Marie Kondo is a genius. She has made tidying up fun and easy.
So I decided to give it a try.
If you’re unsure who Marie Kondo is, she is the guru of de-cluttering. She has a six-step method which suggests that you tidy your house according to categories, eg: clothing, books, administrative papers, miscellaneous items and sentimental items. As you go through each category, you decide which items to toss or not by asking whether the thing in question “sparks joy” for you. If yes, you keep it. If no, you get rid of it (donate, sell, discard).
Sounds simple right?
Well, kind of. Here was my Kondo conundrum.
As I was going about sorting and tidying my clothes, I realised just how much variation in sizes there were.
- Smaller sizes from my younger years.
- Sizes before I was pregnant.
- Sizes while I was pregnant.
- Sizes for my post-baby body.
So how the heck do I know which clothes spark joy if I don’t fit into half of them anymore?
Well if I listened to diet culture, it would dictate that I should get rid of my “fat clothes” otherwise it would just “set you up for failure” (1). But I’m not going to buy into that BS (you can read more about my farewell letter to diet culture here).
Instead I’m going to respect and appreciate my body.
And how? By dressing for its current shape and size.
A big part of making peace with our body is to appreciate it and respect it (1). And this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to love every part … it means treating it with dignity and providing it with its basic needs.
One of these basic needs is to dress comfortably. Tribole and Resch (2017) say that clients who dress for their “here-and-now” bodies are more likely to feel relaxed and be more relaxed about their eating. They have found that once people have ditched the uncomfortable clothes, they lose the negative feelings towards their bodies! And this comfort principle goes a step further to say that we should also wear the clothes that we’re used to strutting our stuff in (for me, that’s shorts, jeans and tees!).
With that said though, I wondered what would be so wrong with keeping the pre-baby clothes in case I fit into them again?
Well, holding on to small clothes and constantly trying them on and not fitting into them can be just as destructive as jumping on the scales to weigh yourself. It’s sending yourself a message that you haven’t been able to shrink your body and therefore, need to lose weight (1).
So then, what was the solution?
I decided to get comfy.
- I kept the clothes in my wardrobe that not only sparked joy, but also fit me comfortably.
- I boxed up my maternity clothes (who knows what the future holds?! ;))
- I donated my pre-baby clothes to charity.
- I tore up the old, tattered clothes to use as cleaning cloths and packing materials.
- I also set aside a little play money to purchase a couple of additional pieces that would be appropriate for my current size.
So now I’m happy to say that I am no longer sitting around in clothes that were meant for my pregnant belly or that are cutting me in at the waist. And I feel great!
Now wish me luck as I venture off to tackle the home office, garage and kitchen …
References:
(1) Tribole E, Resch E. The Intuitive Eating Workbook: Ten Principles for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications; 2017