How to have a closet you are proud of.
I think it is safe to say that most girls have more clothes than they need, and my closet is the king of all.
My friends have joked with me for years about having so many clothes, though they do not complain when they get to borrow things.
Even with so many clothes there have been countless times that I have found myself searching desperately through my closet thinking I have nothing to wear.
I knew that I needed to clean out my closet but had no clue where to start.
The easy part is getting rid of all the pieces you do not care about, but there were not that many. I had a few pieces left over that had slipped through to this far that were very far out of style.
After that I had no clue where to go.
My roommates have a subscription to the “Magnolia Journal” which is where I found my inspiration. On the cover of one issue I saw the topic of a capsule wardrobe which intrigued me.
The instructions said that you take all of your clothes out of your closet and then only put back your very favorite clothes. The pieces that you love to wear and make you feel great in them. After that you make a pie chart of all the activities you do and see how much you actually do those things. Then you see how many outfits it would take to get you through those things for a month.
For example, if you live in a warm area you probably do not need 35 scarves. Yes if you are wondering I had that many scarves, and how many did I wear last year? Three.
So I started by counting out the number of each item I had, which was horrifying. I knew I had a lot of clothes but having the actual number made me realize just how bad it was.
Then I ranked my clothes from my favorite to least in each category. Next was the hard part. For how many times a month you wear a specific type of piece, you can only keep that many.
With scarves there are only so many places or times I wear them so why have so many. I then thought through each situation I would wear a scarf and picked out my top three options, any scarf that did not qualify had to go.
While this was helpful, I had no wish to get rid of so many items at once. So I kept 15, which was a huge improvement from before though probably still too many. This process then continues through the whole closet.
The thought of getting rid of so many clothes at one time was scary so I decided not to completely follow through on the “capsule” idea, but my closet has definitely improved.
I was then able to pack up seven paper bags full of clothes. Some that were the wrong size, others that do not fit my lifestyle any more.
My closet is now more spacious and organized. I have a better knowledge about what is in there at all times.
By doing this I realized I had a large amount of clothes that could easily be useful to other girls. I was able to sell several things for a good amount of money which means that not only do I have a little more money, but I have more space.
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