One of the big things I wanted to work on this IAP was decluttering my life. Before I left for Christmas Break, I realized that somehow over the past 6 and a half years (boarding school + college) of being in the States, I had accumulated a ridiculous amount of stuff: clothes, makeup, art supplies, pens.... and it was overwhelming.

So last weekend, I finally sat down and went through all my makeup. At some point in high school, I had gotten super into playing around with makeup (I did my final AP Painting and Drawing concentration on theatrical makeup! Examples can be seen in the photography section of my portfolio, and the artistic recreations in the studio art section) and because of that, had palettes and shadows and lipsticks just lying around waiting to be used, and since they were ridiculous bright colors, they really were just collecting dust. I ended up piling everything on the floor, sorting everything into categories (eyes, cheeks, powders, lips, etc), tossing all the stuff that had expired, and gave away most of the stuff I didn't use to my friends. After doing so, I felt awesome, and it's pretty refreshing to be able to reach into my little plastic drawers and pinpoint exactly what I want quickly and efficiently in the morning when I'm slapping my face on.

Hi, I'm Cecile and I have (had!) a problem. This is most of the stuff I had, sorted in piles on the floor! I'm proud to say that I've reduced it by more than 50%

Today, I decided I should tackle my closet. I ended up sorting everything into 3 piles: keep, refashion, and donate. I just spent an hour and a half going through every item in my closet, trying things on, making my roommate help me decide (I put on my corset - I got it for a Bellatrix costume back in high school - for her to thank her for helping me), and throwing things into their respective piles. I now have two full plastic bags ready to bring to Goodwill, full of free tshirts and jackets and sweaters and things that I just have outgrown and/or don't wear. Hopefully they will find better homes.

I then also reorganized all my t-shirts and tank-tops by folding them and stacking them vertically, which helps me see all the items at once. (I usually keep my shirts folded like this, it just slowly deteriorates as the semester goes.) Hopefully this way I can show approximately equal amounts of love to all my clothes, instead of always reaching for that "They see me rolling, they hatin" narwhal t-shirt from the last career fair that's always on the top of the pile.

look at all my neatly folded tshirts! cross your fingers and hope it stays like that. Can you spot the narwhal t?

Lastly, I have a small pile of clothes chilling on the floor that will end up being refashioned. For those of you who don't know, I have a sewing machine that I traded my airline points for, and I've been learning how to sew with it. Look for a bunch of DIYs soon!

I've always been a bit of a hoarder - why throw something away when I paid money for it, right?? - but I've found that decluttering has really helped with my mental state - I guess living in a disordered room can lead to having a disordered mind. I'm also just kind of super OCD sometimes, so having everything in my environment super neat is really helpful. My next decluttering project is to go through all my pens and just throw stuff out.

How do you feel about decluttering, or are you secretly a hoarder too?