Streamlining the Wardrobe

I'm skipping the basement update this week because I did a number on my back and it's all out of whack.  A couple of trips to the chiropractor is starting to put me back on track but I'm not 100% yet and I didn't want to mess it up further by doing a lot of bending and lifting.

Even though my back is not cooperating I didn't want to lose momentum on my organizing progress I've been making so I switched to my wardrobe.  If you would ask me I would tell you that I don't have many clothes.  The problem is my closet is jammed, my drawers are jammed, my totes in the basement are jammed; for someone with "not a lot of clothes" I seemed to be tripping over a lot of clothes!

A large part of my problem is that I don't wear a lot of clothes that I have.  There are clothes that I like but they just are not comfortable, they may be to small or I may have gotten them as a gift  or found a good sale deal and I just don't want to get rid of them even though I don't wear them.  Having all these clothes laying around was preventing me from keeping my closet as organized as I would like and actually was stressing me out quite a bit.

To start this process I put all the clothes I was had  (except the totes in the basement that I already had gone as part of my organizing project down there) on the bed.  This meant emptying my closet and my drawers (with the exception of my unmentionable drawer - I haven't tackled that yet).  Next I looked at every item and made a decision to keep, donate or throw away.  I still need to go through my donate pile one more time because I am planning on donating my business clothes to a different organization than Goodwill but I'll talk about that more later.  The throw away pile is pretty small because unless it was in bad shape or underwear I donate it.

Initial Clothes Pile



When making my decision I asked myself the following questions;

• Have I worn this article of clothing lately (taking into account seasonality)
• Is it still in style
• Do I like it?
• Does it fit?
• Is it comfortable to wear and do I feel good in it?
• Is it ripped or stained?
• How many similar pieces do I have?  This may seem like a foolish question but I have quite a few black shirts! 

 You would be surprised how many pieces of clothes I got rid of even though I liked them. If the collar of a shirt doesn't lay right, the length of a blouse is uncomfortable or the cuffs irritate you then most likely you won't wear the clothes or if you do you aren't comfortable in them. Instead of having these clothes take up space and stress me out I would rather get rid of them. My opinion is that it's better to have fewer articles of clothes that I love versus a lot of clothes that I don't like.

  

I've gotten through the sort process but I do still want to do some further organizing. A couple of months ago I read a blog where they had drawer sorters that looked pretty cool. Once I'm done with the basement I'm going to see what options are available for my drawers and closet.

 Clothes to Donate

Clothes to Keep

There were a few items that went into drawers that I didn't take a picture of.  I also still have a few more things that I couldn't make a decision about.  I'm thinking that if I don't love it enough to keep it initially it should go in my give away pile.

I like to donate my business clothes to a charity called Dress for Success.  Their mission "is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life."  I personally like to support non-profits that specifically help women to better their positions in life.  Providing a professional wardrobe to women who need the help is an excellent way to do this.

I'm planning on doing a posting on putting together a professional wardrobe within the next few weeks so I'll show you what I kept as well as how I mix and match to make the clothes go farther.

That's what I've been up to, what about you?


I'll be linking this up over at I'm an Organizing Junkie and Organize with Sandy

You might also like:
Basement Organization - Start
Basement Update
Building Your Village