Clean your closet/gut your wardrobe- so quickly!featured
Everyone wants a clean closet.
Even if they aren’t aware of their clean closet desires. Trust me. This is a thing that everyone wants.
Everyone wants a streamlined wardrobe.
Samesies.
Everyone wants clothing that they adore.
Which fits and is flattering and possesses some modicum of current stylings. So how do we get there without giving up an entire weekend (wherein we touch and feel each item for waaay too long and eventually end up tossing, like, four things)?
Oh, it’s way simpler than you think.
People, try on your clothes.
This is it. This is the trick.
It took me roughly half an hour to play dress-up in my own closet, but it was so worth it. If you’re forced to try on every single item– and really look at yourself in the mirror- you’ll have no room for the “but I used to love this” or “it was so special when so-and-so gifted me this” or “I bet it’ll fit one day” conversations we have with ourselves that are kind of the stupidest things ever.
(I wholly include myself in this. I had a long hard talk with myself about a guilt tee shirt. A shirt, friends. For an event I never attended printed on an item which would never ever even hope to fit me. I am not proud.)
Step 1: Make your bed
If you start off with a clean slate, you’re less likely to devolve into But Everything’s A Mess-dom. (Besides, when you’re done, you can take a nap.)
Step 2: Put everything on the bed
Yep, hangers and all. That way, when something fits, you can replace the hanger immediately and stack the keepers.
Step 3: Try it on.
Absolutely every item that you haven’t worn in the last month is fair game. If your immediate response is not adoration for how fantastic/functional/flattering each piece is, it gets tossed.
I don’t care if that means you’ll need to buy new black pants.
I don’t care if you have a conference coming up.
Buy new black pants and skip the conference, I don’t know, we have bigger things going on right now.
Bonus? Cutest insta-dressup session in the history of ever.
Step 4: Hang it/ditch it
Whether you love it or are rather meh about it, make an immediate placement decision. All those keepers? Back into the closet. Ditch and/or maybe? Welcome to the “ditch and/or maybe pile.” (Spoiler: Once you see how much stuff actually goes back into the closet, it’ll be way easier to remove the pile of stuff you’re ambivalent about.)
Step 4.5: Hang stuff, but the wrong way.
All those keepers? Hang them back up with the hangers facing the wrong way. Each time you wear an item, return it to the closet the correct way. Anything left hanging the wrong way after two more seasons? ‘BYE.
Step 5: Remove the evidence.
If you’re super married to anything in your “maybe” pile, put it in a bag and place it in a somewhat accessible closet. Set a calendar alert on your phone. If it’s not seasonal, not highly specific, and you haven’t reached for it within a month, congratulations. You’ve officially broken up.
The rest of the stuff? Move it along. My favorite way to share the love is through Facebook neighborhood sale and Freebox groups and, unless it’s a crazily expensive item, offer it all for free in bulk. Pay it forward. Attempting to sell each item for 5 or so bucks turns into a part-time job. You cleared your closet to simplify your life, right?
Step 6: Bask.
Enjoy the heck out of the incredible job you just did. Go find something to wear. Go on.
You look awesome.
And now, to prove how doable this is (with a household teeming with kittens and kiddos), a #SpeedClean closet clean-out with Yours Truly trying on each item in her wardrobe! (Pro tip: for fun, try each item on with a tank and skinny jeans underneath as I did for modesty. If you like how a skirt looks on under multiple layers, keep that skirt. Keep it forever. It’s a unicorn.)
