If you’ve got an overstuffed closet, you’re probably familiar with this decluttering advice: Get rid of all clothes you haven’t worn in a year. Many people seem to find this extremely difficult, however. After all, what if you finally decide to wear those items THIS year?
So how about giving yourself this year for the project?
That’s basically what J.D. Roth at Get Rich Slowly did (via Lifehacker). The frugal guy first moved all his shirts and sweaters to his spare room — returning them to the closet only after wearing them at least once. A year later, most of his shirts still remained unworn! That meant an inevitable clothing purge:
I gritted my teeth, grabbed the 37 shirts and sweaters still left in the spare room, and took them to a local thrift store. Some of the things I donated had never been worn (or had been worn just a couple of times). It hurt to part with those clothes. I probably spent more than $750 to purchase them (remember, I buy a lot of clothes at thrift stores), so in a way it felt like I was throwing away $750.
But it occurred to me that’s the wrong way to look at it. I’m not throwing that money away now. I threw away that $750 years ago when I bought the clothes I wasn’t ever going to wear.
J.D. says his “One-Year Wardrobe Project” has made him think more carefully about his clothing purchases, since he knows money spent on impulse purchases often means money wasted on clothes he’ll never wear.
I also see another benefit to J.D.’s project: The totally free pleasure of shopping your own closet. Knowing you’ll have to give away an item if you don’t wear it within the year could in fact motivate you to actually wear the thing, whether by piecing it together with other items to create an outfit, finally sewing back on the button that dropped off a year ago, or putting it through nips and tucks to make it fit properly. You could find whole new daring looks for yourself — without spending any more money!
J.D.’s “One-Year Wardrobe Project” seems best paired with the Great American Apparel Diet, so as to keep yourself focused on wearing what’s in the spare room without adding new clothes to the pile. What’s your trick for keeping your closet well-edited?
Earlier: Buy less, trade more with other eco-fashionistas, locally or nationally.
Photo by LizMarie
A similar way to keep track of what has/ has not been worn (particularly if you don’t have the luxory of a spare closet) is to have all of the hangers face in one direction. Then when something has been worn, turn the hanger around.
Comment by Chris Meehan — May 14, 2010 @ 1:50 pm
Excellent post. We go one further and for every item we bring into the house, one has to go. THis prevents hanging on to anything that we cannot bear to get rid of. I mean, you can only wear so many clothes and if you have to get rid of something you love, you are less likely to buy something you don’t need.
Robert Stockham´s last blog ..Who gives a damn about the Gulf anyway?
Comment by Robert Stockham — May 14, 2010 @ 2:14 pm
An unintended benefit of wardrobe editing is that it really does make you think when buying clothes. You end up only buying of better cut and quality, building up a really “grownup” wardrobe, versus having your closet filled with Target. If you’ve only got a few things in your closet, you might as well make them gorgeous!
Comment by Maria — May 15, 2010 @ 6:30 am
Oh — Nice tip re: turning hangers around!
Comment by Siel — June 19, 2010 @ 3:42 pm