Kara Reynolds Writes: Bonus Tidying Up Tuesday: Ryan's Clothes

Since I've started my tidying mission, Ryan's been asking me when we're going to do his clothes. I told him we could do it whenever he wanted, and he hasn't taken me up on it. But on Tuesday, he ended up taking an unexpected day off work, and I needed a project, so we did his clothes!

The closet in our room, which has Ryan's stuff in it

When we moved in, we put two tension rods in the closet for Ryan to hang his clothes on. It was a quick fix so we could get unpacked, and we've never taken the time to actually fix up our closet.

Ryan's dresser. He has six fairly small drawers.

For privacy's sake I didn't take "before" pictures of Ryan's drawers. But suffice it to say that they were stuffed full. Ryan often drags his feet on putting away laundry that I've washed and folded for him because getting the laundry into the drawers is such a pain.

The pile. Our biggest by far.

Shoes to sort (I didn't want them on my bed)

It took almost four hours to go through Ryan's clothes, sort the keepers, and get everything back in place. Usually when Ryan or I has a project we do it on our own, and the other person keeps the kids out of the way. Getting to work on a project together was so nice. I got to explain all of Marie Kondo's tidying principles. Ryan got to share a lot of the memories behind his clothes as we sorted through them. Going through his clothing was a chance for us to have a long conversation, and I'm really glad we got to spend that time together. Also, the transformation was really dramatic!

Everything in this photo is garbage or headed to Goodwill or the consignment shop. Except the chair.

Ryan's "hang up clothes" now fit entirely on one tension rod. When he's done renovating our bathroom, our closet is going to get a makeover. We might even have room in there for my clothes, too!