Bullies are ugly creatures. They shouldn’t be allowed to suppress the real and good things within us.
Some bullies are at school and at work. Some are in the car behind us on the highway. And some bullies are in our closets.
Those are the bullies I want us to think about today. When we allow the clothing in our closets to speak unkind things to us, we are accepting the false notion that our value is tied to the size of our clothing.
Listen to this very closely—your clothing size has nothing to do with your worth and value. I have never heard anyone feel poorly about themselves because of the size of shoe they wear, but for some reason when it goes from our shoes to our shirts, it’s a whole new ballgame….
So, maybe today, we can decide to switch the script and silence those clothes bullies once and for all!
I figured that during our month of decluttering would be the perfect time to talk about getting rid of the clothes bullies once and for all and fill our closets with things that we love and make us feel good about ourselves. We can make that choice, and I hope that you will choose it today!
Here’s how to rid your closet of each and every bully for ever!
Take it all out:
Step 1-Take everything out. Yep. Everything. I know that sounds daunting, but trust me on this one. You will be really happy you did by the end of this process!
By taking everything out and placing it in one area (it took my whole bedroom floor to hold all of my clothes!) you are able to see everything you have. If you are like me, I realized I had WAAAAAAAY too many clothes. I knew that when they were hanging, but it became blatantly obvious when they were piled up on my floor.
Bag the Discards
Step 2-Get a bunch of, let’s call them donation bags, because trash bags just sounds mean when you are putting the majority of your wardrobe in them.
I like to use black trash donation bags because once an item enters, it becomes invisible, which makes parting an easier process.
Step 3-Place every single item that you do not like, know has holes, has grease stains (please tell me I am not the only one with this problem!), etc. into the bags.
Do not keep clothes in your closet that you do not like. And, for most of us, there is no reason to keep things that are damaged because of the tremendous excess that is in our closet to begin with. If you do not have excess and want to repair your damaged clothing, place it into a “for repair” box and put a date on the side—if you don’t get it repaired by the date on the box, the whole box goes to the donation center!
Try The Rest On & Keep Only The Best!
Step 4-Try on the remaining clothes and notice your initial response to how they make you feel.
If there is anything negative in your first response, it needs to go in the donate bag. You are not going to forget that you feel poorly in that item when you are choosing what to wear in the mornings, so you will continue to skip over it day after day! Go ahead and rid your mornings of all the negativity you can on the front end by clearing your closet of those clothing items that don’t make you feel good when you put them on!
Now, I know this may take a while….I have been there….it took me literally all day. But it is a step worth taking to try the stuff on now and see if it is worthy of a hanger. Do not—let me repeat—DO NOT keep clothes that do not fit you. You are who you are right now and you are worthy of clothes that fit right and make you feel good. Just because you could wear something ten years ago does not mean you should leave it in your closet now! Chances are you are never going to wear that item again. And, listen to me when I say, that is just fine!!! Think about all of the things you have done in your body in the last 10 years! You have used your body for so many great things and it doesn’t say anything bad about you if you can’t still wear clothes from past decades! Our bodies are going to change as we age. Our bodies are going to change as we add responsibilities and experiences (hello, wrinkles!). That is the way we are made and there is no shame in it! So, give yourself some grace and decide to embrace who you are right now and decide to allow yourself peace in your clothing choices!
If, while you are trying on all of your clothes, there is one or two things that you really and truly love that will not fit, take note of the brand and what size would fit and set aside a budget to replace those items with the same item in the size you need now. You can find nearly anything on ebay.com or mercari.com . You can even save the searches and be notified when someone adds the items that match your criteria—easy peasy!!
After you have tried on all of the clothes in the pile, decide the ones that are really your favorites and place them back into the closet. You might want to put them on the hanger and hang the hanger backwards from your normal orientation. This way you can quickly see which clothes you have worn when you take inventory of the closet in the next month or so. If you so choose, you can write a date on the calendar and then decide to part with all of the clothes that are still hung backwards! Continuing to minimize your wardrobe will be a good project in sustainment of simplifying your life!
If you are only left with 30 items, that is a great thing! You have done what so few people can do and you are now ready for life with less stress, at least in the wardrobe department—which is a large part of our stress inputs, so it is a huge accomplishment!
If you have a large amount of clothes left over, that’s fine too. As long as your wardrobe only consists of items that make you feel good and positive about yourself, the number of items in your closet is a trivial matter. As you go along the road of simpler living, I am sure that you will revisit this idea time and time again and can whittle your wardrobe down as you go along. The main thing is that you removed all the bullies from your closet—if you’ve done that, then you have done well!
I’m so thankful that you are joining me in this home decluttering process! I hope that your home is becoming a more manageable and peaceful place to be. As you reduce the clutter around you, you will feel the stress go away and will find a new normal of peace and contentment surrounding you! So keep up the good work!!!
If you would like more information about decluttering your closet, I would love for you to check out my Closet Declutter video on YouTube! You can find it here—Declutter Your Closet Once And For All!
If you are in the process of decluttering your home, I hope you will check out my other blog posts on simplifying and minimizing our homes! You can find one on simple living here!
I love you and appreciate you so much! I hope you have a wonderful week!
Until next time,
Lori