January Closet Cleanout

Sale PSA: A pinstriped blazer from Tibi, now 60% off, a pretty floral bracelet from Tory Burch, now $100 (I wish this was $20 at Zara), a pretty camel coat from Theory, now just $245, and a smocked maxi dress from Everlane, now under $100.

I recently cleaned out my closet. It felt sooo good. I’d been putting off my usual 2022 claenout for whatever reason (mostly laziness, and time), and finally I did and sent a bunch of stuff to both Goodwill and The Real Real and it was really satisfying. It IS really satisfying. Because I’m looking at an emptier closet!

The way it happened was that one evening I basically forced myself to go up and try on a bunch of clothes in my closet. It’s freezing (for California) so separating myself from my sweatpants and furry fleeces took a lot of effort – but I did it, trying on tops, then dresses, then pants, and then outerwear. It took a few hours. I didn’t get to watch TV that night! I had multiple criteria going through everything:

1. Was it too tight for me? This was the case especially for quite a few little dresses. I like dresses. I have amassed quite a few. And yes, some were too tight for me. Oh and same with pants. I blame Covid weight but some of it is also just I’m older and the weight is distributed differently now. Uh huh.

2. Even if it wasn’t technically too tight – did it feel too tight? Was it just more form fitting than I’m used to these days? If it was a jacket/coat, was I able to layer? If the answer to either was no, the item went into the go pile. This was actually the case for a lot of outerwear. I have to be able to bend my arms and not feel constricted.

3. Did it make me feel bad? For whatever reason – because I felt guilty as I’d spent a lot and never worn it, or I had bad memories with it, or I just felt bad because I no longer liked it. For anything in these I took another look, thought about if I could find creative ways to wear it, and if not, put it in the go pile.

I’m so glad I did the clean out. I love the feeling of having extra hangers, and more space. If you’ve been dithering – I’d really, say take some time and give it a shot! You might be surprised at how many items you can find to give away, once you get going. And as a bonus, I now have space in my closet for some new goodies. But I’m going to try and take it slow.

Did you do a 2022 clean out yet? Or perhaps an end of year one?