Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning out the two closets on my upstairs floor. The process was actually a lot less difficult than I thought it would be, and it feels so refreshing to have those spaces clear. One closet was primarily clothing and shoes, and the other closet was something I used as a sort of catch-all closet that held everything from my purses and bags, to my camping gear.

I've never been a clothes horse, so it was actually pretty easy to get rid of a large part of my wardrobe. Marie Kondo (yes, I've read her book and yes, I loved it!) suggests holding each item in your hand and asking yourself if it brought you joy. The large majority of my wardrobe doesn't bring me joy, so that was something interesting to note. Right now I don't have the money to overhaul my entire wardrobe, so I'm just using my internal responses as information to steer me towards better choices in future shopping endeavors.

The catch-all closet was a little harder, only because there was so many different types of materials to deal with. I got rid of a large number of purses I no longer carry, and put a few to the side that are still in good condition that friends might want or that I'll donate to charity. All of my camping gear was gathered up and placed in one area for easy access.

But it was papers that were insane! I had so much paper in the closet that I had to sit down and sort through. Some were important, but the large majority of them were old readings from grad school, and old bills (how the hell did they end up in that closet???). So I tossed what I could, held onto what needed to be saved (very little), and have a huge pile of documents to shred.

It took me most of the day to complete the project, but it was SO worth it! I'm thrilled to be done with that phase of downsizing. It feels like I really accomplished something yesterday!