Does it spark joy?: Step 1 - Clothes

Three weeks ago I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I figured since I was in this home organization mood why not read a book to keep me motivated. Once I finished this book I realized that I've been going about this organizing thing all wrong. This book teaches you how to approach organizing and that's by decluttering your house first. So I immediately went to work. (And boy was it work). Marie Kondo is the author of this book and she says that it should be done in a precise order to help with the speed of the process.

• Clothes
• Books
• Papers
• Komono (All other miscellaneous categories)
• Sentimental Items (Pictures and anything that brings memories)

Slowly I went to work. I started with my clothes. I gathered all my clothes in the entire house (off season stuff included) and picked every item up and made a decision. I asked myself does it spark joy? This is what Marie Kondo tells us we should ask about every item we hold onto. Once you do this it's easier to let go of things. If it doesn't bring you happiness or you don't use it, why hold onto it? So simple, yet I never applied it to my home....until now.

As you can see Josh and I cleared out bags of clothing. This is only the first day round.  I couldn't believe the amount of things I was holding onto for no good reason. Another aspect that helped the purging was finding the appropriate places to donate to. Knowing that my gently used items would go on to help someone else in need really helped with the letting go process. If you are looking for some local places to donate to here is where we donated to.

Catholic Community Services https://ccsutah.org/donate
YWCA Utah http://www.ywcautah.org/site/c.emJ1KgOQJhIaG/b.7965149/k.C221/Donate.htm
Deseret Industries https://www.deseretindustries.org/donate/donation-guidelines?lang=eng