Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Spring Cleaning

Last week, while my boyfriend waited patiently at my desk chair, I whimpered "I have nothing to wear!" This, in fact, was not true because I had a closet full of clothes, but all I saw were things I don't like or haven't worn in forever staring back at me. It made me ask myself why I was holding on to clothes I don't even wear anymore, which made me finally began the endeavor of cleaning out my closet and putting everything I don't want into trash bags so I can give them away.

I should probably clean out my closet more often so that I don't end up with three trash bags full of clothes...

I got rid of everything...
  • I haven't worn in over a year,
  • I wouldn't buy today at this point in my life,
  • that has noticeable signs of age, even though it pained me to get rid of my favorite striped cardigan which was such a great layering piece, and 
  • everything that doesn't fit. 

Seems obvious, doesn't it?

I then color coordinated my closet--I actually had all of my tops sorted by color, but none of my dresses. I'm not typically a super-organized person, however this process is very simple and helped me wrap my head around just how one color dominates my wardrobe.

Nothing fancy; I just put like colors together in order from dark to light.

This lack of organization resulted in me wearing the same set of dresses again and again and nearly forgetting about other gems in my closet. Once I organized my dresses by color, I realized I have a lot of red/pink/orange dresses... which probably means I shouldn't buy this dress from the ThreadOverHeels Etsy store even though it's adorable:

Adorbs.

It's freeing to get rid of old clothes that essentially were just taking up space. I haven't done a complete purge of everything old/not fabulous in my closet, but it's a great start! I've identified some gaps in my wardrobe as a result of this process, like a lack of work-appropriate skirts and blouses, and slacks that aren't black or blue. Basically, all of the gaps in my wardrobe revolve around (a lack of) work-appropriate clothes. Such is the life of a 25-year-old...

What did you get rid of this Spring? What criteria did you use? Who else waited til Summer to do their 'Spring' cleaning?

1 comment:

  1. My boyfriend and I are moving so what we're doing right now is partially spring cleaning, partially forced purging (not how I intended to say that). In cleaning out my closet I've used pretty much the same criteria that you used.

    The problem I've run into is what to do about clothes that you either use very infrequently or may not use ever again. Like for example my job search suit. I don't work at a place where I have to wear a suit every day, so it's pretty much been sitting in the closet since I got this job a year and a half ago. I'm tempted to donate it so someone else can get use out of it and I have one less thing to transport to our new place. I don't anticipate having to look for a job again for at least the next three years (knock on wood) but what if?

    If I did have to look for a job, I'd probably want to purchase a new suit. But what about the convenience of having something on hand that I know fits and looks good, even if I don't have plans to use it right now?

    Decisions ...

    Also, yes, for me there were many a shirt I had difficulty letting go. :-)

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