Hello friends!
Today's mission is a little more challenging because it involves a much bigger area than just your handbag. Today you will purge your wardrobe. Now don't be scared. I know downsizing your clothes can feel like a mammoth of a task at first, but it's actually so freeing!
And today is just the start. Over the years you will have to go back to decluttering your clothes every now and then. I can't say how many times I've gone through my clothes over the past few years, and there's still always more to be done! Culling my wardrobe twice a year (e.g. fall and spring) works best for me.
The Goal
- an organized, neat wardrobe
- an overseeable collection that easily mixes and matches
- making your favourite items your most-worn items
- focussing on quality instead of quantity
- stopping or reducing your hoarding behaviour
- making getting dressed an easier procedure
- loving and wearing all the clothes that are left
Guiding Questions
Is my wardrobe overwhelmingly big?
Does this piece make me feel good when I wear it?
Does this fit properly?
Which clothes do I absolutely need for work?
What is my personal style?
Does this go with my other clothing?
Does this colour suit me?
Working Steps
1. Declutter
Empty
out your entire closet, including all your drawers and cupboards. I usually dump everything – except for my shoes – onto my bed to get a better overview of everything.
Clothing items include:
pants
shorts
skirts
dresses
sweaters
hoodies
cardigans
t shirts
tops
underwear
socks
workout clothes
PJs
shoes
jackets
Not included in today's decluttering session are jewellery, hats, scarves, belts, purses and other accessories.
(It's also pretty comfortable to sit on your bed, surrounded by your piles of clothes, and sort everything out as if you had all the time in the world. I love to play music or even an audio book in the background.)
2. Go through your guiding questions
Look at each piece of clothing and ask yourself this simple question: Do I enjoy wearing this? If not, why are you keeping it? Try to find out your personal style and your colour palette by looking at your favourite and most-worn pieces. If your most-worn pieces aren't your favourite pieces, why not?
3. Assess and organize
Divide everything into two big piles: keep and don't keep. To make this easier do this one category after another. Put the not-sure-what-to-do-with-these aside for now.
4. Return
Put everything from your keep pile back into your wardrobe. For an optimized closet organization, hang up your delicate items such as blouses, blazers, dress pants and dresses, and store your sturdier items such as jeans, knits and t-shirts folded in drawers. When folding, instead of stacking them store them folded "vertically", aka the "KonMari method", like so. That way they take up less space and are easier to access.
The KonMari method also suggests hanging your clothes going from the "heaviest" items (long length, dark in colour, thicker material) on the left to "lighter" items (shorter, lighter in colour and material) on the right. So if that resonates with you, go ahead.
5. Donate / Discard
Take a look at your not-sure-what-to-do-with-these pile. Why not turn this into a little fashion show? Put on every single piece and see how it feels. Does it fit? Does it make you feel good, comfortable, sexy? Or do you only wear it to hide a certain part of your body? The rule here is simple: If it makes you feel good, keep it. If it doesn't, don't.
Divide your don't keep pile into your four bags or baskets:
Sell any items that are in perfectly good shape, but that don't suit you, fit your or make you happy any more. Or maybe you haven't even worn them ever since buying them!
Donate any items that are still in good shape, but maybe not pretty or trendy enough to sell.
Recycle or repair anything that is holey, ripped, stained or simply worn out. Old t-shirts and hoodies make for great cleaning rags, your boyfriends sorted out brief can be made into a cool sports bra, old (but washed!) leggings can be easily turned into a cute cropped top, and tights can be used as vegetable storage.
Toss anything that is broken beyond repair or too ragged and shabby to recycle, or if you don't have any use for DIY cleaning rags, sports bras, cropped tops and veggie storage.
6. Celebrate
YAY! One of the hardest tasks of our challenge is over! Step back and look at your success! Doesn't it feel great to have that "don't keep" pile? I love how spacious my wardrobe looks after a good decluttering session :)
Since today's assignment was more time-consuming and exhausting, tomorrow is going to be an easy one. Well, at least you don't have to declutter anything but your thoughts...
♥
Maisy
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