Mackenzie Carose

Clean Out Your Closet

By Mackenzie 1 Comment

“If you want to improve your life immediately, clean out your closet. Often it’s what we hold onto that holds us back”. -Cheryl Richardson

Most days we open the doors to our closet, grab the same shirt and pants, and shut the door. We ignore the clothes draped on hangars that haven’t seen the light of day in months. We disregard the boots we never wear because they are a bit too tight around the calves. We neglect the baseball caps flung up on a shelf haphazardly because well, truth be told, we don’t really like wearing hats. We overlook the dresses stuffed in the dark recesses of our closet because we are not really a dress person but that one occasion might come up and then we’ll need a dress, so…

Do these statements sound familiar to you? *raises hand* Me too. As someone who really, really dislikes clutter and hanging onto things I needn’t hang on to, my closet was just one of those things that subconsciously bothered me but just kept putting off because I knew I’d have to devote some serious time to the project and I have a degree in procrastination. Not really, but I come from a long line of procrastinators. Our motto is we’ll get to it… eventually.

Finally one Saturday morning, my irritation with my closet got the best of me and I just started pulling everything out. I grumbled while doing it, but I took everything out. I do share a closet with my husband but I left all of his stuff in there because that is his to deal with as he sees fit. My focus was my clothing and accoutrements exclusively.

After I took everything out, I went through every single item of clothing. This is really the most important part right here: you must touch and pick up every single item of clothing. Look at it. Try it on if you have to. Is it stretched out? Does it have holes in it? Is it too small? Too big? If it is something you haven’t worn in over a year, are you ever going to wear it?

Try not to let guilt hold you back when it comes to getting rid of something. Case in point: the dress that I had worn for this past Easter, I did not enjoy wearing. Completely by coincidence, both my daughters happened to wear blue Easter dresses. I wanted to somewhat match them so I purchased a dress that had blue flowers woven all through it. The whole day that I wore the dress, I kept tugging at the hem because it was too short for my liking. Luckily I wore a long cardigan over to feel less exposed but again, I did not like the dress. I also realized that I do not enjoy wearing floral dresses anymore like I did many years ago, so this dress really had to go. I didn’t want to hold onto it simply because I had already paid for it and there was now a “sunken cost”.

It does bother me obviously that I bought this dress and am now donating after only wearing it once, but I have learned my lesson. I do not enjoy wearing short dresses and I do not enjoy wearing anything that is floral. Also, I had to contend with ingrained purchasing from when I was younger. When I was a kid, we always received a new dress for Easter every single year (things were different in the 80’s), and subconsciously I was trying to do the same thing with my kids and myself even though we all could have worn last year’s Easter dresses and been fine. Doing the work isn’t just physical sometimes. It can be psychological as well.

I got rid of quite a few things besides the aforementioned dress. Everything that was donatable was placed into bags ready to be alleviated at my nearest donation center. Everything that was just in the wrong spot was placed in the right room and/or closet. And everything that was trash… was placed in trash.

I tend to wear the exact same things over and over: a t-shirt and jeans, with or without a cardigan. Throw on a pair of Converse or Vans and I am done. I am ready to go. Wearing stripes or just solid colors is my favorite. And now my closet reflect that. It reflects me. Every item in there is truly something I will wear. I could probably pare down some of my t-shirts and I will as I continue to reevaluate what is actually being worn and what I think is being worn. And now that my closet has been condensed and minimized, I will readily be able to see on an ongoing basis what needs to go.

I now also have peace of mind. My closet no longer stresses me out. It is now not in the back of mind that I should really do something about my closet. It is done. I don’t even think about my closet now.

And you can’t put a price on that.

As The Page Turns: November Edition

By Mackenzie 6 Comments

Are we really into the month of November? Almost a full year of book reviews! 🙂 Here is what has piqued my interest in books lately…

A World Without Email by Cal Newport

I have read Digital Minimalism which is another book that Newport wrote and I found it interesting so I decided to give this latest book of his a try. I will preface this by saying this book had a lot of information and at times I wondered if I picked the right book but it really was very interesting.

At the heart of the matter is that email is basically driving everyone batty. Whether you work in a corporate office or work from home or keep getting emails several times a day from your child’s school (ahem), the constant interruption of notifications of emails is making us twitch a bit. Couple that with emails where you are cc’d or bcc’d on that don’t actually pertain to you, and you are ready to just chuck your phone (or laptop) out the window.

The irony of all this is that email wasn’t created to be this disruptive yet that is what it has become. Newport doesn’t state to just chuck the concept of email out the door, but he does offer alternatives for companies to use instead of email which is a known productivity disruptor. In some cases, especially if you work in an office, it is sometimes easier to just get up and go talk to the person you need to question face-to-face instead of spending 10 or 15 minutes typing out an email.

If you are unable to completely disentangle yourself from the disruptive nature of emails, Newport suggests unsubscribing from whatever is not relevant and to set parameters around checking your email. Maybe for your peace of mind, you only check email once in the morning and once at night. Or maybe you take email off your phone and only check it when you turn on your laptop. Setting boundaries when it comes to email seems to be the best option and that is what Newport is basically advocating for.

I found the book to be an interesting and timely read especially in this technological age that we are in.

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin

I enjoy fiction that takes place across the pond especially novels that take place between 1900 and the 1940’s. This novel takes place during WWII in Britain. The novel follows a woman named Grace who moves to London and works in a bookshop. She deals with air raids, blackouts, and the Blitz, all the while transforming the dusty old bookshop that she works at, into an inviting space where people can come get a book and forget their war troubles for a bit.

I know this is a fiction book, but the London Blitz was a real thing and what they had to to endure with endless night after night bombings from the German army was terrifying and really sapped morale even though the British were told to “Keep Calm and Carry On”. I thought the author did an excellent job of showing how residents dealt with the aftermath of having street after street just annihilated and losing neighbors and friends to nightly bombs.

I liked the book and it passed the time just fine.

Simple Matters by Erin Boyle and An Edited Life by Anna Newton

These two books are books that I have read before. They are about simplifying your life, your home, etc… This past year and a half with the pandemic and all of its stressors, has brought a lot of stuff into my home and it is driving me bonkers. Re-reading these gave me some extra motivation. I wrote more in depth about it all here.

Did any of these books catch your attention? Let me know in the comments!

Recalibrating

By Mackenzie 1 Comment

The past year and a half have been something for the record books, am I right? We’ve all had days when we’ve just “gotten through” and that’s okay. We are human. But for me personally, I need to get back to basics and that means getting the “stuff” out of my home and get back to keeping things simple.

I am currently re-reading An Edited Life by Anna Newton and Simple Matters by Erin Boyle to jump start my creativity in deciding what to keep as I am decluttering. Decorative items that aren’t my style anymore are getting a big ‘ol heave ho. One weekend I took everything out of my closet until it was empty and ruthlessly went through all my clothes, shoes, and assorted items and only kept what I was absolutely going to wear and use. I will share the before and afters in another post 🙂

During the past 18 months, we’ve brought in a lot of items and stuff that maybe we wouldn’t have normally because of the pandemic. Gadgets, gizmos, and what-nots, have all made their way into our home and it is keeping me on edge. It is too much. I feel like I am constantly cleaning things off of tables, off of countertops, off of nightstands and dressers, off of bathroom counters, etc… and I just can’t anymore.

It has to go.

I need a calming space and so does my family. The clutter is not making me happy and in fact all of the things contribute to my anxiety. I also feel like I can’t contribute my time to other things, such as writing here, when I am staring at a countertop full of accoutrements.

I have made some headway on this simplifying journey and I still have a ways to go and that is okay. It is a marathon, not a sprint. I have to remember that it took awhile to accumulate all this stuff. It is going to take awhile to get rid of it all. But just getting started is the hardest part and I have done that, so I am on my way.

Have you ever done a big decluttering session? How did it go?