How To Declutter Your Closet

Karen Wilson Jones
Aug 2
4 min read

Why are you holding on to clothes you're never going to wear?

It maybe emotional attachment, the fear of spending money, or wishful thinking, like "I might fit back into that one day!" Whatever your reason, STOP hoarding your clothes.

You can start to declutter and give your clothes away as soon as you finish reading this blog post. Let me help you fix your mindset about collecting so much clothes and getting rid of clothes you are never going to wear again.

We will get to the decluttering steps in a bit but let's figure out why you collect so many clothes in the first place. Stopping the hoarding habit is not an easy thing, I'm still learning and are going through these steps as we speak but, I promised myself that it will stop TODAY!

So, let's get to the root of why we hoard clothes.

-Setimental Value: holding on to pieces of clothing because you are attached to it because of a certain time in your life where that item meant so much. If it's not your wedding dress LET IT GO!

-Fear Of Scrafice: You feel like you will eventually one day need it again. You don't! LET IT GO!

-Shopping Addiction: I fall under this category. I'm an impulsive buyer and most of the things I buy I don't need so if you are like me, I'm telling us to LET IT GO!

-Identity and Self Expression: You're tied down to how certain clothes makes you feel or how you view yourself.

Reflect on some of these and ask yourself what you identify with and know your why. Knowing why helps you address the problem and get down to the root of the problem.

Solving And Creating Solutions

STEP !:

You can start to create your plan by creating a list of 3 piles:

-Keep

-Donate

-Sell

Let's dive into the KEEP

The items you should consider keeping are things that you often wear and items that you deeply can not part with but are in a heavy rotation in your wardrobe. Sometimes we tend to hold on to the person we were. It's ok to keep certain items for sentimental value, but sometimes its also beneficial to accept changes and LET GO the things that no longer serve purpose in our lives.

DONATE

All the clothes you haven't worn or even thought about wearing, lets say in the past 2 yrs, LET IT GO! Go through each reason from our list and tackle what needs to be donated and needs to go. Also, any items that need to trashed like items that are torn or have holes or stains in them can be discarded.

SELL

Now for me, this is the fun part! Items that you actually love and you think someone else will love, you can sell. More expensive items, one of a kind, and vintage pieces sell very well on sites like Thred Up, Poshmark and Whatnot. You can also try a local consignment shop that will sell your items on your behalf.

Step 2; DECLUTTERING

Set clear goals. Write them down if you have to so you can keep the focus on getting rid of things. You can also keep this list to remind you of your clear intentions so you won't get back into hoarding again.

What do you want to achieve? A clean closet? Making getting dressed daily easy? or to create a space that is organized and spacious?

Decluttering may take you a few days, so schedule it on a specific day or weekend to focus solely on decluttering.

Empty everything out of your closet. Seeing all your clothes at once can be eye opening and help you realize how much stuff you actually do have, Also, make sure you've washed all your clothes, don't want to forget or leave no man behind.

Start organizing your clothes into the KEEP DONATE and SELL piles. Also, make a trash pile for torn and stained items that can not be worn at all.

Remember Recycling helps to reduce waist in landfills and conserve resources

Questions to ask while decluttering clothes