The giant walk-in full of clothes and shoes in just about every movie with rich people seems like the ultimate dream, but in all reality, your stuff may actually be weighing you down. Too many things can make your living space, and your morning dressing routine, chaotic and unnecessarily stressful.
The good news is you can do a little purging and bring some calm into your life by simply freeing yourself of unnecessary things, starting with your wardrobe. Check out the following four hints for paring down your clothes inventory and making your life a little less cluttered.
1. Pick A Number
You need to a pick a number of clothing pieces you can live with, such as 25, and stick to it. This means you’ve got get rid of anything over that number, so try to determine the lowest number that you can live with. Don’t chicken out here! It’s easy to panic at the thought of living with just a fraction of the clothes you had before, but once you starting doing it, you’ll see it’s rather freeing.
2. Plan And Purge
The first step to trimming your clothes is planning. Get all your clothes together and then separate them into piles based on type, such as dresses, pants, jeans, blouses, and so on. Go through each pile piece by piece. Create a set of three questions for yourself to answer about each piece you’re evaluating. While the exact questions you use should hit all your preferences and your lifestyle, a good example of what you can consider is the following list:
• Do I use this piece of clothing often?
• How does this make me feel when I wear it?
• Do I really need it?
If you say “No” to any of the above questions, you probably don’t need that particular piece of clothing. Remember to be honest with yourself. Don’t fall into the “Well, this would look great if I lost a few pounds” or “I’ve never worn this but what if I need someday” traps your mind creates. If you’re not wearing it or don’t love the way it looks right now, it needs to go! You may need to go through this process more than once if you find you’ve kept more pieces than the total you decided on the first time.
Enjoy the space your pared-down clothes stock gives you once you’ve moved all the rejects out and decided on the pieces you’re keeping. While you may not have realized it before, the clutter in your closet may have been contributing to the stress in your life just on sight.
3. Give Old Clothes New Life
Donate clothes you don’t need to both help someone else and reduce waste. Just the act of helping someone in need can give you new perspective on life. Try your local shelter or church-run charities to get your old clothes to a person who will benefit from them. If you have the time, try researching to identify which charity or shelter near you has the most immediate need for clothing donations.
4. Complete Your Wardrobe
You won’t stay under your wardrobe limit for long if you need to go shopping repeatedly after your purge because you’re missing items for certain seasons. The idea is to have a full wardrobe that covers each season and only replace old clothes with new clothes, as needed, once per season.
Take stock of what you need to get through each season after your closet has been cleaned out and only buy new items if you’re missing something essential. Once you get into this habit, you’ll also find you’re shopping less and saving more!
