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Lately it seems like an awful lot of my time is dedicated to clothes. Washing clothes, drying clothes, folding clothes (although my kids help a lot with that), putting clothes away, sorting clothes, storing clothes and buying clothes.
One of my goals for 2013 is to reorganize my day to make more time for blogging and other life priorities. I feel convicted that one of my time-offenders is my clothes habit.
I have been a reader of Crystal Paine’s blog for years and one thing she writes about that always intrigues me is that she only has 6 outfits, and finds it a major time saver.
6 OUTFITS! I have 6 pairs of jeans, 6 summer skirts, 6 summer dresses, 6 winter skirts, 6 pairs of shorts……and the list goes on and on.
To get down to 6 outfits might be a bit too extreme for me, however I don’t need 6 of everything either so in 2013 I want to reduce my wardrobe to just what I wear on a regular basis.
I tried this type of project before using the famous “turn your hangers around ” trick and at the end of the year give away all items on hangers facing the wrong way. Problem was I could see those turned around hangers all year and did my best to save every outfit, sometimes wearing 2 outfits a day just to save a precious top or skirt.
I have however, succeeded at the box it up and store it and if you don’t need items in the box for 6 months donate it. I have never seen someone applying this principle to their wardrobe but I am going to try it.
I have all my wardrobe in boxes on tables in our basement. By placing the clothes in another room I am practicing the “out of site out of mind” principle.
I am going to do my best to not grab items from the boxes unless an event or weather calls for the outfit or I am facing a going to be naked if I don’t situation.
Each month I plan to write an update on what I rescued.
December 31st 2013 I plan to box up the remaining clothes and have my husband drop them up at the thrift store. I am having my hubby do it so that I don’t weaken and grab out clothes on the way to the thrift store or go on a shopping spree when I get there.
If I feel really strong and confident in my new sparse wardrobe, I will place price tags on the remaining items and sell them at a local ladies consignment sale.
I went up to my room yesterday to get my clothes ready to put into boxes when I realized if I could just be 100% honest with myself I could throw away all the clothes I don’t wear right then and there and save myself a lot of work.
These are my giveaway boxes and they reach up past the waist of my 5 feet 9 inch self.
I then started boxing up clothes to give away at an alarming rate. Clothes that are really not my color. Shirts that bunch up. Sweaters that are too hot. Trendy clothes I just don’t wear. Worn out clothes. Too small clothes. Old clothes.
I now have a large selection of spare hangers
In the end I can now fit my hanging clothes on one rod instead of two. I freed up a shelf in the closet and I can fit everything in my dresser in an average size suit case with ease.
Lesson learned: Sometimes we make elaborate projects out of simple tasks.
May my almost “mountain of a project” inspire you to keep yours a “mole hill”.
Feel like you would love to get rid of the stress your cluttered home is causing you, but you simply don’t know how you could squeeze time to declutter into your already cram packed life?
I recommend taking Make Over Your Mornings and/or Make Over Your Evenings. These are 15 day, video driven courses that come with a workbook for you to complete. Each day’s lesson consists of a five minute video, five minutes of reading and a five minute workbook activity.
The information I learned in the Make Over Your Evenings course gave me 30 minutes each and every morning without getting up earlier. The Makeover Your Mornings course is just as full of great time saving advice that can help you carve out time to rid your house of clutter and finally make your home the haven you know it could be.
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Wanda says
January 2, 2013 at 11:39 amWOW WOW WOW!
This is a great post!
Totally inspired!
Victoria says
January 2, 2013 at 2:00 pmthanks.
katherine says
January 2, 2013 at 12:53 pmWOW! I am so impressed. I KNOW I have so much that I don’t use regularly. My problem is that I always think I am gonna need something later! UGH! I need to follow your amazing example and just do it!!!
Victoria says
January 2, 2013 at 1:59 pmYes, I have that problem too. It was really hard to send those boxes out the door so I couldn’t do take backs, but I think it is worth it.
Katie says
January 2, 2013 at 1:16 pmI am going to clean out my closet right now! Thank you for such an inspiring and practical post 🙂
Victoria says
January 2, 2013 at 1:58 pmYour welcome.
Kourtney says
January 2, 2013 at 2:19 pmHey, cleaning out my wardrobe is my goal for this weekend! I found this post just in time. I inherited a clothes hoarding problem from my mom. I am convinced someday I will need it, or I can use the material to sew something else. The hanger trick doesn’t work for me either, and I tried boxing stuff up but then realized the stuff in the box was my winter clothes, and i still needed them. I dont think i could handle only 6 outfits either, but my plan is to cut my huge wardrobe in half over the next week. Thank you for the encouragement!
Victoria says
January 2, 2013 at 2:23 pmI find one trick that did work (until I got a bigger closet at our new home) was to give my clothes only a certain amount of space to take up. Our old home had a very tiny closet so I would make myself stick to only taking up half the one rod it had. I also would make all the rest of my clothes fit in the dresser without squeezing. However that plan backfired when we moved to a home with a walk in, I got a little carried away filling it! LOL
denise arneson says
January 2, 2013 at 2:47 pmWatching the show Hoarders has really helped me be able to get rid of all types of items, not just clothes. It does help if I can donate the items to charity or give stuff away to friends and family. I feel liberated when I reduce the amount of items I own and I can honestly say that with a few exceptions, I haven’t missed what I’ve given away.
Victoria says
January 2, 2013 at 3:57 pmI love watching Hoarders as well. I am only able to get through one episode at a time on Netflix because it always makes me want to get up and start cleaning my home.
Renee says
January 2, 2013 at 3:50 pmThanks so much for this post. I’ve been thinking about all the clothes and other ‘stuff’ that I need to go through and get rid of but I kept putting it off because I had some elaborate plan in my head on how it should be done. Now, instead of doing more planning, I am gonna march on upstairs and start boxing things up to give away! 🙂
Victoria says
January 2, 2013 at 3:56 pmGood for you! I wish you the best of success!
Sarah :) says
January 2, 2013 at 4:49 pmGood for you!!!! It’s hard to be honest with ourselves, much less act on it if we’re emotionally attached to things……
Hannah says
January 8, 2013 at 10:53 amI did a closet clean out a few weeks ago.. NOT down to six outfits but def. to a manageable amount! I would love if you would share your post with us at Eco Kids Tuesday Link-Up. http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2013/01/eco-kids-tuesday-link-up-and-green-pops.html