The scene was hilarious, heaps of clothes everywhere, one of our dogs nested onto piles of coat hangers, and my daughter and I wearing an array of clothing pieces as we tried things on to see how they looked. A friend was on the chez lounge offering one liners such as “toss it” or “that looks great,” or “when was the last time you wore it?”
We were trying to purge our closet clutter. We succeeded quite well, ending up with six large bags prepared for Salvation Army. The aftermath is another story, and I won’t tell you how long it took to return our living room to some sense of normalcy.
Guidance for Letting Go
* Karen Kingston, author of Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, notes that most people wear about 20 percent of their wardrobe 80 percent of the time.
* Have you worn the piece of clothing in the last year? If not, it is ready for The Salvation Army, Goodwill, or a second-hand store.
* How do you feel in the clothes? Our friend was really smart to ask us this question. If you feel awkward you won’t wear the clothes very much. Besides, why feel awkward?
* Do the clothes fit well? If they are one size too small and you are waiting to lose weight to get back into them, how realistic are you being? (We decided to only keep small clothes that were really great.)
* Consider being really green and purging all synthetic clothes since they most likely don’t feel very good against your body.
* What is the emotional barometer of the clothes? Were you wearing the outfit at your mother’s funeral? Did you meet your best boyfriend wearing it? Keep the good vibes and toss the bad!
* Gauge the value the piece of clothing has to your life. I have found that beautiful, natural fiber has a high please barometer for me, the sheer sensuality of the fabric is important to me. These are clothes that I will keep.
* Do you have a lot of clothes that are similar and you have too many of them, such as jackets or jeans? Consider tossing those you wear the least.
Having gone through this clearing process myself this week, I can tell you that I feel lighter, less weighed down with the burden of managing too much stuff. Our friend who helped us clear our closets said that there is a second layer of clearing out clothes, and that happens organically as we put everything away and take a second look at some questionable items.
After you have cleared out the clothes clutter and gotten it out of the house, make sure to smudge the area where you keep your clothes (for most of us that is our bedroom).
