Paring Down Your Stuff to Free Up Yourself

Disclaimer: the post below contains an affiliate link - if you buy the book I recommend, I'll get a few shekels from Amazon.com.

Because I am productivity-minded, one of my greatest pleasures in life is decluttering. Every few months I get inspired to go on a massive purge so I can pare down to just those things  I really want or need.

My most recent inspiration for The Great Purge came from - where else? - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. This is not a new book - it was just new to me. I devoured it in one sitting and vowed to change my evil,  materialistic ways so I could become one with the universe.

Or just maybe so I could open my closet without having a panic attack.



If you haven't read this book yet, you must. You may not agree with some of the more spiritual elements (i.e., thanking items before you discard them) or some of the advice (i.e., folding your underwear into an aesthetically-pleasing package), but the logic is undeniable. You can't truly relax until your house is in order.

Thus, I am on a quest to pare down all the things with which I share space to ensure I’m surrounded by stuff I love or can’t live without.

The biggest thorn in my cluttered side? My wardrobe.

I will state up front that I am in no way a fashionista, and my personal style can best be described as functional. But even for those style mavens among us, it’s a worthy exercise to consider everything in your closet.

Here’s the process I followed – influenced in part by The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - and the things I learned:

The Great Purge

I started by combing through ALL of my clothes, going through my dresser drawers and closet to remove anything that I haven’t worn in at least 6 months. As I threw items into the pile, I realized I was getting rid of things that. . .

• . . .fit, but were itchy or caused some other discomfort, or made me look fat
• . . .didn’t fit, so made me FEEL fat

These things, I realized, were pretty damaging to my psyche – and I was exposing myself to them every single morning! Why should I do that to myself?

I also found myself getting rid of things that . . .

• . . . have been hanging around for a while until I could find something to wear with it
• . . . require WAY too much maintenance (anything that requires ironing pretty much never sees the light of day)
• . . . I really WANTED to look good in, but didn’t
• . . . people bought me as gifts that I knew upon receiving I’d NEVER wear, but I felt bad about returning them

Now, it’s important to note – I did not throw these clothes away or donate them to charity – yet. I am going to give myself a few weeks to see if I miss anything that made it to the pile. So far, so good.

Rebuilding -  the smart way

After the purge, my closet is looking a little thin. So here is my next project: shopping for wardrobe essentials – those building blocks upon which you can create several different looks. Here are links to a few guidelines I’ll be using to create my list:

RealSimple Wardrobe Basics Checklist

Glamour:10 Wardrobe Essentials Every Woman Should Own

The ChicFashionista Wardrobe Essentials

Resolutions

I learned a few things about myself throughout this process, which led me to create a list of resolutions:

Learning #1 : I hate to try things on at the store – which leads me to buy things that don’t fit, look weird, or otherwise offend.

Resolution #1: Going forward, I will try on EVERYTHING. I’ll only shop when I know I have enough time to try things on, and I will strive to get over the fact that I’m easily grossed out by dressing rooms. (Don't judge. I always end up in one that has hair all over the floor, or a used Band-Aid, or whatever.)

Learning #2: I hate returning things – I always feel a little shamefaced when I take things back. Like the store clerk is judging me for my fickleness.

Resolution #2: If I succeed in Resolution #1, this won’t be an issue. But should I ever need to return something, I’ll need to get over myself. Store clerks probably don’t have the time to internally assess my character every time I bring back a pair of jeans that create love handles.

Learning #3: I like having all my clothes clean all the time.

Resolution #3: My husband and I go through an astonishing number of clothes in a week. Previously I saved all my laundry for the weekend – and as the week wore on, the dirty clothes pile outgrew the laundry baskets containing them. So Resolution #3 is – I will do a load of laundry EVERY NIGHT. I’ve been doing this now for about a week, and I have to tell you, it’s pretty rewarding to have an empty clothes hamper every night. Plus, if I want to wear the same tank top or socks or gym shirt  in the same week, I know they’ll be clean.

Through this process, I freed up a lot of closet space as well as two dresser drawers. There’s something freeing about having fewer things to sort through every morning as I get ready for work – and knowing that everything there has survived the great purge because it fits, it looks good, and I don’t have to iron it.

Up next: my office . . . .