Closet Purge: a new monthly feature

Egads! According to my blog archive, I only posted 3 times in September. I am so sorry to have abandoned you, internet! I have been very, very busy during our time apart, with work insanity, social engagements, and just general lethargy. But I am back, and I promise to get back into posting more. In fact, I will promise to post every day for the rest of the month, just like Jenful did. Some posts might be pretty brief, but I need to work my blog muscle again. :)

One of the things that has kept me busy was a huge, massive closet purge. MASSIVE.

Long-time followers will remember there was a time, nearly 3 years ago now, when I was very fit and thin. And I slowly gained it all back, right in front of everyone. As I crept back up, I didn't want to get rid of sizes that I swore I would get back into, so I squirreled them away all over the house, one size up at a time. I ended up filling:

• 2 portable closet spaces in my husband's office
• 2 more portable closets in the basement
• 5 jumbo plastic bins
• 3 random boxes
• 2 garbage bags
• 1 extra drawer in the hall bureau
• 1 flat plastic bin under the bed

I am not exaggerating. Here is our basement before the purge.




All five bins are overstuffed.


(Yes, those are mannequins. I bought them when Forth & Towne closed. Don't ask.)

Two weekends ago, I tackled the basement and office closets.  I went through every single piece of clothing I had, and sorted them into 3 piles: one for donation, one to keep, and one to give away to a couple of my friends. My method was pretty cut-throat, out of sheer necessity; I really streamlined what I kept down to favorite pieces or ones that were of excellent quality and were classics. The ones for my friends were styles and brands I knew they liked, or ones I hoped would fit them well. Everything else went to donation.

When I was done, this is what it looked like:








The clear plastic bins are all I have left for myself. The two blue bins went to my friends.

The rest that went to donation filled my entire back section of my CR-V with overstuffed garbage bags. Twice.

• 19 blouses
• 23 button-downs
• 33 camisoles
• 27 long-sleeve knit tee's
• 52 short-sleeve knit tee's
• 53 long-sleeve sweaters
• 21 short-sleeve sweaters
• 15 pairs of jeans
• 5 pairs of pants
• 9 skirts
• 29 dresses
• 6 blazers
• 10 pairs shoes
• 9 purses/wallets
• 18 belts
• 6 outerwear coats
• everything else that I gave to my friends (uncounted)

Yeah. It was a lot. In my defense, I inherited some of it from Shopping Friend and my sister, and it does cover sizes 8-20, and it took me several years to purchase all of it, but still...I am glad I don't shop like that anymore. Being a size that is harder to find has its perks, I guess.

Once the big purge was over, I was ready to tackle the everyday closet. I had been keeping too many items in there that didn't quite fit anymore, or that I didn't want to admit was a shopping mistake. They were hogging up my ability to see what I really did have, so it was time for them to go.

When I was done, it was amazing. I sorted everything by type and then by color.



Hubby gave me the whole tall section of our closet (we had been sharing this part) so it went pants, skirts, dresses, and sweaters. (Boots and casual shoes are on the floor. The bins are clutches/small purses in one, and athletic shoes in the other.)


Sweaters by color. I did not realize how many purples and corals I had!



The second half of the closet. Hubby has the top part, I have the bottom. It goes on longer past the left edge of the photo.


Tops by color. I included even knit tees that I wear as under layers; stuffed in a drawer, I tend to forget they exist, and I end up buying more tops than I need (as evidenced by the 121 that I gave away!)


Jackets and blazers. I've been wearing more of them lately as I am attending more meetings at work.

I love it. LOVE IT.

Everything is on good wooden hangers (Forth & Towne again!), it all has room to breathe, and now I can see everything at once. This makes it 100% easier to figure out what to wear every day, and what hasn't been worn in a while. I can also see where my "wardrobe holes" are, and even more importantly, what I have too much of.

Angie at YouLookFab has written many times about maintaining control of your closet (the physical storage space) and your wardrobe (the clothes within it), the latest being a great blog post about asking what your wardrobe goals are. While I have no desire to establish a one-in, one-out system like she does, I can see now that for some item sets -- sweaters, for example -- if I buy any new ones I will have to get rid of some so they fit in the space. Truthfully, there are a good three or four sweaters already in there that I probably should have purged but that I decided to hang onto for one last chance for this fall/winter.

Therefore, I am going to steal a page from my blogger friend Lorena, and not only purge every month, but document what I got rid of, what I added, and why. I am always fascinated by her monthly edit posts and her monthly purchase posts. Now that I can see my own wardrobe, with everything lined up so nicely, it's obvious which items are on their last legs. It will be good discipline to go through them more often.

The Goodwill by my office is going to love me. :)