Clean out your closets

(Clothes on my bed, pre-elimination)

Inspired by Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project" (and the fact that I couldn't even remember all of the clothes I own) this past weekend I decided I needed to clean out my closets. With the help of my fellow blogger I dove in and put almost everything I owned on my bed. From there we split things into categories and started eliminating.

Now I'd like to say, for the record, that I'm not a big shopper and 99% of what I own comes from the sale racks at Old Navy, Goodwill or Target. I tend to wear the same sort of clothing for years, jeans, cardigans, etc. But apparently, if you don't clean out your closets frequently, you end up with a LOT of stuff.

I would suggest that if you tackle your own closets you do it when you have enough time and when you have a friend you trust who can honestly tell you, "You never wear that and you won't miss it." We worked on mine for about 3 hours and then I finished up the next day.

(Not even half of the hangers)

Before putting anything back in the closet we compared each item to the other items in the category. Yes, I like that white button-up shirt, but I already have 2 others in the keep pile. This process continued with shirts, pants, PJs, dresses, shoes, etc. I also got rid of a ton of hangers.

The hardest items for me to part with were ones that I had purchased on trips. I had a hoodie from Scotland, a couple of shirts from Ireland and my favorite pair of jeans from London. All of these items ended up in the "get-rid-of" pile because they didn't fit, were stained or had holes.

(One side of my closet, post-elimination)

My cleaned out closet actually had enough room for me to see what I was looking for without having to move everything around. It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate over the years. It makes me feel both blessed and wasteful.

In the end I had SIX huge black garbage bags and two smaller garbage bags filled with clothes, shoes, purses and a few other odds and ends. I took one box of items (books, CDs and DVDs) to Half Priced Books and received $38.50 and I took a small bag to Plato's Closet and received $3.90. The rest went to Goodwill and hopefully someone else will enjoy the items.

Photos by moi.