My Biggest Lesson from Marie Kondo-ing

I have always moved pretty consistently throughout my adult life, which forced me to take a look at everything I owned and really decide if I needed it or not. When it came time to renew my lease at my current place, I realized I had been here 3 years and had not done a purge.

Things were starting to accumulate. Drawers wouldn’t open. Things were falling out of cabinets. It was bad, y’all. I knew I needed to go through everything with a strict eye and really decide to do something. This was November, mind you. The holidays were eminent and I had no extra time (ok, well extra time I wanted to dedicate to this) to fix the problem.

Fast forward to early January before I went back to work and up popped a new show on Netflix, Tidying up with Marie Kondo. Sure, why not? So, I started the first episode. I know, the irony of it all slightly embarrasses me and makes me laugh that I was binge watching Netflix when I could have been cleaning. Clearly, it wasn’t a big enough priority.

About half way through the episode, I immediately felt the urge to organize, but I did not want to leave the show. I chose to organize the TV cabinet. Which lead to cleaning the coat closet. And finally the kitchen. I was starting to feel lighter, like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. And so, I wanted to continue this journey – especially to the biggest mess of my life, my closet. While I have still not finished, I have been able to organize over half of it. And I am so embarrassed by the amount of stuff that I am letting go of. It is seriously a crazy amount, y’all. Cue, the hand to the head emoji.

Besides being able to actually move clothes on the rack, this exercise has taught me the importance of really valuing the items that I bring into my house and encourages me to be more creative when it comes to how I dress. I’m (slowly) learning that I don’t need a shirt strictly dedicated to wear during the day and one that is dedicated for the evening. I can mix and match and, in Tim Gunn’s words, “make it work.” For 2019, I am going to try my best to only buy pieces that I truly love. I think this is going to be extremely difficult because I love fashion so much and want to try a lot of trends, but I need to do this for my sanity, my organization and my wallet.

In an effort to jumpstart my new found ~~minimalism~~ creativity, today’s post is all about taking a piece – an embroidered sweatshirt – and styling it both for a casual day out and for a more stylish brunch or dinner look. It was so much fun trying to figure out what I had in my closet to make these two looks come together. Besides the two sweatshirts, which were gifted to me by the fabulous brand, Ori, everything else were items I took from my closet. I would call that a big victory!

Ori recently (aka. Monday) launched their website and are officially open for business. I am so excited for their launch because they make some of the best every day essentials that we all need in our closet (and how cute are the embroidery designs? I have been following them on IG for months because of the sneak peeks of these designs….#seriouslyobsessed). In addition to the plus size embroidered sweatshirt, they also offer t-shirts and cotton dresses! I cannot wait to see what else Ori has in store because what’s better than looking cute and feeling comfortable at the same time?

And the team at Ori have been so kind to give all of your SGSB readers 10% off your purchase with the code EMILY or you can click through this link and it will automatically apply the 10% off code. PLUS, they have offered one lucky SGSB reader the chance to win an embroidered sweatshirt of your own! Make sure to enter the Rafflecopter below to win it!

Have y’all been obsessed with Marie Kondo and organizing your homes? I would love to hear all of your tips! I’m still a work in progress…. 😀

The giveaway ends on 2/19/2019 at 11:59PM EST. Must be 18 years old to enter. U.S. Residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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