Over the weekend, I decluttered my closet. It’s significantly more usable now.
Yay for more usable.
I decided to use my beloved (referral link alert) velvet hangers as the deciding factor when choosing which clothes should stay and which clothes should go.
I was able to part with some clothes that were mostly fine but I didn’t wear often (or ever) for whatever reason. I’d chosen to keep them in the past, but when I looked at them comparatively with another piece of clothing that was fighting for the same available hanger, I saw that they needed to go.
They were less hanger-worthy. A blouse with weird-length sleeves can go in the Donate Box (or bag) without any much emotional drama when I can see clearly that the blouse with perfect-length sleeves deserves to be on the hanger more than it does.
Also, just being in the closet and purposefully looking at my clothes revealed a whole lotta DUHS. I filled a trash bag with things to donate that I didn’t even have to stop and think about. I just needed to be in the decluttering mindset to see them, identify them, and get them out.
Watch the video to see what I chose to purge and what I chose to keep:
If you can’t see the video, go here.
--Nony
Umm… Where’s our cleaning out your entry so you can open the door to Trick or Treaters video?? Because while I NEED to clean out my entry so I can deal with people who will be on my door step tonight I now have an overwhelming urge to go purge my closet tonight instead!!! ARGH!!!! You are killing me.
Visability rule, visability rule, visability rule…
Oh sorry!!! Thankfully, my entry looks good right now!
Ok I guess I need help. Is it bad that I want to know the sizes and where you donated these not hanger worthy clothes? I think there may be room in my closet (if I shove really tight and I can get some more hangers at the dollar store.) Seriously I need to de-clutter my closet and this made so much sense to my slob brain. I have clothes that are at least 20 years old wadded up in the back. Thank you
My slob brain is being awakened to new thinking. Before Nony I would think I need to organize….like I need a BIG area to place everything (like racks for clothing and storage racks and bins. But it didn’t make sense and was so overwhelming to my brain. You make sense….declutter first for the space (container size) and there is no need to organize….it happens by itself. Bins of clothes in the basement that don’t fit and may never….that need to be worn by someone before they are no longer in style. Let it go, me. Thank you, Dana.
Thanks for the great blog post! I am cleaning out as well. I’m not giving a shout out to any particular donation or nonprofit. But there is one that picks up right at my door when I schedule a pickup. Lifesaver for me because those bags would sit in my car for ever LOL
How do you choose which 2 garments to compare?
What if I compare garment 1 to garment 2, and between those, garment 1 is more hanger worthy. Then later, I compare garment 7 to garment 8, and garment 7 is more hanger worthy. But now, both 2 and garment 8 are in the “Donate” box, and when I get to garments 39 and 40, garment 2, in the donate box, is more garment worthy than both of them…but I don’t see that, because garment 2 is in the box under a bunch of other donatables.
So I end up keeping garment 39, putting garment 40 in the “Donate” box, and losing garment 2, which I should have kept instead of garment 39.
How do you avoid this problem?
For me, I knew I had too many clothes, and that I’d survive with a lot fewer. Don’t go all the way down the road mentally, just look at one thing at a time. When I picked up something I knew I loved, I then looked for something on a velvet hanger that I didn’t love as much. When I looked at it that way, the answers strangely revealed themselves pretty easily. And once I’ve decided I don’t like something as much as another, I look at it differently, and no longer see it as something I like much at all.
I’ve just started reading your blog, and am curious; you mention DUHs, as if it’s an acronym. What does it stand for?
(Or is it just short for “This is trash; toss it, DUH!” ?)