Questions to ask when decluttering shoes and bags.

Welcome to Week 4 of Tidy 21. Over the last three weeks we’ve tackled clothing and outerwear. This week we are finishing off the things that we wear with shoes, bags and belts.

Shoes

Gather ALL of your shoes, every single pair. Put them into categories and then Joy Check them. As you Joy Check, also ask yourself questions like, “Are these comfortable to wear?” and “Do these support the life that I want to lead?”.

This picture, taken by my brand photographer last year, made us laugh.

I used to be a bit of a shoe fiend, I loved them! Even after I initially did The Marie Kondo Method™, I kept a considerable amount as they all Sparked Joy. However, over time my shoe collection has shrunk as I have become more discerning over what I am prepared to have on my feet. I still love a beautiful pair of shoes, but if they are not perfect and very comfortable, then I won’t have them; this includes high heeled shoes.

The shoes that are in season are the ones by the door (so at the moment in the middle of winter, that is only the flat boots), the others live in my wardrobe.

Some of my lovely shoes.

Bags

Do the same Collection and Joy Check with hand bags. Again, this is another area where I used to have quite a few, but have cut down a lot over time. Many of my handbags actually live in the sentimental category as they were bought for me by my husband. On a day to day basis, I only really have one handbag that I use which is a lovely brown one. It fits everything in it that I need on a day to day basis and it lives in at the top of the coat cupboard where it is easily accessible for me to grab when I am going out (rare enough these days of course!).

Marie Kondo suggests emptying your handbag every day to ensure that you don’t end up with a large build-up of detritus. Personally, I don’t do this, but I do take out all the receipts etc and re-set it every time I use it. I have a little inner bag that holds all the things in it that I use regularly. If I want to use a different bag, I just pick up the inner bag and move it.

Storing Bags

Bags other than my daily bag are stored stacked inside each other in my wardrobe. It is easy to pull out the one that I want and put the others back into the stack. If your bags are being kept above your eye line, then having the handle or strap showing over the top is useful for remembering them.

Some people have several stacks of different types of bags and others like to display their bags as “art”. It’s really up to you, whatever works best, and I always love to see the different ideas that people come up with.

One of my cupboards.

Belts

Finally, do the same with belts! I actually don’t have any belts at all! I just don’t wear them, so they have all gone… However, I’d love to see how you store them.

For the entire series on decluttering and organising your home, check out this blog:

https://www.thetidycoo.com/single-post/tidy-21-round-up

For a set of Guides on various subjects, check out this page: https://www.thetidycoo.com/thetidycooguideto

For my Book, go here: https://www.thetidycoo.com/product-page/easy-life-from-chaos-to-calm-with-minimal-effort

Interested in more? Check out 12 Weeks To Tidy: https://www.thetidycoo.com/12-weeks-to-tidy