Week Two:
Every week on FRIDAY for three (3) more weeks, I'm going to post one challenge related to either organizing, cleaning or general house improvement. Each week will focus on a different room/area of the house. Once the five weeks are up you'll have completed just five small tasks, but your house will be cleaner and more organized; just like that! Magical really.
For "Week TWO" we are going to focus on the bedroom or wherever the majority of your clothes are stored. You likely spend a great deal of time deciding what to wear/what not to wear so let's get it organized!
There are so many ways to go through clothing to help purge, sort and make things pretty that it's pretty hard to just pick one! There is the "put everything in a pile on your bed, then sort" method, the "hang your hangers backwards and hang them the right way once you've worn it" method, the "keep, toss, donate bins" method, the "decide how much room you have and then make your clothes fit in that space" method that we used a derivative of last week with the DVDs challenge and MANY others. I'm going to explain two options. One way I've chosen is perhaps a bit unorthodox or unexpected and the other is super simple, but they are both BY FAR the easiest way I know to get rid of a lot of extra clothes you don't need with the least amount of hassle (pain)!
OPTION ONE (the simplest, but possibly most annoying option):
First, get boxes/containers, spare desk space or your floor.
Second, take EVERY piece of clothing, accessories included out of your closet/dressers/wherever and put them all in the boxes/containers/spare desk or floor space.
Third, that's it! You're done the hard part. Now pick a length of time that seems realistic to you (it could be 2 months/6 months/a year, etc.) and for that length of time, every time you wear/wash something, you put it back in your closet/dresser/wherever. When the time frame you've chosen is up, you get rid of everything else that you haven't already put back in your closet/dresser!
The theory behind this idea is that you usually wear the same clothes over and over again and most of your wardrobe rarely sees daylight. This is the easiest method to only keep the items you love/wear the most.
Note: This method obviously might not be ideal for you as you'll need extra space to store your clothes in the interim, and if you have seasons like I do, you won't be wearing the same items in the summer as you do in the winter and so forth, so you'll need a longer time period in which to 'store' your clothes.
OPTION TWO (the take away the stress when going through articles of clothing option):
First, if you thought you'd be proactive and are standing in front of your closet reading this, run and go somewhere FAR away from all your clothes. Really. You must do this anywhere but near your clothes. Open up a new document, spreadsheet, or my favourite - a piece of paper and a pencil. That's right, I said paper and pencil. We're going to make a list of sorts - of clothes.
Second, on your list write down everything you need/wear in a typical week/month/year (whichever works best for you). For example, I have an office job where I wear business casual clothes for 4 days out of 5, I have 3 days I wear casual clothes, I dress up twice/year max for weddings/special occasions, I try to work out 2-4 times a week, I wear pyjamas every night for bed, I participate in ultimate frisbee and softball in the summer (so I have sports wear), and I avoid bugs like the plague (so I have certain clothes that I wear when I'm out past dark/in woody areas).
If you live in a 4 season place like me, then tailor your list per season if that is easier for you.
A sample of my list would be:
Winter Office Day (4 days):
- bra
- underwear
- socks
- nice pants
- nice shirt
- nice work sweater
Winter Casual (3 days):
- bra
- underwear
- socks
- jeans
- shirt
- sweater
This first step is by far the hardest/most time consuming part, but once your list is complete it's pretty much smooth sailing from here on out.
Third, pick some numbers! For simplicity's sake, let's say you do laundry every second week and you wear each item once before washing it. So in my example above if I wanted to wear a different outfit every day for two full weeks, I would need :
Winter Office Day (4 days):
- bra (x8)
- underwear (x8)
- socks (x8)
- nice pants (x8)
- nice shirt (x8)
- nice work sweater (x8)
Winter Casual (3 days):
- bra (x6)
- underwear (x6)
- socks (x6)
- jeans (x6)
- t-shirt (x6)
- sweater (x6)
Or basically 14 different full outfits.
Note: Your choices for numbers are going to be different dependent on how often you do laundry, how many different outfits you want to wear before doubling, etc.
Once your general numbering is done we're going to do two things: 1) condense the list and 2) get realistic!
To condense the list simply remove the headings and combine the categories (e.g. I don't need different underwear for work than I do for casual days, so I would combine the two into just one underwear category). My above categories would combine to be:
- bra (x14)
- underwear(x14)
- socks (x14)
- nice pants (x8)
- nice shirt (x8)
- nice work sweater (x8)
- jeans (x6)
- t-shirt (x6)
- sweater (x6)
Now we're going to get realistic! I don't need EIGHT 'nice work sweaters', I actually just have one that I leave at work, so that number changes to 1. I wear my bras more than once before I wash them, so that number is going to be lower. I wear my pants, jeans and sweaters a couple of times before I wash them usually, so I'll reduce those numbers too. I do wear clean underwear and socks everyday (thank goodness!) and I usually only wear a shirt once (maybe twice if I didn't wear it very long) before I wash it so I'll keep those numbers as is.
- bra (x4)
- underwear(x14)
- socks (x14)
- nice pants (x4)
- nice shirt (x8)
- nice work sweater (x1)
- jeans (x2)
- t-shirt (x6)
- sweater (x2)
Now that you're done condensing and being realistic with your numbers, take a minute, hour, or entire day(s) to think about any events/clothing items that you forgot to account for (e.g. wearing a dress twice a week in the summer for example). Make sure you're happy with your list because there is no going back now!
Note: For most people my numbers are going to be much lower than most people are comfortable with. The numbers I've used in my example are what some might call minimalistic.
Fourth, clear out your closet/dresser/wherever your clothes go. Put them all in a big pile/multiple huge piles on the bed/floor/wherever they fit. Give the shelves/drawers a quick dust if you like while they are empty.
Fifth/Lastly, now comes the FUN part! You're going to essentially 'pretend' your packing using the list you made. You're going to pick out your MOST FAVOURITE clothing items in each category and put them "away" in your closet/dresser. So from my example above, I would pick out my 14 most favourite pair of underwear and put them in my underwear bin, my 2 most favourite pairs of jeans and put them in my dresser, etc. until I've gone through my whole list and have kept only the appropriate number of items per category. Once you're done 'packing', you'll want to make sure each item of clothing that you've kept matches at least one other item or else you might end up with a red and yellow polka dot top matched with purple pants (unless you're into that kind of thing of course...)!
Now wasn't that easy/terrifying/horrible/completely awful? The good news is, now all your clothes probably fit in your dresser/closet no problem and you can donate (or sell, consignment, etc.) whatever you have left, to others!
I'll be sharing my progress (before and after pictures) below once the week is up. Please feel free to share how YOU did either my emailing me or using the comment section below! I'd love to see your before and afters!
Update:
Below is my before and after picture. This is what our closet always looks like. I could have tidied the clothing on the shelves a bit, but I figured I'd prefer to be real. In an ideal world, all the shelving would be beautiful and matchy-matchy and in the future it will be one of the things I'll want to make prettier, but for now its functional and decent!
Mr. T. and I share this closet. These are ALL of our clothes (except for one load of dirty clothes which is in the washer at the moment). We've gone through the above process regularly in the past and this is what we have currently. We both feel like we have more than enough clothes right now and we're likely to be going through them again once summer hits and giving away a few more items that we haven't worn.
Because I'm short and Mr. T. is not, he gets the top shelf to himself (well almost... he shares the shelf with the extra set of sheets which are on top of the white cubby). From left to right the compartments go (or usually go - I leave his organization to him, although I did help him to 'start'): hoodies/casual sweaters, casual/sports t-shirts, "nice" t-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, "nice sweaters", and collared/golf shirts.
Our hanging items include (some of which the curtain blocks in this picture) Mr. T.'s suit, my two dresses, my nice work jacket, our 3 sports teams jerseys, and a half dozen dress shirts. Underneath the hanging items we have one pair of dress shoes each. The 15 compartment mini shelf thing to the right holds bras, underwear, socks, sports socks, stockings, ties, and bathing suits. Underneath holds Mr. T.'s "bottoms" - pyjamas, pants, shorts and below that is the laundry basket. The vertical shelving on the right holds my clothes. From top to bottom it goes: sweaters, work/dress shirts, casual/sports shirts, work/dress bottoms, casual/sports bottoms, and pyjamas (which is behind the pillow). The chest holds some extra reading material.
And that's our closet as of yesterday! I'll add an updated picture once the laundry is done in the near future.
There are so many ways to go through clothing to help purge, sort and make things pretty that it's pretty hard to just pick one! There is the "put everything in a pile on your bed, then sort" method, the "hang your hangers backwards and hang them the right way once you've worn it" method, the "keep, toss, donate bins" method, the "decide how much room you have and then make your clothes fit in that space" method that we used a derivative of last week with the DVDs challenge and MANY others. I'm going to explain two options. One way I've chosen is perhaps a bit unorthodox or unexpected and the other is super simple, but they are both BY FAR the easiest way I know to get rid of a lot of extra clothes you don't need with the least amount of hassle (pain)!
OPTION ONE (the simplest, but possibly most annoying option):
First, get boxes/containers, spare desk space or your floor.
Second, take EVERY piece of clothing, accessories included out of your closet/dressers/wherever and put them all in the boxes/containers/spare desk or floor space.
Third, that's it! You're done the hard part. Now pick a length of time that seems realistic to you (it could be 2 months/6 months/a year, etc.) and for that length of time, every time you wear/wash something, you put it back in your closet/dresser/wherever. When the time frame you've chosen is up, you get rid of everything else that you haven't already put back in your closet/dresser!
The theory behind this idea is that you usually wear the same clothes over and over again and most of your wardrobe rarely sees daylight. This is the easiest method to only keep the items you love/wear the most.
Note: This method obviously might not be ideal for you as you'll need extra space to store your clothes in the interim, and if you have seasons like I do, you won't be wearing the same items in the summer as you do in the winter and so forth, so you'll need a longer time period in which to 'store' your clothes.
OPTION TWO (the take away the stress when going through articles of clothing option):
First, if you thought you'd be proactive and are standing in front of your closet reading this, run and go somewhere FAR away from all your clothes. Really. You must do this anywhere but near your clothes. Open up a new document, spreadsheet, or my favourite - a piece of paper and a pencil. That's right, I said paper and pencil. We're going to make a list of sorts - of clothes.
Second, on your list write down everything you need/wear in a typical week/month/year (whichever works best for you). For example, I have an office job where I wear business casual clothes for 4 days out of 5, I have 3 days I wear casual clothes, I dress up twice/year max for weddings/special occasions, I try to work out 2-4 times a week, I wear pyjamas every night for bed, I participate in ultimate frisbee and softball in the summer (so I have sports wear), and I avoid bugs like the plague (so I have certain clothes that I wear when I'm out past dark/in woody areas).
If you live in a 4 season place like me, then tailor your list per season if that is easier for you.
A sample of my list would be:
Winter Office Day (4 days):
- bra
- underwear
- socks
- nice pants
- nice shirt
- nice work sweater
Winter Casual (3 days):
- bra
- underwear
- socks
- jeans
- shirt
- sweater
This first step is by far the hardest/most time consuming part, but once your list is complete it's pretty much smooth sailing from here on out.
Third, pick some numbers! For simplicity's sake, let's say you do laundry every second week and you wear each item once before washing it. So in my example above if I wanted to wear a different outfit every day for two full weeks, I would need :
Winter Office Day (4 days):
- bra (x8)
- underwear (x8)
- socks (x8)
- nice pants (x8)
- nice shirt (x8)
- nice work sweater (x8)
Winter Casual (3 days):
- bra (x6)
- underwear (x6)
- socks (x6)
- jeans (x6)
- t-shirt (x6)
- sweater (x6)
Or basically 14 different full outfits.
Note: Your choices for numbers are going to be different dependent on how often you do laundry, how many different outfits you want to wear before doubling, etc.
Once your general numbering is done we're going to do two things: 1) condense the list and 2) get realistic!
To condense the list simply remove the headings and combine the categories (e.g. I don't need different underwear for work than I do for casual days, so I would combine the two into just one underwear category). My above categories would combine to be:
- bra (x14)
- underwear(x14)
- socks (x14)
- nice pants (x8)
- nice shirt (x8)
- nice work sweater (x8)
- jeans (x6)
- t-shirt (x6)
- sweater (x6)
Now we're going to get realistic! I don't need EIGHT 'nice work sweaters', I actually just have one that I leave at work, so that number changes to 1. I wear my bras more than once before I wash them, so that number is going to be lower. I wear my pants, jeans and sweaters a couple of times before I wash them usually, so I'll reduce those numbers too. I do wear clean underwear and socks everyday (thank goodness!) and I usually only wear a shirt once (maybe twice if I didn't wear it very long) before I wash it so I'll keep those numbers as is.
- bra (x4)
- underwear(x14)
- socks (x14)
- nice pants (x4)
- nice shirt (x8)
- nice work sweater (x1)
- jeans (x2)
- t-shirt (x6)
- sweater (x2)
Now that you're done condensing and being realistic with your numbers, take a minute, hour, or entire day(s) to think about any events/clothing items that you forgot to account for (e.g. wearing a dress twice a week in the summer for example). Make sure you're happy with your list because there is no going back now!
Note: For most people my numbers are going to be much lower than most people are comfortable with. The numbers I've used in my example are what some might call minimalistic.
Fourth, clear out your closet/dresser/wherever your clothes go. Put them all in a big pile/multiple huge piles on the bed/floor/wherever they fit. Give the shelves/drawers a quick dust if you like while they are empty.
Fifth/Lastly, now comes the FUN part! You're going to essentially 'pretend' your packing using the list you made. You're going to pick out your MOST FAVOURITE clothing items in each category and put them "away" in your closet/dresser. So from my example above, I would pick out my 14 most favourite pair of underwear and put them in my underwear bin, my 2 most favourite pairs of jeans and put them in my dresser, etc. until I've gone through my whole list and have kept only the appropriate number of items per category. Once you're done 'packing', you'll want to make sure each item of clothing that you've kept matches at least one other item or else you might end up with a red and yellow polka dot top matched with purple pants (unless you're into that kind of thing of course...)!
Now wasn't that easy/terrifying/horrible/completely awful? The good news is, now all your clothes probably fit in your dresser/closet no problem and you can donate (or sell, consignment, etc.) whatever you have left, to others!
I'll be sharing my progress (before and after pictures) below once the week is up. Please feel free to share how YOU did either my emailing me or using the comment section below! I'd love to see your before and afters!
Update:
Below is my before and after picture. This is what our closet always looks like. I could have tidied the clothing on the shelves a bit, but I figured I'd prefer to be real. In an ideal world, all the shelving would be beautiful and matchy-matchy and in the future it will be one of the things I'll want to make prettier, but for now its functional and decent!
Mr. T. and I share this closet. These are ALL of our clothes (except for one load of dirty clothes which is in the washer at the moment). We've gone through the above process regularly in the past and this is what we have currently. We both feel like we have more than enough clothes right now and we're likely to be going through them again once summer hits and giving away a few more items that we haven't worn.
Because I'm short and Mr. T. is not, he gets the top shelf to himself (well almost... he shares the shelf with the extra set of sheets which are on top of the white cubby). From left to right the compartments go (or usually go - I leave his organization to him, although I did help him to 'start'): hoodies/casual sweaters, casual/sports t-shirts, "nice" t-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, "nice sweaters", and collared/golf shirts.
Our hanging items include (some of which the curtain blocks in this picture) Mr. T.'s suit, my two dresses, my nice work jacket, our 3 sports teams jerseys, and a half dozen dress shirts. Underneath the hanging items we have one pair of dress shoes each. The 15 compartment mini shelf thing to the right holds bras, underwear, socks, sports socks, stockings, ties, and bathing suits. Underneath holds Mr. T.'s "bottoms" - pyjamas, pants, shorts and below that is the laundry basket. The vertical shelving on the right holds my clothes. From top to bottom it goes: sweaters, work/dress shirts, casual/sports shirts, work/dress bottoms, casual/sports bottoms, and pyjamas (which is behind the pillow). The chest holds some extra reading material.
And that's our closet as of yesterday! I'll add an updated picture once the laundry is done in the near future.
I should mention that our closet hasn't always looked like this and hasn't always been organized this way. We've actually gone through a lot of different ways to organize our clothes. As we wear our clothes, we learn what system works best for us and this has been the best one so far! Also, we've given away BAGS and BAGS and BOXES and BOXES of clothes to get to this point. It's so easy for us now to only keep what we actually wear. It definitely gets easier!