It is so frustrating. I stand in front of my wardrobe of clothes and complain that I have nothing to wear when the fact is that I have plenty of clothes to wear but can't see the trees for the forest. There certainly is an issue in having too many clothes so it's time for a de-clutter. I read an interesting article last week about de-cluttering our lives.....not just our wardrobe. We surround ourselves with "things". Things that probably meant a lot to us when we purchased them or were given them. But we have to let go of some of these "things" or they overwhelm us.......just like my wardrobe of clothes.
I thought I would tackle the wardrobe today and slowly work my way around the rest of the house over the coming weeks. I have, of course, de-cluttered my wardrobe before and the way I did it then was to take every single item out of the wardrobe and only put back what you really, really love. Anyone who has tackled this way of de-cluttering would know that it takes a looooonnnnngggg time to do this. The article that I read about had a much better idea. It suggested that you work with the number 7. Choose 7 tops, 7 bottoms, 7 coats/dresses, 7 accessories and 7 pairs of shoes. This was very easy as everyone knows that you wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time. I chose these items very carefully however as you MUST be able to mix and match. I know that I will have enough different outfits to get me through the autumn/winter months. So once these items were chosen, the rest of the clothes were re-located to the empty wardrobe in the spare room. I don't want to throw anything out just yet as I think that this de-clutter should be done twice a year.....autumn/winter and spring/summer. When I do the spring/summer changeover I think most of the autumn/winter clothes will be well and truly worn out. I must also say that I have kept my "yard clothes" as I will only use my chosen wardrobe when I have visitors or if I go shopping.
So hear are the before and after photos.
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| I have been fairly organised with my wardrobe....dresses/coats in one area, bottoms on the top rail, tops on the bottom rail...just too many clothes! |
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| This area has become out of control.....too many t-shirt and tops |
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| Too many shoes. Some haven't been worn for many years! |
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| The "7" wardrobe. It looks very sparse but I know that I can work with it. |
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| What I have noticed is that I still have too many black coats/tops....but good for the autumn/winter wardrobe |
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| It was easy to pick seven pair of shoes because I am not really a "shoe" person. I just picked the most comfortable! |
Hi Judy, hope you are well. I love your little share about de-cluttering. I have been de-cluttering since we moved into the house in Darwin, and it is never ending. I really do need to do the wardrobe thing though, thanks for the inspiration.
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