How I Emptied Out My Closet in 2 Days!

I've always had trouble letting go, and with clothes and accessories it's at its worst. Unless it's completely worn out and ripped up, I can't squeeze into it, or it looks horrible on me I'm not letting it go. I've spent years holding onto things that still fit because I might wear them again one day. There are things in my closet I've gotten from people as hand me downs, and worse things I've bought myself, that I've never worn beyond trying them on to see if they fit during every closet declutter.

This time it's different. This time I promised myself that if I had to fight my way into it, it's leaving. If I haven't worn it and can't remember when I got it, it's going too. If i'm not completely happy with how it fits, I can't keep it. If it's too short or too baggy, it's not allowed to hang around.

And I could tell you this was easy, but I'd be lying. It was brutal and some items took a lot of thought, and multiple trips in and out of the closet before I was able to finally accept that I can't continue to hold on forever. But some items were a lot easier than others.

I personally found that sorting the closet out into six sections worked best for me, and made me be the most honest with myself about where the items in my closet stood. I already had a section pulled out to the far left side of the closet, which comprises the items I have recently gotten and have yet to wear. So, I started out by pulling all of my favorites out and hanging them off to the left side of the closet next to the previous section. Then I pulled the things I wear a lot, but are nothing special and placed them together creating another section moving towards the right side of the closet. I moved on to things I have worn a lot in the past, but don't particularly remember wearing anymore. Next was where the hardest part began, it was time to admit to myself that the remaining clothes fit into two categories... things I have only worn a few times, and things I have had for a long time and have never worn. I was surprised to have about a third of my closet sitting in these last three sections. It was a big eye opener to me how much I am holding onto that I'm not currently using, and it felt like time to do something about it. So I did...

I pulled every section out one by one starting with my favorites and made sure they fit, the ones that did not were taken out of the closet and set aside for donation. I was surprised that a lot of my favorites had started not to fit because they had gotten lost in the closet. I removed about a quarter of the section by the end (probably about 15 items in total), and it killed me to do it. The next section was quite small, and I could find little to get rid of, so after trying everything on I initially put all 17 items back in the closet and moved on, but came back to it shortly after beginning the next section after I found a bunch of similar styled items. I pulled all the pieces out and laid them aside for consideration at the end. I moved through the rest of the sections with little success in getting rid of things, but did pull a large pile of items to consider for donation because they had only been worn a time or two or even not at all.

At this point, as I said before, I put most of these items back in the closet a multitude of times slowly pulling pieces I each time that I would consider donating and ending up getting rid of a piece or two every time I tried. But I wrestled with myself over this for the majority of the second day, and had about 40 pieces that I started with, but slowly worked it down under half to about 18 pieces which I truly have strong feelings over keeping, feel great in, and love the fit of.

I probably have more than I need still, but I still pull a piece or two each time I walk past the closet and give it a hard thought about whether I still wear it. Now that I've got the closet down by more than a third, next up is my shoes!

It's spring cleaning in almost fall!

Stay Beautiful ladies!

BNB