Leila Durmaz
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Remember the clothing items hiding in the back of your closet? You know what I’m talking about — the patterned jeans you keep saying you’re totally going to wear one day. It’s probably time to part with them.
Spring is in full swing and it’s time to clean out your closet and reorganize it. I promise you will feel like you have your life (somewhat) in order afterward.
Here’s your quick and easy guide to cleaning out and reorganizing your closet.
Step 1: Throw all your clothes on your floor
Take everything from your closet and dresser and just dump it on the floor. By throwing everything in one spot, you’ll be able to go through everything easily, and you can see how much clothing you actually have. To help get through your clothing purge, blast your favorite playlist — you can use Songza to pick a playlist that suits your cleaning mood.
Step 2: Divide and conquer
Organize everything into three piles: “to keep,” “to toss” and “to keep or not to keep.”
The “to keep” pile will have your must-haves and favorites, the “to toss” pile will house the clothing you don’t care about enough to keep and the “to keep or not to keep” pile is made up of the items you’re not sure you’re ready to get rid of just yet.
Here’s a tip: try everything on, including the clothing items in your “to keep” and “to toss” pile. You’ll either find clothes you thought looked great on you but really don’t, or clothes that look great on you when you didn’t think they did.
Step 3: Tackle the “to keep or not to keep” pile
Follow the one-year rule: If you haven’t worn it in the past year, you probably won’t wear it again, so it’s best to get rid of it. The exceptions to this rule are fancy dresses and other nice pieces worn for special occasions. You should keep these.
Get rid of clothing that’s too small or doesn’t fit right, as well as items you can’t see yourself wearing in two to three years.
Once again, try everything on and get a second opinion. Grab a trusted friend and ask him or her if the printed pants are worth keeping or if you need to get rid of them.
Step 4: Reorganize your closet
Once you’ve decided which clothes to keep and which to toss, it’s time to reorganize your closet. Hang your clothing by category (pants, skirts, tops and dresses) and other sub-categories (long-sleeve, short-sleeve and strapless). Doing this makes it easier for you to find what you’re looking for each morning and speeds up your getting-ready time.
If you’re lacking closet space, get creative. Invest in slim hangers, canvas shoe compartments, shelving and/or plastic tubs. Let your inner Pinterest-savvy self come out.
Step 5: Donate/sell or toss
You won’t wear the clothes you chose to throw away, but that doesn’t mean no one else will. Separate the clothing you would like to get rid of into two categories: ‘donate/sell’ and ‘toss.’
Toss the clothing that’s unwearable. For the rest of your clothing, you can either choose to donate or sell them. There are plenty of places in San Luis Obispo that will happily accept clothing donations, such as Children’s Resource Network of the Central Coast and Goodwill.
If you choose to sell your clothing, you can do so through a consignment shop or online. Here are a couple places where you can sell your clothing.
Curio in San Luis Obispo: Sell your clothing here and receive store credit for 30 percent of what they retail your items for.
Threadflip: If you sell, you can choose to fill a bag with clothing to sell and send it over to Threadflip to professionally photograph, list and ship your items once they sell. You receive 60 percent of the selling price. Or, you can list your own items and ship your own clothing and keep 80 percent of the selling price.
Twice: Send your clothing to Twice and they take care of the rest. You’re paid up-front and they pay for shipping. However, they don’t accept lower-priced brands such as Forever 21, H&M 0r Target.
Happy spring cleaning!