Clearing Out your Closet: Tips&Tricks

Hi there! 

As I haven't been posting many OOTD's in the last couple of months, I thought I would do something a bit different.

This post is still fashion related, but I want to step away from the 'let's buy clothes' attitude I used to have to actually getting rid of some of them, freshening up your closet and making it more minimal. 

I have always been a thrift shop fanatic and addict, buying bags of clothes every weekend as ten dresses came in the price of one from a highstreet store. I got amazing deals and hundreds of outfits but my wardrobe would not stretch anymore - lately it's been looking so full I was surprised it did not just burst. It took me a while to accept the fact that I owned too much to wear all of it  and that keeping these amounts of unused rags is pointless. 

Finally, I DID have a closet cleanse and got rid of a lot of stuff. If you are suffocating under tons of clothes yourself, you might find these tips helpful ;)

To start with, here  is a little before and after to portrait the seriousness of my problem: 

BEFORE

AFTER

If you have ever attempted to do a wardrobe cleanse while being emotionally attached to clothes, you will understand the struggle. 

Here is a list of tips I came up with to make it less painful.

1. Be honest with yourself

With every addiction, admitting that you have a problem and the will to face it is the key. If your mom keeps telling you off for buying a piece of clothing every time you leave the house or you need to purchase an extra chest of drawers to fit new hauls, it should be a signal that something is wrong. Loads of people get carried away with buying new clothes and lose control over how much they own. There is nothing wrong with that and it can be fixed easily - so step away from that dress, leave the shop and get to work! :)

2. Do the maths

Counting 'the stock' can help you determine how much stuff you have actually accumulated, rather than just estimating and saying you have way too many t-shirts. Write everything down, count these hundreds of dresses, jumpers and pairs of shoes (that was the real wake-up call for me) properly and ask yourself a question: does one body really need THAT much? Yeah, I thought so…

3. Take it easy

I'm not gonna lie, it can get a bit overwhelming when you empty your closet and all of its spilled guts just fill out your room so you can't even move. I told myself 'this is the day' and managed to do it in 24 hours, as I knew I would just keep procrastinating otherwise. However, if it's too much for you, simply divide it into sections: shoes tonight, jeans tomorrow morning. Don't lose your mind, it's not worth it;)

4. Make it look better

I am usually a very organised person, who wants to keep everything tidy and looking good. Sadly, having all of those clothes and accessories made it virtually impossible to have any sort of power over them. Use the cleanse as a chance to re-do your whole closet - no matter if it's a new way of organising your t-shirts, hanging everything on seperate hangers or arranging everything by color, it will surely make you wardrobe look even more clean, fresh and free from clutter!

5. Get rid of that burden!

Now, you have walked down the right path and you see a gorgeous tumblr-like closet on one side and… a heap of stuff you no longer need on the other. The problem is still there, how to get rid of it then? 

There are many ways, some of the include earning money from it. Try selling some stuff online, on Ebay or apps like Depop. Call up family and friends, who knows, they might like something you don't wear anymore. If you don't want the hassle, just give it all to charity - simple as that. 

Or, if your neighbourhood and place you live at allow it, you can organise a garage sale and invite people to have a look at your stash and buy some of it. I did that myself and not only did I give my clothes a new life, I also got some cash out of it ;)

(more about my garage sale experience coming soon in a seperate post!)

I honestly hope this will help some of you to get a new approach to fashion and give yourself a good cleanse if you are in need of it. 

Kisses,