It’s only extreme on account that we didn’t have a closet and now we do. Our house is over 100 years old, it was the unique character that drew us to it, even in spite of its splintering original wood floors and lead paint safely sealed beneath at least 30 years of protective painted layers. Our bedroom was one of my favorite parts. It’s a spacious rectangle, perfectly placed to be woken by the rising sun with windows on 3 walls and on the fourth, a charming white wooden railing that overlooks a sneaky second stair case that leads right to the kitchen. What it didn’t have was a closet of any sort. For 10 years we relied on dressers and a closet in a spare room before bringing in some IKEA fixtures left over from my store. It did the job but when combined with our outdated furniture, it was not the aesthetic we were going for.

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Planters still in need of plants

Enter in Marie Kondo’s infamous book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. After reading it, we couldn’t join the Cult of KonMari fast enough. We quickly kicked into purge mode, gathering up every category from all corners of the house and had our special alone time with each item to see what truly “sparked joy”. We got rid of 80% of our clothing, along with tons and tons of items from other categories with a few more left to purge. We folded what was left in the signature KonMari way, even my underwear. It wasn’t difficult for me to part ways with my clothing, I had already been minimizing my stuff over the last year or so and have been working on adopting an official “uniform” for each season. I do not need a lot of variety, why would I when there are black jeans and t-shirts, what more could a girl want? Reducing my consumption of fast fashion to lessen my role in capitalism, and to reduce the strain it puts on the environment and those who are making our clothing, was another motivator. So now we not only had this mismatched bedroom furniture we didn’t particularly like, the majority of it was empty.

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The only shoes I have (and want) for daily use with patched soles, plus a pair of sandals, running shoes, rain/winter boots, and heels, out of necessity. 

Then one day I come home and Bryan proudly exclaimed that he sold all of our bedroom furniture on Craigslist. He responded to my WTF expression and speechlessness with a proud “I am going to build some for us!” with his posture straight and chest puffed up, possibly with an arm raised to the sky in that “I am man, I can build anything!” kind of way. Considering Bryan had only taken up wood crafting a few months earlier, I was…skeptical, but it couldn’t be worse than the current situation. I also liked the idea of not buying some cheaply made set we settled for, most likely from IKEA. He showed me the plans for our new walk- in-closet-to-be, totally KonMari inspired with his and her sides and more shelving than hanging space, if you know KonMari, than you understand why. It seemed very well thought out and appealing, but still I was…skeptical, on the execution.

I now only have 3 pairs of pants, excluding workout clothes, but still too many shirts. My goal for the year is to reduce it by another 3/4, down to only what I truly wear.

Well, it’s been a long ride, and many months of our mattress on the floor with saw dust all around the room, but the results are beautiful. I love our closet. I want to hang out in our closet. It’s everything I want in a closet. Our entire room is getting a makeover so he has built us a nicely crafted, minimalist style bed frame and headboard with built in lights – finally a reading light. But aside from that and repainting the room, there’s still work to be done and finishing touches to be placed. Since I’m so proud of him for building this for us and how it turned out, I wanted to show it off a little. I always knew he could do it đŸ˜‰

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Here’s my wardrobe for our four seasons. I’m only showing my side because although streamlined, Bryan’s side is still, well, a mess. KonMari only goes so far. We plan to stain or paint the door but haven’t settled on a color yet.

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It's a little difficult to get a good shot from the inside where I had to stand, but the concept is clear. The empty space on the top left will be to hang jewelry.
It’s a little difficult to get a good shot from the inside where I had to stand, but the concept is clear. The empty space on the top left will be to hang jewelry.

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Thanks for letting me play proud wifey for a moment.

 

Cara
"If we can live happy and healthy lives without harming others, why wouldn't we?"