How to clean out your closet
As you may have gathered from my frequent posts on the subject, this year I’ve been on a mission to clean out my closet and get to a point where every item in it is something I truly love, and will wear to death.
My mission here isn’t to create the perfect capsule wardrobe, getting rid of all but a few well-chosen basics, which I then mix-and-match into endless combinations. No, I enjoy fashion (and shopping!) far too much for that, and I’ve no intention of giving it up any time soon. I do, however, want to make my wardrobe work a little harder: to get rid of all of the items that aren’t quite right, and reach a stage in which everything I own, from the clothes I wear to work out or walk the dog in, to the fanciest of party dresses, is something that makes me feel good.
I have a long way to go with this, but over the past few weeks I’ve been going through an extended closet clearout, and somewhat unusually for me, I’ve been being absolutely ruthless about what I ditch and what I keep. I’m the type of person who finds it hard to get rid of clothes (and REALLY hard to get rid of shoes!). I can always seem to find SOME kind of justification for why I should keep that worn-out (or totally UN-worn) item, but by adopting this new, and much more common-sense, approach, I’ve been finding that my closet is starting to feel lighter and more organised, and I actually have MORE to wear as a result of it.
Here are some of my tips on how to clean out your closet – and, more specifically, how to know what you should keep, and what should go…
I agree, I have too many clothes to be minimal or capsule but I really want to LOVE everything rather than hold on go meh pieces!
*hold on to.
Doh.
I’m undergoing a similar phase with my wardrobe… I’ve been getting rid of most of my high-school clothes, but I’ve also revalued some of them!
I also agree on the frumpy bit: if an item makes you feel ugly, donate/sell it, there is no use in wanting to wear it in order not to ‘waste it’, but feeling like a refugee escaped from the bombs in the process!
When we moved house 2 years ago, I had a massive clean out of my closet. I was ruthless. Anything that hadn’t been worn for two years went. Shoes were treated the same way (aside from my Jimmy Choos. I’m never getting rid of them even though I never wear them because they are too high to walk in). Now I look at my closet, which mostly consists of dresses, about every six months and think about what I’ve worn and what I haven’t. If I’m unsure, I try it on, and usually know straight away why it hasn’t been worn and that it should go.
Really good stuff goes to consignment, good stuff goes to charity, crap stuff goes in the bin.