I've got clothes. Too many clothes. Including a lot of which I do not put on anymore. The law of downsizing applied, I decided to reduce the contents of my wardrobe, my reasoning is that: 20% of the clothes we own serve us 80% of the time. In my case, I think we can say that is closer to 10/90. And every morning, it's the same thing, I search through my shirts to find one that I like and I push the others away thinking "I'll wear it tomorrow… or next week… And of course, I will never wear that again."
So I decided to (re)start simplifying my life and with that my wardrobe. It is also, for me, the easiest to do. When I tackle our books or DVDs, the choice "Ikeep-don't keep" becomes a lot more complicated.
How did I do it?
Technically it was simple. In other words it took me a long time. I took ALL my clothes, underwear and accessories out of their place in my wardrobe, I got a big garbage bag, I rolled up my sleeves – or not since I was wearing a tank top which don't have sleeves – and I sorted everything out putting things in piles.
Each garment has been carefully inspection and put on a stack based on simple criteria:
- Have I put it on in the past year?
- "Objectively, do I want to wear it?"
- "Can it serve me for a special occasion?" (I almost got rid of a blouse before I realized it could be used for a job interview)
- Is it in good condition?
- After almost three hours, I was left with three piles:
- keep it
- donate it
- pitch it
The "pitch it" pile was small containing only a few damaged clothes that were put in the trash, the "keep" pile is returned to my draws. I made beautiful piles of clothes classified by genre and there, epiphany, revelation! When I was done I found myself with this unthinkable thing: space! I could buy lots of new clothes! Wait. No, I'm not going to do that.
The "donate" pile was placed in a Red Cross container. I could have tried to sell these clothes, via Ebay or the right garage sale or whichever other option there is, but I didn't want to. Just thinking about the time it would have taken me to create the ads for everything, argh! I would rather donate it to a worthy cause.
That's it, that's my first step towards a simpler life and already, it feels good.
See you soon.
PS: If you too want to empty your wardrobe and do a good deed, the sites of the Red Cross or local options like Planet Aide give all the information and places where to drop bags of clothes.