If only all closets could look this serene! It is possible once you’ve decluttered properly using the Kon Mari Method.
I want to share the closet transformation my client and I worked on for 4 hours and 15 minutes of intense decluttering. Normally when I declutter with clients I come with an assistant and the client’s household help is also there so we can teach their staff how to replicate the different techniques for folding and tidying.
That particular day though they were unavailable but my client and I decided to push through because she was feeling so overwhelmed by the mess in her home and she really needed a change. We both worked really hard to do the Kon Mari Method on all her clothes, shoes and bags in one afternoon.
I normally work for a minimum of 3 hours and a maximum of 6 hours per session. It’s possible because there are atleast 4 of us to do the work. I like to keep sessions short because I don’t want decluttering to be too tiring for both the client and myself. I feel like shorter but more productive sessions encourage my clients to declutter more because they know it wont takeover the whole day. It also feels very good to get so much done in such a short period.
WALK-IN CLOSET BEFORE
This is the walk-in closet inside her bathroom. Much of her clothes were hung so it was really difficult to pull-out anything without the other pieces falling off the hanger. This can be very frustrating for anyone. it feels like all you’re doing is fixing your closet.
My client had already started folding some things in the #KonMariMethod (see the shorts on the lower right), but they are sliding down, instead of standing up.
SHOES & BAGS BEFORE
Her shoes are stacked in clear containers that still had their stickers on them. When using this type of shoebox containers, it’s hard to keep tidy because when you pull out one pair of shoes the rest seem to get messy - just like the clothes that are packed to tight. Especially when you can’t decide what to wear.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Never store shoes near or beside a bathroom, because the heat and humidity will ruin your shoes. The material can become brittle and the glue can become undone.
Never store them in shoebox style containers that don’t allow fresh air to flow, unless you have lots of silica gel inside and you change it every 6 months.
Not all the shoes fit in the boxes so it looks messy
Bags are store in the closet outside her room
STARTING WITH SHOES & BAGS FIRST
Normally Marie Kondo recommends starting with clothes first because it’s the easiest and one can exercise their decluttering muscles with easy things and move on to harder things. But I felt like the client had so much clothes and it would take a long time to get through them. I wanted her to have some small wins first, to get her excited to tackle her clothes, so we started with her shoes and bags first.
My client loves all her shoes but after putting them all on the floor and touching each one, while also examining them for damage, she realized some shoes were more worn out than others.
One painful lesson that I shared with my client is that many shoes, even super-expensive designer brands may have leather outers, but the lining is not real leather. This means the interior and upper soles of the shoes start peeling. Once this happens it’s really quite gross to use because it sheds while you are wearing it and your feet will have all sorts of synthetic material stuck to it. It then no longer sparks joy.
Her rubber shoes were cracked and could no longer provide her feet with a safe amount of protection. I am sure it would be one of those situations where the sole will split from the rubber. So she thanked all these shoes for all the good memories she had with them and let them go.
IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE FOR RUBBER SHOES:
Rubber shoes have a shorter lifespan the more active you are. They expire or lose their protective quality and are no longer safe to use after
Being used for 1 year or 400-480km
Or being stored only for 6-9 mos. Okay fine… maybe you can even extend it to 1 year max!
It really depends on several factors like:
How often you use it. If you run every day, then it might expire sooner than someone who only runs 1-2x a week.
The type of activity you do. A runners shoes will expire faster than a casual walker. Professional NBA players are said to use an average of 1 pair of rubber shoes per game.
Which brings us to your weight. Someone who is very heavy will cause more wear than someone who is light.
The best indicators to see if rubber shoes are already expired and need to be disposed of are FOOT PAIN and LOSS OF FLEXIBILITY. If you bend the shoes and they are stiff, it’s time to say thank you and goodbye.
We then transferred all the shoes to the closet outside her bedroom, where I told her to occasionally open the doors and blast them with a fan to get some fresh air flowing into the shoes. We arranged them by color and height, making sure that all the shoes can be seen, and she could grab a pair without disturbing the rest which is essential in the Kon Mari Method.
Afterwards we went though her bags and I asked her which bags she uses the most often and when shoe uses them. It’s really important that I get to know the function of her things so we can arrange them in a way that’s convenient for her.
Below we did the BAG-IN-BAG METHOD of Marie Kondo so that her bags take up less space and are all standing up. The ones in the first row are used more often and on top are beach and travel bags.
At the very top are tall boots that she does not wear at all in Manila. She only brings them out when she is traveling.
This is how her landing closet looked looked after we were done. I recommended that she get a nice white step stool like this one from IKEA for her landing space so she can easily reach her stuff. Having a white one means it’s pretty enough to leave out. Ugly metal step-stools will just visually clutter up the space.
HOW TO TIDY CLOTHES
The very first step to tidying clothes - just like the shoes and bags - is to put them all on a clean surface like a big bed. You have to put ALL YOUR CLOTHES IN so that you can see how much you truly have.
This really surprises clients because they don’t realize how much they have until it’s all in one place. Seeing how much they own, makes it easier for them to let go of stuff.
Put all clothes on the bed
As we go along, remove hangers and group hangers by color. So we know which color has the most number of hangers.
Touch each one and keep what sparks joy, while disposing of what doesn’t.
This is also the chance to check the clothing for damage. Damaged items go in a pile so that my client could fix them because she’s quite handy with the sewing machine. For those that aren’t handy, this pile goes to your seamstress.
Whatever was for keeps, were folded in the Kon Mari Method and placed standing in boxes. Of course we sorted them and had different categories in each box arranged by color from dark to light.
My client had these beautiful black boxes from ordering stuff online. These are not the cockroach-food brown-carton type of box, which should used here in Manila because they attracts roaches that love to snack on them.
Doesn’t it look so relaxing now?
We folded everything we could possibly fold including jeans and shorts. As you can see the shorts are no longer lying down because instead of arranging them from the back to the front, we turned them so that they go from left to right, dark to light. The sides of the closet are natural stoppers. We even inserted a box to help keep everything up.
WHAT DID WE KEEP HANGING?
The only things we kept hanging were:
Silky tops that cannot be folded in the Kon Mari Method. We Arranged them from BIG TO SMALL, DARK TO LIGHT
Work Jackets, button downs and pants, plus some maxi skirts
Doesn’t it look so great when the clothes have regular intervals between them and each piece can breathe?
Also it looks really tidy because we used uniform hangers. Ideally I change clients hangers to off-white or gray velvet hangers like this and this. This is a game-changer because then the clothes don’t easily fall off. Don’t get the black because you can see each speck of dust on them so they look really untidy.
But if that’s not possible immediately, make sure that all hangers are the same color.
I'm really so proud of what my client and I achieved in only 4 hours and 15mins. The change is so dramatic.
BEFORE AND AFTER PHOT
This very slip hanging area was filled to the brim, difficult to use and hard to maintain. Now that there is space to breathe for each piece of clothing, it's easier to get dressed.
Once you go through all your clothes and only keep what sparks joy, then apply the Kon Mari Folding Method properly, you will realize you have so much space!
From a mess closet that had some random items inside it, my client now has a full length shoe and bag closet in an area that she can air out. It’s important to keep one category all in the same location so you don’t forget about stuff that you own and buy more.
If you’ll notice on the photo on the right, the arrangement of the shoes changes and the bags went higher. My client actually did this on her own a few days after our session.
After trying out the first arrangement, she preferred to have her shoes go from black to naturals in 4 shelves instead of just 3. I am really proud of her because she used what she learned about the Kon Mari Method and changed the organization of her shoe closet to fit her needs.
This is the beauty of the Kon Mari Method, you can adjust it and it’s really meant to make your life easier according to how you live in your space. This is all we ever want to do when we help a client out.
I feel like my job here is done. My only wish was that I was also able to train her helper so that she would not have the stress of having to do it. But at least we got her closet done in half a day!
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