After Kondo: The 5 Gifts a Year of No Shopping Gave Me

After reading Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up several winters ago, like many others, I dove right into saying thank you and goodbye to not a small number of clothes, shoes and accessories I’d moved from home to home (to home to home) over the last 20 years. I fairly easily and enthusiastically cut my wardrobe down by about 50%. While a few items went into the garbage, the vast majority, all in good condition and with plenty of life left in them, went to two of my favorite local thrift stores. I hoped there they would bring someone else some joy.

I felt peace and happiness from the process. Looking at my newly pared down closet was a pleasure and from the clothes I decided to keep I rediscovered some favorites that rejoined my frequent rotation. I felt freer and quite pleased with myself. Less really was more after all! I wanted to maintain this feeling.

Yet, what I soon discovered was that the space that had opened up in my closet also seemed to suggest that I could/should/would buy new things to take the places left vacant by the clothes I’d gotten rid of. As winter turned into spring and we…