it never fails… when I start reading, I just want to stop reading so I can get started cleaning!

So here’s the official clothing plan more or less…

How to purge your clothing

1. GUT your closet, dressers, etc.

A complete gut and pile of ALL your clothing is the only way, otherwise you’ll end up shuffling what you already have. The goal is to PURGE.

Everything OUT. And if that scares you, that means you may have too much…

So do it anyway. We can be scared together.

2. Categorize your clothing.

Pile your coats, socks, shirts, etc so you can truly see what you have.

I don’t own that much, and I don’t have seasonal clothing, so I’m going full-tilt on the works.

I pile it all on my bed, then I’m forced to take action, otherwise I’ll be sleeping on the sofa.

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3. Touch every single item of clothing you have.

Touching is key. If you just grab a group of hangers, it is not the same. Touching each piece ensures you’re paying special attention to that one item.

When holding it, ask yourself if it does anything for you. (does it spark joy) If not, put it aside. Put ONLY the things you love and want to wear again back in your closet again.

Be tough! Don’t go back to it again once you’ve set it aside. This takes guts of steel but anything I decided to keep after the fact, I’ve never worn again anyway!

4. Deep clean / paint / add new shelves if needed.

If your closet needs paint or new shelves, etc, this could be a good time to get that in if you have the time and willpower.

I’m really glad I took the time to improve my own closet, then my son’s, then the entry way closet, all with these same price efficient closet systems. The closets really needed the extra storage to be truly functional and the systems were very easy to put together.

View my first closet makeover and how I put the closet system together in THIS POST.

Check out my son’s before and after HERE

And I’m completely smitten with plastic hangers that have some foam grips similar to THESE. 

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So my friends, we have a little bit of work ahead of us! And with any luck, you and I both will have sparse, wonderful inspiring looking closets by the end of this week with loads of empty hangers waiting for pretty new things instead!

Now that’s some fun motivation, yes?

I’ll be sure to share a before and after next week too!

If you’d like to share what you’re working on, feel free to join our Crap To Clean private Facebook  group. It’s a friendly group of Funky Junk readers that have vowed to gitter done and are really going to town with their befores and afters! It’s incredibly inspiring.

Ask to join HERE

Well, I hope this encouraged you to just start!

Will you be working along side me with the Marie Kondo method and doing clothes this week, or are you going full-tilt with your own plan?

What are you currently working on?

PS Moving forward, I’m debating on only sharing here when I have revamped something. I don’t feel there’s enough interest for this series and I certainly don’t want to bore you! haha Join us on Facebook if you’d like to be a part of this challenge!

NEXT – Visit week 3 HERE

Visit all the series to date HERE

Up for more closet inspiration? Here’s a few fun ones!

Chippy wood bathroom closet makeover

A drastic linen closet makeover

Hooks on a closet door

Visit all my closet posts HERE