How to Purge Your Closet & Love Your Wardrobe Again

From December 21st – December 31st terminate by The Well Dressed Life every morning to come across our Best Posts of 2021. Today, Let'south talk about how to purge your wearing apparel so you tin can finally have a wardrobe you lot beloved.

Is information technology hard for yous to let go of all those clothes hanging in your cupboard that you know don't serve you well?

The ones that are quondam and dated.

The ones that don't make you feel your all-time.

The ones that are "just ok," simply you make practise.

Yep?

Then yous are far from alone.

How to Purge Clothes and Create a Closet Y'all Love

Before I launched The Well Dressed Life, I spend almost a decade as a personal stylist, working with clients, helping them store and create a functional wardrobe that they loved.

My first step with a new client was to clean out and edit their wardrobes.

Honestly, information technology was my to the lowest degree favorite part of my chore, but the near necessary. Almost every time I came home from that initial appointment, I was exhausted.

At showtime, I didn't empathize why I was so tired. It's not like my job was hard.

Only I eventually realized; it wasn't the concrete task that drained me and so much but the abiding negotiations back and forth with the client.

Most clients wanted to tell me the life story of every particular they purchased and debate every single piece nosotros were purging .

The claiming became the longer I was in business, the faster I worked. I knew what should stay and what should become.

Because I wasn't emotionally attached to the clothes, I could edit a decent-sized wardrobe in under an hr.

Purging Your Dress is Emotional

Equally it turned out I wasn't the only one drained; clients would let me know they as well were surprised how wiped out they felt after our time together.

Because our clothes are an extension of who we are, a link to our past and futurity, and tied to a part of the states, departing with even the about unwearable slice tin be stressful.

To make the experience easier for both of the states, I had to figure out a fashion to streamline the procedure and lessen the blitz of feet many clients felt.

Since I've stopped working with clients, we've published countless posts on editing and organizing your wardrobe ( here and here ). We even created our seasonal 4 Calendar week Wardrobe Challenge (adjacent challenge begins Live on Jan seventh, 2022) over in our individual Facebook group.

But we've never dived into the mindset y'all need to movement through the process.

If you grasp the steps but struggle with actually letting go, there are a few things you can exercise to lessen the strain and stress.

Simple Steps to Purge Clothes In one case and For All

Know Your Style

You cannot curate your wardrobe if you don't know your manner. And if you lot don't know your way, y'all volition not be able to create a framework for determining what stays and what goes.

Before you effort to edit your wardrobe, take some time to figure out what you like.

When we worked with clients, earlier nosotros even entered their closets, we asked them to pull pictures from magazines and catalogs or create a Pinterest board of looks they loved.

Giving yourself a visual will assistance you run into a common theme.

For example, exercise you similar pants more skirts?

Solid colors or bold prints?

Going through these steps before starting an edit made a massive difference for our clients. It gave them "permission" to allow get and provided some much-needed clarity and focus.

When you struggle to retire an item, concord it up to your inspiration pictures and ask yourself, "Does this get me to my desired personal style?"

If the reply is yes, you keep it. But, no, permit it go.

Read Our Mail: How to Observe Your Personal Fashion

You Already Spent the Money

"How can I get rid of something I spent coin on and barely wore?"

Nosotros've all been there, looking at our donation pile and seeing zilch merely wasted coin.

Information technology's so frustrating.

But once you lot tin can grasp the thought of a "sunk cost," that you already spent the money, whether it'due south hanging in your cupboard or someones else's, at this bespeak, it doesn't matter. It's just clutter.

Hanging on to it and non wearing it doesn't give your purchase whatsoever value. Oftentimes, information technology does the opposite and becomes a negative or a pain betoken in your closet.

Every fourth dimension you look at it, y'all get annoyed.

Is it in fantabulous condition but doesn't work for you? Sell it on Thredup or Poshmark (see our tips here) .

If information technology's in decent shape but non sellable, donate to someone who can benefit from it and move on.

If information technology's stained, ripped our in bad shape, recycle or throw it out.

It's Not Coming Dorsum in Style.

I frequently say I care less near making you await stylish and more about looking electric current and modernistic. Looking dated, particularly as we age, is what nosotros're trying to avoid.

While trends come up and go, each new iteration has subtle details that make it modern. Unless we're talking about a Chanel tweed jacket or YSL arrange, I promise y'all, 90% of what y'all own isn't coming back.

And so how do yous know when something is dated?

Well, the inspiration moving picture practice in a higher place helps.

Do yous come across what you accept hanging in your closet in your pictures? Don't look so much at the manner; instead, wait at details like buttons, pocket placements, length and widths of pants, shoulder shape, and color saturation.

Call back of it like this: the classic pair of black pants you bought in 2000 is now TWENTY years old. The styling, the line, the structure, and the fit – are all outdated.

Consider asking your closest friends or even your kids for guidance. My daughters are frighteningly good at giving, ahem, roughshod fashion communication.

The indicate is, you might need a fresh gear up of eyes to be objective.

* And I know that anybody has that ane slice that works with everything and lasts forever, only that is a unicorn. The blazer you bought at Kohl'south on the clearance rack is not that slice.

Don't "Salvage" Your Stuff for Someone Else.

One of the almost consistent things clients would say when nosotros were cleaning out their closets, and I held up a piece to remove was, "oh, not that, I'll run into if my girl wants information technology."

I eventually realized they were using that equally an excuse non to have to make a conclusion.

"No, she doesn't! She's 12!"

Permit me say this with love; with few exceptions, your friends and neighbors don't want what you are giving away. So don't pass your old stuff on to other people; you're but giving them more clutter.

The exception is, of course, heirloom-quality, timeless designer or sentimental pieces. I accept several of these kind pieces put aside for my daughters.

If you are no longer wearing them, accept them cleaned and stored correctly so they stay in good condition.

I have a few vintage bags put aside for my girls, the white suit I wore at my rehearsal dinner, and some designer pieces I splurged on that don't fit anymore.

Other than that, don't use passing a piece down every bit an excuse to agree on to something you don't wear.

Take It Out of Your Main Closet

If you are undecided about a few items, don't stress. You don't demand to function with them right away.

Instead, move them to a separate cupboard or store them in a box. And so, subsequently a few weeks, or even at the end of the season, if you haven't reached for them, y'all know y'all can finally permit them go.

Same for apparel you're hoping to fit into again.

If y'all're on a weight loss journey, don't keep those pieces in your cupboard. You don't want to wake up and see garments that are too small. And so place them in a unlike cabinet, or keep them in a bin under your bed.

When you're set to try them on again, use the aforementioned exercise and principles you lot used for the rest of your closet.

Fit Doesn't Mean You Keep

Call up, just because something fits doesn't mean it'due south for yous . As women, nosotros are so used to the struggle of finding things that fit; nosotros oft ignore whether we like it or not.

I found this out personally when I resubscribed to Stitch Fix for some postpartum clothes after my last baby.

I was so happy something zipped up I often kept the slice with no thought to whether I liked information technology or not.

Everything I ordered eventually ended upwardly in a big, rather expensive donation pile.

Think well-nigh how many things you have that you lot are lukewarm about in terms of way but kept because you're simply happy it fits?

Your Closet is NOT a Department Shop

You don't need to stock your closet similar a department store. While I'thou far from a minimalist, the sheer volume I've seen in closets is overwhelming.

Stop buying things on sale simply because they are at a disbelieve.

Non just does that fill your space with unnecessary "stuff," it'south a gross waste material of money.

Making a habit of thoughtfully considered purchases volition aid continue your closet organized, is better for your wallet, and limits the endless cycle of waste in the retail industry.

Getting organized and building a wardrobe you lot honey is a lot similar getting fit and good for you.

In that location is no quick gear up or magic wand. It takes a great deal of time and discipline. Editing your wardrobe is similar those get-go couple of workouts back at the gym.

At offset, information technology's miserable, but then you feel great, and it gets easier.

Our Wardrobe Challenge for 2022 is FREE and will walk y'all through this process over iv weeks starting on Friday, January seventh. Learn nigh it here.

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Recommendations are based on my feel equally a personal stylist and wardrobe consultant for over a decade. I worked with decorated, down-to-world women who wanted to look chic and feel confident just were oftentimes confused by so much of retail.

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