Wardrobe clear out Part 1

 

 

 

Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a feeling this series of posts will go on and on and on ....

I am not good at clothes. When the fashionistas were in the queue for effortless style, I was obviously somewhere else. The library, perhaps. That said, I have lots of clothes, but it's recently come to my notice that I wear about 30% of them. So I need to get rid of things I don't wear, because really, they're just taking up space, and someone else could be wearing and enjoying them.

I've said earlier that in order to clear out cupboards and wardrobes, you need to get everything out . Everything. Then sort through the stuff and only put back what you want/need/love. I've tried this with my wardrobe, and it's the exception that proves the rule. I end up putting everything back! I've come to the realisation that I'm scared of not having 'enough' clothes. But of course, I only use what I wear, the remaining stuff is clutter!

My new method is slow. Very, very slow. And less scary because it's slow. Everyday, when I go to get dressed, I try and be aware of things I pass over becase .... it's got scratchy seams, it rides up, it falls down, the colour makes me look ill, it's too short, it's too long, the pockets stick out, the neckline is too low, I've got nothing that goes with it. And then I take the offending item and put it in the charity bag straight away. If it's something that I like but I don't have anything to go with it, I write down a note to look for something to go with it (and hopefully to go with other things in my wardrobe).

So here is one (just one *blush*) of my wardrobes, before.

Wardrobe - before

It doesn't help that I use my wardrobe to store things that are not clothes, but that I use in the bedroom. For example, my hand weights are stored in the bottom left of the wardrobe. But you can't actually see them because of all the other stuff.

So after a couple of weeks of discarding things as I was getting dressed, I have gathered a little pile of things. In this pile are shoes which don't stay on, a handbag that's too small for me to fit my life in, some jeans that are too small and some trousers that have faded in a very odd way.

Small pile of unwanted items

Ta da!! Ok, not that different ...

And my wardrobe 'after' picture is hardly inspiring, but does look a little tidier. I got rid of the various random items from the bottom of the wardrobe - some empty plastic bags (why??) and other bits and bobs. Now, I still don't wear everything in there, but slowly, slowly catchy monkey! Bit by bit, those unworn things will be leaving the house. Of course, that does mean I might have to go shopping, as there will be a lot of space and my sad lack of clothes will be obvious. And I am going to try really hard to only buy things that I will wear.

I had a little search to see if I could find any helpful information on building wardrobe, and I did find details of a capsule collection on My Capsule Wardrobe. The clothes in that collection work really hard, and actually get worn. My plan is to achieve a similar capsule, but that's very much a work in progress.




I have another double wardrobe and a single shelved cupboard which will be featuring when I've made more progress.

Happy decluttering!