Get Organized Mission #10:
Clear Out Your Closet

My biggest problem is the feeling guilty about throwing things out part. I’ve received so many gifts of cloths that I just don’t like, and I feel compelled to keep them. Of course, I also try to adhere to your 12 month rule for throwing things out also. So, those are competing issues. My closet is a disaster but, being a guy, and it’s sexist to say, I guess I’m expected to be messy anyway Your organizational tips are really good. You’ve managed to boil everything down to goal setting. I’m impressed.

Keith

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If you’re handy with a needle/sewing machine, try creating something fun & unique out of a piece of worn or boring clothing. Sew different coloured/patterned buttons, beads or trim onto a plain blouse or T-shirt. Add a bit of applique or trim onto a plain skirt. Replace plain pockets or worn cuffs/collars with a contrasting fabric.

If something’s a bit snug, perhaps you can let out the seams. Moving a seam just 1/8″ gives you an extra 1/4″ in the garment. Do that on each side of a skirt or trousers and you’ve got an extra 1/2″.

I don’t know whether anyone else has ground to a standstill at the enormity of this task – perhaps not – as this is my personal bete noire. I’ve currently fudged the issue by spending my 30 mins tackling the coat cupboard.

When it comes my own closet, all I can suggest is that I break it down into small sections. e.g review skirts; review jeans and pants etc. I don’t know what the psychological barrier is to tackling my closet – Keith raised an interesting point about guilt and reluctance to throw things out – but it could be a confidence/self image issue. If you are not sure about your personal style, how do you know what to jettison?

I think that looking dispassionately at clothes using the practical criteria on the ‘out’ list – fit, comfort, wear and tear- could be a starting point.

I also think Kathryn makes a valid point that, in this economic climate, we shouldn’t rule out re-working what we have. I’ve made the decision to salvage a perfectly good Zara coat, which is lurking unworn because the buttons look really dated.

Today’s update is that I feel a huge sense of achievement at a job done.

I don’t know whether it will help anyone else who feels daunted by this task but I dealt with it by breaking it down into smaller zones. In the end I tackled it in several 30 min chunks:- the hanging rail; shoes, bags and accessories; sweaters jeans and sports; undies, nightwear etc; jewellery and misc.

While I was doing this, I kept a note pad going. On this I listed gaps in my wardrobe using Mission 11 as a guide. I also pulled out items needing repair, cleaning, alteration, freshening up with new buttons etc. I listed these on a ‘jobs to do’ page.

Today I started in on the ‘jobs to do’ page with a trip to shoe repairs and the dry cleaners.

Good sense of satisfaction tonight. Thanks for the encouragement to get this job done!

I completed this as part of my 50 items to de-clutter. I included belts and accessories in this as I feel they also create some of the closet-clutter. I almost halved my wardrobe!
As they say, we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time!

Not started this yet – I know it’s going to be hard. I love my clothes – LOVE them. I may not have worn them since Adam was a lad, but some of them – colours, textures – beautiful. Just because I’m too fat for them doesn’t mean it’s easy to let them go. I’m going to take Katherine’s advice and get my needle out! A while ago I transformed a lovely indian cotton dress with deer and elephants on it into Bible covers – and they are beautiful. I’ll see what I can do with some other stuff (though it doesn’t seem in the de-cluttering spirit, somehow)

I do this on a fairly regular basis but it felt good to have advice to follow as I went through it again. Thanks for the help. The Value Village in my area does tend to get a lot of stuff from us. I just wish I could pare it down quick enough to get rid of the piles here and there that tend to pop up almost faster then dandelions do in the summer. Thanks again

Since reading your tip on decluttering your closet, I’ve been bothered by one thing – giving only really good clothes to charity and discarding the rest. My perspective is unusual but I wanted to share it with you because I believe it’s valuable. One of my clients is a rag broker – yep, people still make a living buying and selling “rags” only these days the definitely of rags is different than in past centuries. He routinely buys credential – the unsorted collected clothing – from such charities as Goodwill, Salvation Army, Planet Aid, etc. While the individual stores may go through it for the few very best pieces to sell in their stores, most of it is sold *by weight* to brokers such as my client or other wholesalers who will grade (sort) the items for resale in vintage clothing stores or overseas in 3rd world countries where new clothing is prohibitively expensive for most citizens. The charity makes more on this type of sale than the few dollars it makes in its stores so reducing the volume actually hurts them.

Secondly, even stained or torn clothing, unless the item is 50% or more damaged, has wholesale value, particularly cotton and cotton blend items. These pieces, especially knits like t-shirts, are cut up and sold as wipers (industrial rags) and/or sold to paper mills who grind it up to add it to high end specialty papers.

Donating these types of items keeps them out of landfills as well so it’s a doubly (or even triply??) green thing to do. Just thought you should know the back side of the story; thanks for listening.

Done!!!!

This has been so hard. I love my stuff, plus at present have a tummy problem which means I’m subject to bloating and often can’t fit into clothes I love. Do I keep them for my good days, or let them go?

I’ve gone halfy-half.

yippee, I can see the clothes in the closet again

Thanks to a bout of insomnia, this one’s done!

I’ve still got to go back to the previous mission on filing though – I keep forgetting I don’t have a single thing that I can use to divide my files.

This was a really difficult mission for me but I´m really proud of myself. I did it two weeks ago and the best thing is that my wardrobe and drawers still look incredibly organized today. I´ve thrown away things that were just a part of my past and I can feel free now !

Done. Two more boxes to donate and one more to consign. Yay!