the art of wardrobe weeding

A minimal, colour coded and calm wardrobe - your goal.

Now that Spring has finally sprung, many of us feel re-energised and ready to tackle some literal and emotional Spring Cleaning. As per my last post on How To be A Thoughtful Consumer, I am going to advise now about the art of Wardrobe Weeding. Most of us just have too many clothes – the result of over consumption, emotional constipation and an inability to edit our wardrobes. The driving force in contemporary culture it towards constant acquisition and basing our sense of self-worth on our possessions. So, as the years go by, we accumulate more and more clothes while frequently failing to review or cull the fashion history of our own lives. As women, we are increasingly juggling work, family and home, so the temptation is to ignore the problem until it reaches crisis proportions.  
 
The result is that we hit a wall and literally cannot distinguish the wood from the trees.  We begin to feel defeated by the bulging wardrobes, chest of drawers and sometimes even rooms that contain our clothes and sink into a sartorial depression. The confusion and chaos of an overstuffed and dis-organised wardrobe is bad for our mental clarity, our sense of style and our emotional well-being. Carrying around the accumulated spoils of decades of shopping can be bad for your health as well as being detrimental to your quality of life and peace of mind. Clutter is bad for us yet we can feel overwhelmed by it and powerless to tackle the sheer volume of stuff we own.
 
 One of the most popular books about tidying in recent years has been Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Her method is focused and insistent on keeping only those items that spark joy in our souls. Starkly simple but highly effective. When this method is applied to our wardrobes, the effect can be not only liberating but life-changing.   By adapting a calm motivated approach, it is possible to winnow out those items we no longer wear, want or need, to leave instead a carefully selected range of clothes that suit us, make us feel confident and give us pleasure each time we wear them. In advance it is worth preparing for the purge mentally:  prepare to “LET IT GO”. We have become so indoctrinated by the notion that we are our possessions, that it can be painful to distinguish what we would be without them. We generate a false sense of security by accumulating a stockpile of stuff that ironically ends up leaching our energy.

Image courtesy of Marie Kondo/Thorndike Press

Preparation is key: start by allocating time for the process of weeding out your wardrobe and closets. If you have a serious stash of clothes, break the job down over a couple of days. Clear the house of family, as this gives you the space and focus to really concentrate. Arm yourself with bin bags, cardboard boxes, a selection of good hangers and storage containers in advance. Get a full-length mirror, a free-standing hanging rail and if possible an honest friend or sister who will give you objective advice. Take a deep breath and start:

• First Analyse your wardrobe and which items you wear the most. Look at why you gravitate to those items and the features that you like about them. Then pull out your five favourite garments across various types e.g. – trousers, dresses, jackets, tops etc. Keep these as a reference for the template you want to adhere to and functionality you aspire to in everything you keep.
• Make different piles for your cull: charity shop, throwing out, gifts for friends/family, repair and re-modelling. Place all the items you are keeping on the hanging rail as you work though the wardrobe.
  
• Discard any wire hangers or broken ones. Invest in good quality wood, velvet, and/or moulded plastic/rubber hangers and transfer garments to them as you work through the wardrobe. Hang all your garments facing the same way and give each item their own individual hanger. Double hanging garments means you don’t see items clearly and for pieces like jackets, destroys their shoulder-line and sleeves. Use clip hangers for trousers and skirts, rather than folding them over a hanger.
  
•  Look at which body parts your favourite garments emphasise? Which features do they conceal or minimise? Also look at the items you never wear. Evaluating your mistakes can be just as beneficial as identifying favourites.  Analyse why they haven’t worked for you – do they match other pieces in your wardrobe, do they require lots of maintenance or are they simply too old/frumpy or too young/ revealing?  Get rid of items you don’t wear. If it has been over a year since it was on your body, try it on again and re-assess it. If you haven’t worn the piece in 2 years, just let it go.
• Review the quality of your clothes – do they look cheap and shabby or smart and polished? Are they fit for purpose? Start taking out those items which are very shabby or damaged. Review and if they are beyond redemption, put them in the throw out/fabric recycling pile. Take note of pieces that might need to be replaced or refreshed on future shopping trips. If you still really like an item and it can be repaired or re-modelled, bring it to a good alterations service.
  
• If an item makes you feel self-conscious about a part of your body or is unflattering for your shape – relinquish it. Clothes should give you confidence not undermine you. Never keep items that you will diet into “someday” – live for now not the never, never
• Versatility is the key to a functional wardrobe – place those items that you get maximum wear out of toward the front and middle of your wardrobe.  Place the items you wear the least e.g. special occasion towards the back.
  
• Sort items by colour and type: i.e. hang similar shades and tones together. Also group the same types of items – jackets, trousers, dresses side by side. This will help you to see if you are overbuying certain pieces.  
  
•  Don’t have a rainbow wardrobe – try to keep to a core palette of core colours and
  
• co-ordinating tones so that pieces work in sympathy with each other and give the greatest opportunity for multiple permutations.
  
• Put seasonal pieces away when it comes to the end of their season –  e.g. pack heavy coats and knitwear away in spring/early summer. To make room, put these items away in spare rooms, trunks or wherever you have extra space but be careful of storing clothes in damp places such as basements. Ensure that when pieces are being stored away they are clean and laundered.
  
• If you cannot decide about an item try it on and photograph it on yourself, then review all these pieces at the very end. It is amazing what a photo can reveal that you don’t necessarily see facing a mirror. Get your accomplice to photo you from the back as well if you think a piece is too small or too large – we aren’t 2 dimensional, and sometimes forget about the rear view.  
  
• For items that are to be folded such as knitwear, t shirts and jeans – instead of folding them flat try to fold them as per Marie Kondo method rolled/folded upright so that you can see everything you have at a glance.   
  
• For shoes – either use a shoe rack or keep your shoes in their original boxes stacked on shelves, with photos/descriptions of the shoes on the outside. Don’t archive shoes for posterity: like your clothes relinquish those you haven’t worn in a couple of years. Don’t keep masses of stilettos if you now never wear them and live in flats. Always ensure that you air shoes and they are totally dry and clean before boxing.
  
• Sort through your socks and smalls – store them sorted by colour and stacked neatly vertically. Chuck out any underwear that is saggy, sad or ill fitting.
• Store handbags in their original dust bags away from direct sunlight, preferably on a shelf unit.
• Store scarves in drawers rolled rather than folded, again sort by colour and season.
  
• Keep accessories such as belts, sunglasses and gloves in dedicated drawers to make them easy to locate.  Keep fine jewellery in individual pouches and boxes to avoid scratching and tangling.
  

 
Once you have gone though all your wardrobe and allocated pieces to their piles, act swiftly and dispose of items you are discarding. This will avoid you developing remorse for the items and starting to re-integrate them into your now beautifully organised and streamlined wardrobe. Promise yourself that you won’t revert to the clutter habit and in a short time you will see the benefits that your calm, de-cluttered closet will bring to your life:

• You will feel lighter, clearer and more focused.
•  You will save yourself time and stress every morning when you are dressing
• By only keeping pieces that you love and wear, you will feel more confident in all your clothes
  
• Your perspective on buying clothes will change and you will be more focused and effective when you shop.
  
• You will be able to evaluate what you need versus what you don’t and won’t be distracted by superfluous splurges.
  
• Your mind set will feel happier and calmer – order not chaos will be the start to your day and this will set the tone for your mood throughout the day.
  

• By making choices, you will feel energised and able to channel your energy flow in a positive way.
  

  
Being able to exercise choice and choose those items that create a positive emotion in us is an immense privilege, and once we take ownership of it, we can feel stronger in other spheres of our lives too. Clarity of thought leads to purposeful choices and that is beneficial not only to our wardrobes but also to our daily lives and interactions.  

Image courtesy of Pexels - https://www.pexels.com/photo/jetty-sea-dawn-landscape-136317/