Parting with clothing can be difficult but it is a must when organizing a closet.
This part of the organizing process can be the most difficult for people. It is often this stage that takes the most time for my clients to get through on their road to an organized closet. Large closet, small closet, doesn't matter...it's gonna take a bit of time because people get attached to their clothes. You can have the best closet organizers, but if you have too much stuff, getting organized will be much more difficult. So let's dive into the roadblocks and look at 3 categories of clothing you need to be letting go of.
1. Emotional Clothes
Clothing so often can be sentimental. Remember that time you went to Florida and had airbrush T shirts made to commemorate the trip? Well that was 7 years ago. The T shirt has seen it's day. It's all stretched out and has a stain or 2. How about the coat your mom gave you for your birthday that you never even liked at the time because you look like the Abominable Snowman? You've held on to it because you don't want to hurt her feelings. These are emotional clothes and usually the hardest category to part with.
DONATE the majority of these items. Your mom will never know your coat is gone. Keep very sentimental items like wedding clothes. But those should be stored away properly. You don't need your 15 year old wedding dress still hanging in your closet. Mine would take up the same amount of space as an old Buick. I got married in the 90s.
2. The Good Old Days Clothes
There's another category of clothes people don't want to part with. Clothes they used to love when they used to fit into them. It's often not fair what mother nature does with our bodies over time. But with age comes body changes. And sometimes no matter what you do, those pants will never fit you again properly. Here we need a healthy dose of reality. Ask yourself, "even if I could fit into this again would I want to wear it?" And, "it's been (fill in the blank with a crazy length of time) since I was able to wear this. How likely is it I ever will be able to again?"
There's a good chance since you last wore it, the article of clothing has gone out of style. Don't keep it hoping it comes back in some day. I know many of you are thinking, I knew the 90s fashions would come back and they did! I do not care. Your closet can't handle 3 decades worth of clothes.
DONATE most if not all clothing that falls into this category.
3. I thought I Loved It When I Bought It Clothes
Maybe it was an impulse buy because it looked so cute on the mannequin at the store and you didn't have time to try it on. Maybe the online model that was wearing it looked amazing and you clicked BUY hoping it would look just as amazing on you. IT DID NOT. And it never will. You can't talk yourself into loving something. If it's been under 30 days you can possibly still return it. If not, I think you know what I'm about to say...
DONATE the items in this category. No use in prolonging your buyers remorse.
If you are diving into a full closet reorganization keep these categories in mind. And if you're not wanting to go full out, just take a look around your closet next time you go in. Are there a few items in these categories you can easily spot and remove? The answer is yes.
Happy organizing!
