Closet Cleanout

It's time for some good ole fashioned spring cleaning! Granted it's not spring, but a girl can dream, right? Basically I have as of late become really annoyed with my closet...it's too jammed packed and I don't even wear half of what is in it.

Case in point:

 

Therefore this weekend I decided everything must go! And by everything I mean the things I do not wear anymore. So I thought I would share this adventure with you. This is not so much a "how-to" (I'm not going to tell you how to run your life) as a "this is what I did this weekend." And by this weekend I mean for like an hour after I got sick of waiting for the power to come back on at the stadium during the Superbowl...ain't nobody got time for that!

Aaaanyway, upon starting this endeavor I decided that I would stop being so damn sentimental and get rid of these things I've been hanging on to for years. For instance, do I really need three, yes THREE pairs of floral patterned flats? One of which never really fit to begin with and I would only wear when I could handle the pain of the skin on my ankle being slowly torn off. No, clearly not necessary.

 

I'm sure I also do not need 15 pairs of jeans, when I only wear about 5 of them.

 

But cleaning out the closet also allowed me to rediscover clothes I had forgotten about. One big tip I would give about this sort of thing is to try everything on! You may be surprised by some of the gems you had forgotten were in the back of your closet.

 

My technique overall became to make three piles. 

1. Donations

2. Items to upcycle into either new clothes or some other craft project

3. Items to just throw away

I like to donate as much as I can, but sometimes old clothes can be reused to make something totally cool and awesome. I usually keep clothes that have a pattern I really like and I will figure out something I can make with them. Like this dress that I bought a couple years ago, that I'm pretty sure I only wore once because it never really fit right. But I kept it because it was super cute. I have finally come to the realization that it just will never fit correctly, but the pattern is adorbs, so I will find something to turn it into.

 

Now I know I mention throwing things away, which sounds awful. But there are certain things you really should not donate, like undergarments. Don't do it. It's gross. No one wants used undergarments. I mean it. Throw that shit out. Okay, end of rant.

Overall I ended up with a good sized bag of clothes to donate and a couple of items to hang onto for crafts. I feel mildly better about my closet situation. I'd show an after picture, but to be honest it doesn't really look that much better. So just imagine a really organized, pretty closet and pretend it's mine. Maybe that will be a project for another time, but that's a BIG endeavor.

~Jessica