With summer finally starting to show itself here, I have been in major clean up mode. There is just something about the change of seasons that drives me to want to reorganize, rearrange, and purge all items that seem to be just taking up space in my office and home. This weekend, I tackled my closet. I have been putting this off for a while now but a rainy Sunday gave me no more excuses and I went to work. I have compiled a list of helpful tips to clean out your closet as well as some resources that I previously did not know where available to both donate and recycle your old clothing.
Disclaimer: I realize this may not look “clean” to you but it’s a HUGE success for me 🙂
5 Tips for Cleaning Out Your Closet
- Anything that is damaged beyond repair (or you have been telling yourself you would repair it for months, or years even, and you haven’t yet) must GO! If this piece was a necessity to your wardrobe, you would have sewed that button or fixed that hem a long time ago. I used to just toss these items, thinking that I could not donate them so I had no other options. Turns out, I was very wrong. After a few searches online, I found out that you can recycle your damaged clothing! In fact, according to a new report from the Council for Textile Recycling (CTR), the average American throws away 70 pounds. of clothing every year, which equals roughly 191 T-shirts…per person. Collectively, that’s approximately 3.8 billion pounds of waste. The good news is, you there are a lot of options out there. H&M has a new policy allowing shoppers to donate bags of clothing, which don’t have to be in good condition or carry an H&M label, in exchange for a 15 percent discount on an item of their choice. Puma and The North Face stores also accept worn clothing, and other retailers such as Levi’s, Gap, and Patagonia offer recycling sale events. Planet Aid’s yellow collection bins are available in 14 states (and growing) and offer a convenient option that also makes you feel good inside. Earth911.com is a one-stop-shop for recycling resources. Save time with their search engine that lists recycling centers by item type and zip code. And finally, more than a dozen local governments in states including Arizona, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, have implemented curbside textile pickup over the past nine months. No excuses people!
- Do not start this project unless you have the time to put in to finish it. For me, it was nearly two hours. For some reason (I don’t think I’m alone) clothing and the items stashed away in my closet tend to hold some sort of emotional attachment and require a lot of reasoning (and time) to part with.
- I have always heard that an easy way to get rid of things you no longer wear is to just sift through each hanger and pull out the things you have not worn in the last 6 months. For some reason I always end up “cheating” with this and make excuses to keep these items. You know, “what if I gain weigh?” “what if I lose weight?” “what if I change jobs?” “what if I get pregnant?” and on and on. So, this time I went through and pulled out every item that I had not worn in the last 6 months. Like physically took them off the hanger and laid everything on my bed. THEN I went back through and decided which items should go back in – if any. This made getting rid of things a lot easier, for me. The ones that honestly fit in the “what if I get pregnant” category, including some maternity clothes I had not yet packed away, were put in a box, labeled, and stored away.
- Do your laundry first. I don’t know about you but I don’t ever seem to have an entirely empty laundry basket. I always seem to operate on a what need to get done, gets done basis. Getting all of my laundry done before I started this project gave me a realistic picture of what I was about to tackle and made the whole process a lot more thorough and helpful.
- Donate. If you no longer wear that old suit jacket or have worn that dress to a few weddings already, chances are someone else’s closet would make a better home for that item. I usually just run a bag down to Goodwill but I have recently discovered some other really cool resources that are available out there. They are pretty product specific so I will just put the item and a link to the website and then you can do a little research on your own if you think you could utilize any of these resources.
- Old prom and bridesmaid dresses – Donate My Dress – They work to donate prom and special occasion dresses to girls in need.
- Work clothing – Dress for Success – Dress for Success is an international not-for-profit organization offering services designed to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. SO cool!
- Gently worn shoes – Share Your Soles – This is an incredible organization that helps bring shoes to those living in impoverished communities around the world. Share Your Soles has brought tens of thousands of pairs of shoes to desperately impoverished people throughout the world. Central America. Southeast Asia. The Caribbean. Appalachia. Africa. Eastern Europe. American Indian Reservations. India. Ecuador. Peru. Haiti. Sri Lanka. Uganda. Cameroon. Nicaragua. Tanzania and Ghana.Those shoes sitting in the corner of your closet, collecting dust, could be donated to this incredible organization.
- Costumes – Theater Development Fund – We all have these random costumes shoved in the back of our closets that we take out once a year (if ever) to parade around the neighborhood with our children on Halloween. If you decide you are ready to part ways with yours (or your children) consider this resource. Their mission is to identify and provide support, including financial assistance, to theatrical works of artistic merit and to encourage and enable diverse audiences to attend live theater and dance in all their venues
I hope this list is helpful. I feel so much better after completing this project. Sometimes being able to check one item off of my ever growing “to do” list provides SO much happiness. I hope you are all having a great week!
-XO, Sio
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