Jones suggested creating a Pinterest board of outfits that speak to you, saving items in an online cart or wish list or flipping through magazines so that you have reference points when you’re deciding what to keep or toss. “It makes it easier to think, you know what, this piece doesn’t fit into this look I’m going for,” Jones says.
Make it easy to review what you have
Depending on the size of your wardrobe, a thorough clean-out can take up to four hours, says Chellie Carlson, a stylist based in Los Angeles. She recommends taking out one category of clothing at a time – singlets, then T-shirts and so on – and starting with the category you wear most often.
While it’s fine to just lay the clothes out on your bed, Carlson says she preferred to use a rolling rack – you may be able to borrow one from a friend or neighbour – and hang each category of clothing as you go. Creating that display “is so powerful, you can’t unsee it,” she says. “You might have five or six black camisoles. What does that tell you? You need to stop buying black camisoles.”
Then, going item by item, pull each one from the rack to hold, touch and try on, Carlson says. “Ask, does this fit? Does this feel good?”
What to do with the ‘maybe’ pile
If you’re on the fence about a piece, Mary Gonsalves Kinney, a San Francisco-based stylist, suggests trying to style an outfit around it with other things you’re keeping. If you can’t do it, “it’s gotta go,” she says.
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Jones recommends “tagging” any items you’re still wavering on with a safety pin. If the safety pin is still there the next time you declutter – meaning you haven’t worn the item in that time frame – it’s time to part ways.
“It doesn’t have to be this onetime purge where all your decisions are final,” Davis adds. You can put the things that feel too hard to part with somewhere else temporarily. Store them in the hall closet, or in a bin or vacuum-sealed storage bag and revisit them in a few weeks. “You can still get the goal of a downsized closet that’s easier to maintain without feeling like, oh, God, don’t make the wrong decision!”
Ashlee Piper, a sustainability expert and the author of Give a Sh*t: Do Good. Live Better. Save the Planet, stressed the importance of making a repairs pile. If you still like a piece, but the zipper is broken, for example, “think, ‘How can I get more life out of this item?’ rather than, ‘Oh, it’s kind of worn out, I need to replace it.’”
Follow through
For the pieces you have decided to keep, create a system that makes sense with your routines, Jones says. If you work out in the morning, put exercise clothes in the top drawer of your dresser or on the rod closest to your closet door.
To be able to “shop” your wardrobe at a glance, Carlson says she likes to organise by category and then by colour – so tank tops from light to dark, then T-shirts from light to dark, for example.
For accessories and smaller items, resist the urge to buy fancy storage solutions, Piper says, and try to reuse things you already have, like shoe boxes. “A container is a container,” she says. “You don’t need to go out and buy something new that says ‘socks.’”
And to ensure you won’t need to do this again for a while don’t cull and shop simultaneously, Gonsalves Kinney says.
“Once you’ve purged, really try to sit on it for a month and don’t buy anything,” she says. “Then you’re buying with intention rather than reckless abandon.”
The New York Times
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