How I cleaned my closet

It’s a lot of time, like an entire intensive weekend, but totally worth it in the end when you look at your neat, organized closet.

So here’s how I de-cluttered my wardrobe:

1. Tossed the following items:

• Torn
• Stained
• Irreparable beyond belief
• Unwearable

2. Sorted the rest into two piles:

• Sell/Donate
• Keep

3. I sold/donated the following items:

• Items that didn’t fit
• Colours I don’t wear any longer (like black)
• Duplicates

The questions I asked while going through the rest of the pile:

I allowed myself to keep only 5 sentimental items – baby blanket, hand-painted t-shirts made by my mother, and hand-tailored garments she had tailored for me when I was born.

• Is it something I’d really wear again? No – Sell/Donate.
• Does it look good on me and my body type? No – Sell/Donate.
• Does it fit any longer? No – Sell/Donate.
• Have I worn this in the last year? No – Sell/Donate.
• Is there a duplicate that I can get rid of? Yes – Sell/Donate.
• Are there tags still on it? Yes – Sell/Donate.
• Am I keeping it just for sentimental reasons?* Yes – Sell/Donate.

The sentimental part was difficult so I had another set of questions:

• Do I really need to keep this?
• Why am I keeping this?
• Can I just photograph it?

4. I set the items to donate/sell out of sight and out of mind.

I didn’t donate or try to sell the items until a month or so later, just to make sure I didn’t want to wear it again. If I kept it out of sight, I wouldn’t be tempted to pull it back into my wardrobe.

5. I re-sorted again going through those questions above:

I went through the process again and again until I was satisfied with my super small keep pile’s goal of cutting it down by 50%.

6. I re-sorted my keep pile into:

• Kept for sentimental reasons
• Take to tailor (taking in the darts to make it fit better on the bust)
• Repair at home (sewing button on)
• Keep as a favourite

The result was that I’d keep only pieces that I’d truly wear on a regular basis, which is the main goal of any minimalist’s closet.