There will be times in life when you will feel like despite your best efforts, you're banging your head up against a dead wall. Yes, walls are not living or dead, but bear with me here.


So what if your last try didn't work out? Don't stop! What are you going to learn from it? What new thing are you going to add to the equation?

I'm convinced that the more a person is willing to learn, the more capable they are at achieving whatever it is they set their mind to!

So don't give up. Keep walking, keep trying. Success is a process just as learning is its partner.

Ever get that feeling that you're surrounded by junk? Yep, thought so...

I knew I had to do something to my closet with I recognized that there were things that I would make a conscious effort to AVOID wearing if I could help it. Every time, the minute I thought caught myself in that thought I would think, 'Wait, I don't even like this...why am I keeping it?'

Then I would come up with some random justification like, 'I just need the right thing to wear with it' or 'I'll keep it for that rainy day where every other blessed thing in my closet is in the laundry bin.'

Still, both of those failed to satisfy my puzzled state of mind. I thought for sure that I would be forever stuck in this place where there was always SOMETHING I'd be holding onto be that out of guilt, sentimentality, or blind hope. Then I discovered - drum roll please - Kon Mari!

Kon Mari is a Japanese method of organization created by Marie Kondo, who - believe it or not - is Japanese (Who'd of thought?)

Her method is pretty simple; if the item does not "spark joy" then it needs to be tossed. Doesn't matter if it's your old high school sweatshirt or your grandmother's hand-knit sweater. No ifs or buts; if it doesn't actually make you happy, it doesn't belong.

She instructs that you MUST start with clothing working your way through a certain order of categories to maintain order once you have obtained it.

So I began the cleanse...

She literally says to throw everything in a pile in the middle of the room

Honestly, where did all this stuff come from??

After I had done that, I handle every item and took the time to notice whether or not it "sparked joy."

If it didn't, I tossed it into the donation pile, but NOT before thanking it for it's service.

Just look at all that stuff!

Yeah, I literally said, "Thank you" to a bunch of inanimate objects...it was weird.

It may feel stressful at first, but trust me, it feels so GOOD when everything you own is something that makes you happy!

Look at the difference!

Unfortunately, I don't have the BEFORE, but this seriously feels SO. MUCH. BETTER!

BEFORE bookshelf/desk cleanse

AFTER bookshelf/desk cleanse

That's the beautiful thing about capsule wardrobes, EVERYTHING gets worn, used, and loved.

If you have a true and honest capsule wardrobe, your entire closet should almost fit inside a medium to large suitcase. With that said, this means your closet will only be about 37 to 45 pieces. Yes, this includes shirts, jackets, coats, skirts, pants, jeans, and shoes.

If you want to be REALLY thrifty, it could also include your belts, hats, purses, and other accessories too. Why hold on to a ton of bags that you never use? Again, it just ends up a useless pile taking up space!

When the season starts changing, this is when you know it's time to change up the wardrobe and put some out of season things away. If the leaves on the trees are changing colors, sorry hon, but that means it's time for those pretty chiffon tanks and blouses to hibernate for the next little while.

Relax, you don't need to throw them out, just tuck them away in a storage bin or box for now.

You still want to keep it capsule-size, so don't go crazy on the shopping. For as many items as you put away, replace them with a season-appropriate piece. Or maybe you've been wearing that same argyle sweater for too many years and it's time for an update all together. That's fine too, but don't. Go. Overboard.

Funny thing with us humans, we feel the more choices we have, the more freedom we have. That's not always true. Personally, I find the more clothes in my closet, the longer my morning staring-at-the-closet-with-no-idea-what-to-wear session is. Keeping it simple means keeping it short.

You really have more options than you'd think! Three jackets, two jeans, four pairs of shoes, five shirts and blouses, three skirts, three pants, two coats, and three purses means you've got 6,480 different combinations! And that's only 25 articles of clothing!

Still holding that armful of clothes? Well? You going to let it just take up space or what?

Ta!

Jess

My last piece of wisdom from Audrey today is to just be HAPPY. If you give it your honest effort, you can find at least ONE thing everyday to be happy about. Whether that simply be that the sun came out, that you had food to eat for breakfast, or that you got to work on time. You can find that ONE thing. The more you strive for gratitude, the happier you with be. 

You know how you hate working with stupid people? Well, I hate talking with stupid people. Now, hold on a second, hear me out on this one.

One of my biggest pet peeves in the entire world is talking to stupid people...or at least people that sound like they're stupid. Sure maybe they can name all fifty state capitals, or recite the entirety of Pi from memory; maybe they really do have a higher than fifth-grade reading level. They just don't sound like it!

Seriously, think about it. You can know all this cool stuff, but if you can't communicate it to people like you actually know what you're talking about, who cares? I might add, you may look really amazing in your ensemble of choice for the day, but if your language doesn't match? You kind of look like you're trying too hard to be something you're not.

Talking to people like that almost physically makes me uncomfortable as my perception of their intelligence takes a nose-dive train wreck to the bottom of the ocean. I quite literally, cannot take them seriously.

One of my FAVORITE poems of all time is a free-verse piece by Taylor Mali appropriately named, "Totally, Like, Whatever." I'll let him do the talking for me.



We all did it. We talked a certain way, because it's how the "cool" kids talked. Or at least how the kids who THOUGHT they were "cool" talked. Don't get me wrong, I used to have this same problem all the time. In fact, all the way through middle school I inserted all these unnecessary, empty comparatives and filler words into my speech, which did nothing except fill the space in which I had nothing meaningful to say.
The tragedy? For many of us now, it's an unconscious habit!
I eventually came to a spot in my adolescence when I asked myself, "Why do I talk like this? What do I sound like? Does this even help me?"
It took awhile, and a lot of conscious effort, but I eventually climbed out of the funk I'd discovered myself in. It's quite freeing, really. When you realize that the only words coming out of your mouth are the ones that help carry the message you want to communicate, you feel empowered! Say what you believe and mean it! That my friend, IS cool.
Imagine, feeling strong and almost invincible simply by the way you talk! I might add, imagine how smart, and even, elegant you will sound to those around you.
So, in the words of Taylor Mali: I implore you, I entreat you, and I challenge you to speak with conviction!
Ta!
Jess