KonMari Method Update: Decluttering Kids Clothes

When I started this #MyKonMariLifeChange project, there were a few areas of my decluttering I wasn’t sure how I would carry out. Beyond my overabundant stash of crafting supplies and the impressive collection of early learning materials, both of which are highly useful to me, there is also the little issue of Marie Kondo – the passionate author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing – having no kids of her own, and mentioning very, very little about decluttering children’s belongings. As a parent of a toddler whose clothes and toys keep multiplying, and who cannot sit down with me to go through each item and tell me which ones spark joy, this presents some difficulty that requires alternations to the KonMari method as it is laid out in the book.

I hummed and hawed about whether or not to finish decluttering all my things after initially KonMari-ing the crap out of my wardrobe, or if I should move over to my toddler’s room and go through her closet first. I ended up going through my books and a couple of the categories Marie Kondo refers to as “komono” (miscellany) before deciding to declutter the kiddie clothes. The reason for this was simply that the times when I could have space to go through her clothing without it becoming a giant mess of material on the floor, in which my darling monkey likes to dive in, shouting “Bath! Bath!” tends to be after her bed time, at which point I don’t want to be working in her room. To remedy this debacle, I planned ahead one evening by having freshly done all of her laundry and pulled the drawers out of her room before putting her to bed in there.

I had originally thought that going through my daughter’s clothes would take nearly as long as it did to go through mine, but I was very much mistaken. Amazingly, it took me between 1-2 hours to go through all of her tops, bottoms, PJs, onesies, socks, undies (yes, my not-yet-two-year-old wears undies sometimes at home because of this fantastic potty-training “method”), tights, shoes, skirts and dresses. I have yet to take a look at her accessories, but there aren’t very many of these and I expect this to be another quick and simple looksy like the rest.

The reason for the ease of my tot’s wardrobe decluttering is this: I love it all. That, and it’s all going sooner than later.

You see, what I quickly realized when going through my little one’s clothes was that a) we’ve done a good job of keeping her wardrobe to a reasonable size, b) all her clothes are frigging cute, and c) children this age go through clothes so quickly, due to the crazy rate of growth and the habit of leaving a number of colourful and/or unattractive stains and tears in their well-used garments. After all was said and done, only a few items were removed from her closet and drawers that were just not sparking joy or were too small.

Being that I had already been folding and storing my little one’s clothes in the KonMari method long before I read the book, there wasn’t much of a transformation of her wardrobe when I was finished decluttering it.

So, this whole “How do you declutter your toddler’s things?” question may not be as hard as I’ve been imagining it to be. Let’s hope this holds out as the next categories are tackled.

If you haven’t yet got your hands on this seemingly-boring, actually amazing and life-changing book, you can purchase it on Amazon.ca by clicking the image/link below.

There is also a 15-minute practical summary, which I haven’t read, but it’s a fairly simple idea, so it’s probably a good choice if your time is incredibly limited. Be forewarned, though: you’re probably going to miss out on some (unintentionally) hilarious quotes about proper sock storage and conversations you could have with your handbag.

*Disclaimer* I have included some associate links to the books for sale on Amazon.ca, to support this post and make it easy for you to find a copy for yourself. If you choose to purchase one of these nifty little reads, a small portion of the sale will come back to me, which will in turn help keep this blog going.