Cleaning Out Your Closet

Ever since I turned the corner in my life and started paying more attention to the way I dress, I’ve been working on revamping my wardrobe. As the purchases have come in, my closet has often suffered from overcrowding and clutter. For all the effort that I put into deciding what articles of clothing I need to acquire, I definitely struggle when it comes to deciding which articles I no longer need. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a hoarder, per se, but I was definitely raised not to waste, and therefore end up with huge collections of out-of-style or ill-fitting clothing that I’m holding onto ‘just in case,’ when in reality I will never wear them again.

Just this year, however, I stumbled upon a pretty sensible system for trimming the sartorial ‘fat’ from your closet, and I found it in the most unexpected of places. It was one of those mornings where we fell asleep with the TV on, and I woke up to a public access program on dealing with ADD. Whether or not you actually suffer from ADD is irrelevant (although let’s face it, we probably all do), because their system will work for everyone.

The recommendations are as follows. First, find a closet or storage space that you don’t normally use, and is preferably not where you get dressed. Move all of your clothing out of your normal closet and into this new area. Over the next few weeks (or months), as you wear an item of clothing, move it from the temporary storage space back into your regular closet. Give yourself a deadline for this project, and when you reach that point, take everything that is still in your temporary storage and haul it down to your thrift store or clothing collection venue of choice and dump that shit. I’ve taken to making this a seasonal project, so that when that deadline hits I can know that everything I’m carting off has sat unused for an entire season of wear. Obviously, I leave out those seasonal items that just don’t make sense to wear at that time (coats in the summer, shorts in the winter, you get the drift) and anything with sentimental value, but everything else is subject to this test of time.

Give it a try. I know it’s nothing revolutionary, but the important thing here is to focus on slimming down. As you make your sartorial developments, you should be putting more thought into what you are putting on each day. You will save yourself a lot of time and unnecessary mental deliberation by cutting all the clutter out of those decisions. Chances are, you’ll find yourself making a lot more decisive and thoughtful outfit selections when you are only picking from items you know you like and wear on a regular basis. And let’s be honest, every roadblock you put in front of that hasty decision to throw on your high-school era, boot-cut, ‘distressed’ Abercrombie jeans or your baggy band tees from college is probably a step in the right direction.