Strengthening My Minimalist Muscles

How I was forced to go back to the capsule wardrobe after quitting for a year and why it actually feels good.

The photo above pretty much encapsulates how I felt two weeks ago. One night while we were watching a movie, my partner and I heard a loud series of bangs and thuds coming from the bedroom. We rushed over to discover that the shelf and clothing rod on my side of the closet had decided to 86 itself. I'm not sure what was more frustrating: having to press pause on movie night when we were "just getting to the good part" or having to remove the majority of items from my side of the closet to assess the damage... It was a close call, but my final answer is the latter. Definitely the latter.

Since I moved in with my beloved nearly two years ago, storage space has always required some creativity. We live in a two bedroom condo with good-sized closet space in each bedroom along with a small coat closet. Luckily for us, I am a "professional organizer" or more truthfully, I am a certified KonMari™ Tidying Consultant who also happens to gravitate towards minimalist principles. So you can imagine my surprise and disdain when I was forced to empty out my side of the closet in order to repair the shelf and clothing rod...

There were heaps of clothing on all sides of our king sized bed, boxes of various sizes taking up the majority of the already limited floor space and various other items that had toppled out of my closet and onto the large desk parallel to the foot of the bed. I looked around and felt so disgusted. How did I allow all of this stuff to pile up? In addition to my feelings of disgust, I also felt like an imposter because the amount of items from my closet definitely did not seem like the "appropriate" amount of things an "aspiring minimalist" should own.

I took a good look at all my "stuff" and got to work over the next week. I began paring down my clothing items, deciding what was worthy of keeping, what I could possibly sell at my local consignment store and what could be donated. What has been challenging for me is that I have lots of items in my closet that don't fit my current body. I admit, the majority of my clothing items fit my pre-baby body with the hope that I would fit into them sooner rather than later, but because I felt like I definitely had to purge my items, I decided to accept the fact that holding on to these items was not only taking up valuable space, but was adding unnecessary weight to my subconscious and my closet shelves!

Today, I have much fewer items hanging in my closet out of precaution (I'm really scared to hang more items because the shelf/clothing rod aren't quite as secure as I had hoped they would be), but also by choice--my wardrobe resembles something much more like a capsule wardrobe that I had "quit" last year. There is something to be said about getting rid of excess stuff... Your space and even your mind can feel lighter once you clear the clutter.

Moving forward, I don't plan on shopping for the "perfect" pieces of clothing for my capsule wardrobe. I am happy to work with what I've got and I plan on being selective about what items I add into my capsule. I will admit, that it wasn't until I was forced to face all my stuff that I realized how far I had shifted away from the minimalist principles I had previously followed. In spite of the frustration and disgust I felt a couple weeks ago, I will say that I'm actually really glad that my closet came crashing down--it gave me an opportunity to strengthen my minimalist muscles and go back to the basics. Sitting in the midst of all that "stuff" just did not sit right with me, but not surprisingly, what did feel right was making the decision to pare down my belongings and embrace the idea that living with less can actually feel good.

Cheers to less clutter and more space! Life is Bueno!