The best question to ask when discarding clothing (hint: it doesn’t involve joy)

Photo by Adrian Moise on Unsplash

I’m a fan of both Marie Kondo’s Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Her KonMari method has helped me enjoy living less cluttered with minimal effort. Over the years, my tidier existence has given me a more deliberate life.

I’m far from perfection when it comes to being tidy

I don’t exactly live in some sparse, minimalist wet dream. Clothes are by far the toughest category for me to discard. I have unreasonable sentimental attachments to clothing. I also have a stuffed closet with too many things in it I have never worn.

For my New Year’s Resolution, I am not buying any new (or new-to-me) clothes for one year

When I made this resolution, I felt a calm come over me. I’ll finally get rid of clothing in an impactful way. Previously, I’d been getting rid of clothes, but purchasing new-to-me clothes. I wasn’t making much forward progress with having less clothing or even only having clothes that bring me joy.

When buying new clothes, I used to ask an odd question — not the discarding question