Cleaning out your closet

[EvaIntl]

^ I think you shouldn't force yourself to get rid of things you're not ready to let go of. So, you have to get yourself ready

oh boy, this is probably the reason i'm going be postponing decluttering FOREVER

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I would recommend starting right away and making a first pass. I suspect you will find things that anyone would be willing to get rid of. I have found the empty envelopes that bills came in ... surely we can all agree that those can go

If you're serious about wanting to declutter, I would recommend reading the two books I mentioned earlier in this thread.

One of the great points Peter Walsh makes is that your stuff needs to fit your space. If you have 4 bookshelves & more books than will fit, you probably don't need more shelves--you need fewer books. This was also extremely helpful to me.

I used to spend a lot of time thinking about storage solutions, when what I needed was not to store my crap, but to get rid of it.

 

[gius]

i tend to purge everything and keep only the most very good things.



one dark and one light shirt, sweater, jacket, trouser, socks, shoes. minimalist i have a lot of experience since i've been moving all the time. you tend to pick things that not only suit you best but also feel good for walking long distances and in the shine or rain. when i've been living someplace nearing a month i start to accumulate, since it gets boring to wear the same thing almost everyday. but up till now i don't have anything i can call junk... i use everything i have.

 

[fashionista-ta]

bumping for William St Girl

 

[William_St_Girl]

OK girls... gonna go through my husbands wardrobe with him tonight... we are moving house soon and need to clear out... for a bloke he has a lot of clothes and quite into them... I wouldn't say he is a typical lad! However... we both need to cut down a lot... we def want to go for the less but more attitude keeping quality rather than quantity in our minds... so do any of you have any quick tips on some rules we should maybe follow...

I was thinking for starters... anything with characters on them... simpsons etc.. not that he has many but a few socks ties etc...

Then random things that dont fit it with anything else!

All cheenos... the work of the devil in my opinion!

Any other rules we could adopt!

WSG x

 

[cmaio]

I guess go for what are classics. Classic shirt, pants, blazer, etc that sort of thing. And then keep the really unique pieces.

It's tough cleaning out the closet, my best advice from my own experience is to do it with someone. the other person can be there to put their foot down because they'll have no attachment to the pieces.

Best of luck!

 

[b9409]

I recently did.

I realized I was way too old for some Versace Jeans Couture, Diesel, Tommy Hilfiger, D&G, Just Cavalli and Abercrombie pieces. I am really embarrassed actually, to keep them for this long. Just look at your clothes, and then look at who you are or who you want to be. If you cannot imagine yourself wearing any of those items ever again in your life, time to move on. Keep them only if you value them as memories.

I think it is easier for guys to throw away things. Girls think 'maybe I should save this so my daughter one day, or niece, can wear it as vintage...' etc. Which is an excuse that can easily be justified.

I just could not bring myself to look at the Just Cavalli crap I bought when I was 14-15 years old. Yuck. I am happy I have moved on.

 

[seanutbutter]

If I don't clean out my closet soon I fear it will take over my room. Or worse, my house. My problem is that I'm the biggest pack rat I know (my family will certainly back me up on this one), so throwing away anything is incredibly difficult. Hopefully I won't end up like the Collyer brothers...

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I find it easier to give things to a good cause ...

 

[ATM1985]

^ I second this. Knowing I was giving the clothes to Goodwill/Salvation Army really helped me when I did a big overhaul. I can't bring myself to throw anything away, not even little bits of paper I can scribble on (no idea where that Depression-era mindset came from...), but if I'm giving something away to be used by someone else, it's much easier to let go.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ You must have known deprivation in a previous life

Sometimes, if there's something I know I need to get rid of, I think of a way to donate it that I'm really happy with, and that helps motivate me to clear things out.

I have a neighbor who's on the board of the local homeless shelter, and she had taken someone who was transitioning to housing under her wing. It's never been easier for me to get rid of things than when I was going through my closets and cabinets looking for things for this one particular person who was starting again from scratch.

 

[JessicaYorkin]

I need to clean my closets so badly! I always feel so much better after I've done a solid edit. My thought is that if you haven't worn it in a long time/it doesn't make you happy/doesn't fit anymore/no more excitement, then get rid of it!

I remember a quote Diane Von Furstenburg said, about how when opening your closet you should only see very good friends.

 

[Guessgirl96]

I definitely find it easier to give things away than to throw them away. My mom always knows people that just recently moved here from russia and need basic things. She even gives away my old makeup and hair products which is nice since otherwise I would waste a ton.

 

[cmaio]

Definitely agree with giving items away to people you know need it or to a charity shop. I think when you keep that in min it makes it easier to part with items you don't need or wear.

 

[Petit Lucille]

i did it a couple of years ago, when i moved to a muuuuuuuuch smaller apartment. i decided to only keep the things that fitted like couture, or things i love or special pieces. if i hadn't worn it for more than a year for no specific reason, then so long, have a good life in someone else's body.
this led me to make a terrible mistake, and i didn't take into account that i like to wear statement pieces with basics, so i got rid of a lot of things because they weren't special in any way!! it was difficult to dress from that moment on, but the result was that i started wearing things that i almost never did, and mix them in the most unconventional ways to make it work! and the best part was that everyday i wore something that i really loved.
during that frenzy riddence i only had in mind that i wouldn't have that much space to keep it, but now, in retrospective, i regret getting rid of some pieces...

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Yes, I myself don't get rid of things that are duplicates because I know I'll wear them eventually ... or when other things are at the cleaners.

Of course there are bad duplicates ... I once had a pair of black pants that seemed fine in the store, but all you had to do was walk across the room & the pants functioned like a lint roller ... all the lint in the room was suddenly on me. Those are gone ...

 

[Charponnaise]

i did it a couple of years ago, when i moved to a muuuuuuuuch smaller apartment. i decided to only keep the things that fitted like couture, or things i love or special pieces. if i hadn't worn it for more than a year for no specific reason, then so long, have a good life in someone else's body.
this led me to make a terrible mistake, and i didn't take into account that i like to wear statement pieces with basics, so i got rid of a lot of things because they weren't special in any way!! it was difficult to dress from that moment on, but the result was that i started wearing things that i almost never did, and mix them in the most unconventional ways to make it work! and the best part was that everyday i wore something that i really loved.
during that frenzy riddence i only had in mind that i wouldn't have that much space to keep it, but now, in retrospective, i regret getting rid of some pieces...

I've experienced something like this recently. Moved out of my family home into a flat with my boyfriend. So I had to reduce 10 years' worth of clothes [and I never throw anything out!] to a workable amount. I'm lucky to have a whole spare room to store my clothes in [though not much closet space] and so I thought I was being sensible by only bringing the clothes that stood out to me. Big mistake! I left behind all the strange, anonymous looking black jersey things and peculiar layerable things that never seem like a good idea... until they prove to be the essential item that makes an outfit work. They're still there and I have to go back and through it all to give my folks some space but I'm dreading it, it'll be a mammoth task.

In the meantime, I've ended up shopping to fill the gap! Oops.

 

[softgrey]

thank gawd i have storage space...
i don't believe in ANY of that stuff that those people on those TV shows say...

* if you haven't worn it in a year, then get rid of it...
BAH!...

i keep stuff for ages and ages...
i still have stuff from high school...
it's all really good quality and i love every piece...

i may weed out a few pieces here and there every couple of years...
but for the most part...
if it's a good piece i keep it...
i know from experience that i'll get to it eventually...
even if it gets tucked away on the top shelf for a few seasons...
i know there'll come a time when i get something new that works with perfectly with it and suddenly that old piece will have a new life...


so - yeah...
i keep everything indefinitely...
cleaning out my closet usually just means re-organizing it...
refolding sweaters...
bringing favourites to the front and tucking away out of season stuff...

 

[Charponnaise]

thank gawd i have storage space...
i don't believe in ANY of that stuff that those people on those TV shows say...

* if you haven't worn it in a year, then get rid of it...
BAH!...

Exactly!

What a boring, two-dimensional wardrobe I would have if I only kept stuff I wear regularly. Yesterday I wore a pretty 40s-style printed dress I bought when I was about 19 [27 now] and hadn't worn in three or four years. And got lots of compliments and 'Ooh is that new?' remarks. And how nice it is when a funny, difficult old piece you had almost....ALMOST given up hope on... proves to be the little stroke of genius that turns an outfit from presentable to exceptional.

I think TV stylists assume that we are all hopeless, depressed, dowdy people who are afraid of interesting clothes and sartorial expression, for whom the only hope is a safe primary-coloured-and-neutral palette of banal, current high street basics. [Gok Wan is a definite culprit of this - the man's sense of colour is narrow to say the least.] How unambitious. Some of us actually like to play with clothes! That... or it's a plot to make sure they and their fellow stylists are the only ones with an arsenal of fashion oddities and treasures!

 

[softgrey]

i think those tv shows are just for entertainment and no one should actually take anything that they say too seriously..

if those people were good stylists, then they would still be stylists rather than tv hosts...

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