10 Tips on How to Clean Out Your Wardrobe.

Hello my sweet friends ! I hope everyone is staying safe, and continually adjusting to this new normal. Today I wanted to talk to you guys about something that I think we should all be tackling right now, and that’s sorting out your wardrobe.

You guys, I love clothes so much! SO much. I love shoes, and coats (ask my friends, I’m the resident coat supplier among us) and I love love love a good pair of jeans. I just think there’s something so beautiful about expressing yourself through your own personal style, and no one should ever make you feel bad for that!

Sorting out your wardrobe can be daunting, and honestly for some of a it’s a whole day adventure of sorting. This has been part of my yearly routine for the last 3 years – SO here are my 10 tips on how to clean out your wardrobe !

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1. GET IN THE MOOD

I mentally prepare myself to clean out my closet for weeks in advance, and make sure that I block off a Saturday morning weeks in advance – usually once in May and again in September. For me, those two months indicate the change of season for us, and that’s primarily when I sort out my clothes. Here’s the thing with sorting out your wardrobe, it’s one of those things that once you start, you have to commit to it and follow through. So I usually put on some fun music, get a huge bottle of water and just go !

3. KEEP, FRIENDS, SELL, DONATE

Before I even start pulling out clothing, I set up my stations: what I know I’ll keep, what my friends might want, what I think I could sell and what I will be donating. Where I live, there’s a couple options on how you can re-sell old clothes, and earn money. By no means are you making tons of money from this, but you’re also not getting nothing at all! Most stores that do this have a list of brands that they take and a quality check on their clothes so be sure to check online before you start sorting. I use Plato’s Closet you can read more information about them HERE

3. GO DRAWER BY DRAWER, DOOR BY DOOR.

I’ve been doing this for so long, that I’ve learned what works for me and what overwhelms the heck out of me. Dumping out all my clothes I’ve ever owned on my bed and sorting that way is not a good idea, not only are you left with this mess of a room that will overwhelm you every-time you pick up a piece of clothing to sort, it’s just a horrible use of space. I normally start with my dresser set, that’s where 80% of my clothes are, and I go drawer, by drawer. I have already organized each drawer into a certain piece of clothing so it’s quite easy to go that way.

3. SEASONAL WARDROBES SAVES LIVES

A bit dramatic, yes, but did it save my life, yes. When I realized that under the bed storage was a thing, I went to Walmart and picked up a bin with wheels that can be tucked away under the bed (I have the exact one I use linked here). I don’t use this as more drawer space for my clothes, but rather in the winter it’s used for all my summer clothes and in the summer, all those chunky winter knits and fuzzy PJ bottoms are stored in there. If you live anywhere that has seasons, and you have to be prepared for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter – trust me this is going to save your life and save space in your room.

4. IT’S OKAY TO NOT WANT TO LET GO

Listen, it’s okay to have a hard time letting go of that concert T-shirt from the One Direction concert you skipped school to go to with your best friends when you were 16. I have that exact one! There’s some pieces of clothing that hold memories, and age really well – you do not have to let go of those. Just because you don’t wear it daily doesn’t mean it’s an automatic donate item. If it brings you joy, if it makes you happy, keep it. Use it to sleep in, store it at the bottom of your drawer for safe keeping! Memories that clothes hold are important.

5. TRY IT ON, BEFORE YOU LET IT GO.

Now, it’s important to note that I HATE trying on clothes when I shop, so is is any surprise that no part of me will try on everything I own just to decide if I want to keep it or not? No! BUT, the one and only time I will try on clothes to decide if I want to keep it or not – is at the start of the season I’m sorting for. So as I go through my summer clothes, I try on any pair of shorts, or dresses or tops that I – think might not fit me anymore, or are not my style.

6. FOLD YOUR CLOTHES

I don’t have some crazy cool tip on how to fold your clothes to better navigate your drawer, I’m simple just asking you – begging you – to fold your clothes. I am an infamous “drawer stuffer”, which basically means, when I am hunting for clothes to wear in the morning and I’m trying on 12 shirts to wear with my jeans, I will squish, shove and stuff my clothes back into the drawer instead of folding it and have my future self thank me instead of curse me. I’ve definitely gotten better at this, but I know there’s always going to be people out there that never fold their clothes in their drawer. So if that’s you, please, go fold your clothes – plus, it makes for more room which mean…more shopping?

7. DON’T FORGET TO CLEAN OUT THAT CHAIR.

We all have that chair in our rooms. You know that chair, the one where you toss the clothes you were going to wear but didn’t, the chair that hold all your dirty laundry and clean laundry together. Yup, clean it out. For me “that chair” is a laundry basket that for SOME REASON, is always full but never with dirty laundry. It drives me nuts and makes me feel a little crazy, so I try to monitor what I throw in there, but ultimately it ends with me having to clean it out at least once every 2 months.

8. STAPLE ITEMS

I am a firm believer that everyone should have at least 5 staple pieces in their wardrobe – pending style of course. Once you know your staple pieces you know what you can hold on to and keep if you see you have too many of one item or items you tend to never wear. My 5 are:

• A Leather Jacket – this will never go out of style. ever. While, I do think I have more leather jackets than the average person, but, in my defence I have one in there that i’ve had since I was 13 and it’s aged to beautifully I can’t let it go.
• A Good Pair of Jeans – I don’t buy a lot of jeans, becasue I splurge on my jeans. I am a huge fan of Top Shop Jeans, in any and every style. They really do last forever, and they also age so well !
• Booties Forever – I believe in a good pair of booties. I own booties in almost every colour or pattern you can think of, but a solid black pair of booties can be life changing.
• Biker Jacket – I’ve owned my biker jacket since 2017, and it’s served me so well. I adore it and I’ve worn it every year since buying it.
• Jean Jacket – Are you also seeing my theme of never ending jackets – that’s becasue I am obsessed and have grown quite the collection over the years. A good jean jacket can last forever, I have 3 that are different styles and colours and that serve me well !

(You can shop my closet below!)

9. 1 WEEK LIMIT

Once all my clothes are sorted into piles I give them a week to sit in my room and then I go through them one more time. If I still feel the same, they’re moved to my basement and wait to be donated or they get dropped off at the store that I re-sell my clothes at. This has saved me from just tossing things, and then regretting it later when I’m throwing clothes around the room looking for an item of clothing I accidentally donated.

10. THINK BEFORE YOU BUY

Right now, I’m going to take a good guess that not many of us are buying new clothes – or if we are, they’re most likely lounge clothes. So I would say this might be the best time to clean it all out, before you start to buy new clothes again. When you do – do it within reason! There’s nothing wrong with wanting some new tops for summer, or a new pair of cute shoes – but do it to add to your wardrobe not to clutter it up!

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I hope this helped anyone out there who’s about to tackle wardrobe sorting for the first time! If you have any tips for me, let me know in the comments!

Stay Safe,