Week Three | July 22, 2023
spark joy slo
Declutter. Organize. Spark Joy.
Welcome to our final week!
Wow! You’ve made it through the hardest part. Now you just have to add the finishing, joy-sparking touches. I hope that the past few weeks have left you feeling refreshed and brought you some joy. Perhaps you have gained some confidence and learned to trust your gut a little more. I hope the journey has led you to find more joy and peace in your life.
This week we will learn about storage, folding, and maintaining your closet and mindset.
Let’s get the party started!
Organizing your closet
It is recommended that you organize your closet so that the hanging items rise to the right. This means hanging the longer, heavier items to the left and lighter, shorter items to the right. The reason for this is that our brains find lines that slant up to the right more pleasing! Try taking your finger and draw an imaginary line going up from left to right. Then try the opposite— draw line going down from left to right. Did you find one more enjoyable?!
However, organizing your closet is all about sparking the most joy for YOU! So if you prefer to do rainbow order, do it! If you like having your clothes organized into categories, do it! Just make sure that when you look at it, it sparks joy (and try to put the items back in the same place each time.)
One last note on the hanging items— while I don’t want you to go out and spend a lot of money, I highly recommend you invest in matching hangers, particularly velvet ones if you haven’t already. It is truly amazing how drastically having matching hangers can change your closet. I usually find them at Home Goods, Tj Maxx, and occasionally Costco.
Maintaining your closet and mindset
Closet
Over the past few weeks, you have spent time visualizing your ideal lifestyle and reflecting on how your current clothing could support you in your life moving forward. Although having a beautifully organized wardrobe can feel magical, it’s not magically going to stay organized! You do have to put in a little work. However, if you have systems put in place, keeping it organized will take minimal effort.
I want you to remember this— Having an organized home doesn’t mean there’s never a mess!
It means that all of your items have a designated spot where they can rest comfortably when not in use. Are they always in their spot?— No. If there is clutter it should be because something happened in life that caused you to not put the items away. Maybe you had a long day, or maybe you were out doing something fun— but you will get to it eventually. Clutter shouldn’t just be sitting around because you aren’t sure where to put it! When you know that each item has a place, it makes clutter feel less overwhelming when it does happen…. and having less stuff makes it much easier to do this!
Mindset
Now, you put so much effort into decluttering your wardrobe— let’s make sure it doesn’t build up to an overwhelming amount again! As you move forward with bringing new items into your wardrobe, continue to ask yourself if they align with your ideal lifestyle.
Will the new item serve a purpose that aligns with your purpose?
Does the item make you feel confident and comfortable?
Is the item long lasting? Will you wear it more than once?
Don’t let go of your vision and don’t let go of the gratitude you expressed to each of your items and your home. (I like to periodically go in my closet and run my fingers along the clothes. It sort of wakes them up and shows gratitude.) It may seem silly but I find this practice helps me stay intentional when I’m shopping for new items to add to my collection because I can imagine how the new item would look and feel in my closet.
Folding a variety of items
Last week we talked a little about folding and storage. Below I have included some additional folding videos along with the ones that were in week two. When placing your items in the drawers, you want them to be able to stand upright without being squished on top. I like to use shoeboxes inside some of my drawers to help keep things organized. It certainly doesn’t need to be fancy to spark joy! (pizza, sweatpants, sunsets…;) If you have shelves in your closet, you could also put boxes or baskets on them for extra storage. Just keep in mind, you may need to make some adjustments to your folding depending on the height of where you are going to store the item. Remember, there is not only one right way to fold, but there are some guidelines to assist you in finding the happiest fold for each item!
focus on making rectangles and folding in thirds.
press out the wrinkles.
the item should be able to stand vertically on its own.
the height of the folded item should fit nicely in the drawer.
How to fold bulky items
If the item is too bulky to fold in thirds, you can just fold it in half. You can follow this same folding method for thinner long sleeve shirts.
How to fold a basic t-shirt
You can follow the same method for tank tops, you just wont have the sleeves. You can also follow it for long sleeves by folding the sleeves in like you can see in the sweater video.
How to fold socks
Did you know your sock drawer could spark so much joy!? Just please don’t ball your socks!
How to fold jeans & pants
You can follow this same method for folding leggings and sweatpants. You can also follow it for shorts, you will just fold them in half or thirds.
Homework
Take “after” pictures of your closet and drawers. Look back at your “before” pictures and admire your progress!
Drop off your donation bags ASAP! Don’t leave them sitting around (and don’t start looking through them again!)
If you plan to sell any items, list them immediately. Give yourself a timeline to do this by to avoid having unwanted items hanging around.
Continue to visualize your ideal lifestyle to guide your decision making when bringing new clothing into your home.
Continue to show gratitude to your wardrobe and your home.
Thank you for joining me on this journey! If you decided to do your closet cleanout at a later date, I would still love to hear about your progress! Please don’t hesitate to keep in touch and reach out with any questions or celebrations! You can contact me at annie@sparkjoyslo.com or on Instagram.
With joy + gratitude,
Annie