By Julia Simak

Personally, I felt a deep sense of misery when the thought of cleaning out my closet slipped to the forefront of my mind. The laborious, debilitating mountain to climb was the pile of clothes on my floor, the stack of unworn shirts on my chair, and the untouched suitcase that I never bothered to unpack after my trip to Mexico… two months ago. The hill felt oh-so-high that the thought of touching a single piece of clothing triggered a deep pit of dread. So, how am I not living in a dump, you may ask?

It was a bright, sunny May midafternoon when the cherry tree outside my window simply did not match the piles of filth in my room. The light spring glow of the sunshine on my blanket was overtaken by the loads of mismatched socks in its periphery screaming at me to sort them. I had to do something. It was time, my socks said. The task was overwhelming, yes, but I knew that I could do it. I began by breaking down the process. What was I going to do with all the different types of clothes? Was I going to throw all of them in my closet? NO! That’s when my love for decluttering kicked in, and it kicked in hard.

I set a timer for 20 minutes, set up three corners in my room, and got to work. In the corner by my desk, I set aside room for clothes I no longer wore that I wanted to give to my younger cousin. In the corner by my closet, I made room for clothes that I wanted to donate to Goodwill. In the corner by my bed, I made room for the rest of the clothes that I was going to keep. My only mistake was estimating that this would take 20 minutes… it took three hours. How did I get through it? Facilitated by a 5-minute break timer every 20 minutes, cookies were eaten. Takeaway: no difficult task should be done without snacks. When embarking on a journey of this degree, one must make sure they are supported with their personal comforts. Mine happen to be cookies.

Although one might believe I had eaten more cookies than I should have (I don’t believe it), the process was not over yet. To my horror, I still had to do something with all the *sorted* clothes on my floor. I needed to acquire boxes. Never in my life had I figured out where people found boxes, so I rummaged through my house and found box-look-alikes. I used two plastic bins from my basement to pack away the “give to cousin” pile and the “donate to Goodwill” pile. These boxes were immediately shoved into the back of my car.

Finally, you guessed it. The most tedious, draining, and cumbersome task was left: hanging up the clothes I wanted to keep. Picture this: your back is hurting, it’s getting a bit darker outside, you’re starving, and you’re starting to feel dizzy from the sugar crash of eating eight cookies and nothing else. What could possibly motivate you to finish this task? A really good podcast. When embarking on a difficult journey, ALWAYS make sure it is paired with something that makes you feel good. It was one last stretch of the journey. I didn’t know if there were enough hangers or if I had too many. I didn’t know if I would come across an outfit that I changed my mind on. I didn’t know if I would have the energy to finish the pile, but I started it anyway. Before I knew it, the podcast was over, the mountain was climbed, and the feeling of accomplishment was enjoyed.