It's been quiet on the blogging front but I'm back with more progress on my KonMari project. Today I'm sharing my decluttering of bags, scarves and shoes. Let's get started.
First up, bags. Now, I don't own very many handbags, which is probably a good thing, so I decided to also lump in other types of bags, such as rucksacks, shopping bags, overnight bags and toiletry bags, etc. and then suddenly it seemed like a lot. Funny how that happens. Here's the initial round-up.
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| Variety of bags - can't remember the count. |
Most of the rucksacks I'd had for decades - at least one was still from high school. Whenever I find such things I wonder to myself why I Earth I still have it and more to the point, why did I pay good money to ship it overseas to another continent? Madness, I tell you.
Now, there was one particularly hard decision in this culling. That shabby purple messenger-style bag, second in on the bottom row - that has long been my traveling/holiday handbag. It's fabulous because it has a good, wide shoulder strap that bears weight evenly and plenty of room inside for one's purse, sunglasses, travel guides, camera, water bottle, documents - you name it. It's been through so many countries with me: Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, France, Denmark and of course Sweden. Needless to say, it's been well loved and well used and as a result, it's been steadily falling apart. It wasn't easy but I thanked that handbag dearly and decided it was time to let it go. I also let go the lovely orange leather handbag I loved and used until the strap broke, had it fixed and continued to use it until the strap broke a second time.
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| Remaining Bags: 15 |
Next I moved on to scarves and other accessories. I do love scarves. I wear them with my jackets outdoors and I also enjoy wearing them as part of an outfit indoors. The collection has grown and grown and grown. Some I buy myself and many are gifts, knit by my granny or given as Christmas gifts or gifts from students. I also decided to include belts plus the hats and gloves/mittens from my foyer closet here.
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| Scarves, hats, gloves and belts - oh my! |
Doing the 'joy check' on the hats, gloves/mittens and belts was easy and very little was left. The scarves were harder. Some really made me pause and consider but you know instantly when you're holding a 'joyful' item. Final tally: 2 belts, 4 hats, 3 gloves/mittens and 8 scarves.
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| Accessories: 17 |
The final clothing category is shoes. I pulled out all my outdoor shoes, dress shoes, casual shoes, flip flops and even grabbed the old hiking boots from the attic and my figure skates (close enough, right?).
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| Beginning Shoes: 19 |
This category was actually easier for me because I had already ear-marked a number of shoes that needed to go, either because they weren't comfortable or because they were old and falling apart or hadn't been used in years.
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| Remaining Shoes: 10 |
And since I had already tidied the bags, I was able to put all of the shoes I was donating into the bags I had decided to donate - win, win!
Total donation/rubbish bags to date: 3
Total attic boxes emptied: 1
