The challenge: to clean a closet

How many of you, open your closet each day and look at its contents and think, “I don’t have anything to wear today?”  That is something most woman see while looking into their closets.  Even though there is a mass of clothing, an unlimited number of shoes and purses, us women can still look at it and think that we need more.  So off they might go and purchase more unnecessary items to help fill their emotional need for MORE.

Why make the change:

The reason for this simple living lifestyle challenge is to help you simplify your life.  Simplify means to get rid of, do without, do with less, and declutter.  We want to be able to open up your closets and see a uniformed layout of choices.  You should have  from 5-7 choices and then that is it.  It shouldn’t take long to sift through all the clothing..  It shouldn’t be something that takes much thought.   Clothing choices shouldn’t overwhelm you.  You want to make life simpler and it starts when you wake up in the morning and choose what to wear for the day.

How to make the change:

Here is the hard part.  Most everyone has emotional ties to everything that they  have.  That is why we live the life full of STUFF.  This stuff is starting to overtake us, overwhelm us and we need to make it STOP.  It begins with one closet.  This routine will take over a few days to do.

To begin, sort ALL your clothing into 3 piles.

1. The ones you want to keep.
2. The ones you want to donate to others.
3. The ones that are maybe.

Remember all clothing that is worn, ripped, or seen its last days, has to go immediately into the TRASH pile.

Then you are going to go through your keep pile.  You are going to check for any repairs that need to be done, make sure that they all fit you, and then start to organize them.

Organizing will be different for everyone, I will use the method that I use. I will begin to sort them into different piles.  Piles for:

• skirts–everyday, and dressy
• t-shirts to wear under tops
• long t-shirts to wear under tops
• short sleeved tops
• long sleeved tops
• summer sleeveless tops
• dresses
• sweaters/overcoats

Within my grouping of skirts for example, I will see how many long jean skirts I have.  I really only need 4-5 skirts.  I keep 2 nicer khaki skirts.  Plus a few flowy ones for warmer weather.

For my t-shirts to wear under tops, I keep it simple, I buy all brown.  Yes I have learned over the years to cater my wardrobe a certain color scheme, to keep it simple. I make it easy and keep 4 brown t-shirts to fit under my regular tops for modesty.  It is much easier to just grab a brown undershirt and know it goes with one of my tops.

Since my life consists of children and working at home, I don’t have the need for many dressy outfits.  I keep my clothing neat and clean, somewhat dressed up, but also easy to be able to do hundreds of dishes a day in.

I have a few dressier clothing for special occasions and church.  I keep one sweater for warmth, you only need 1.

My shoes are simple.  I have a brown and a black pair of leather boots.  My tennis shoes for exercising.  A few pairs of sandals for summer.

Next you are going to go through your maybe pile.  After you have gone through your keep pile, you know how many outfits that you own, keep that in mind when deciding what to do with your maybe pile.  Do you really need to be sifting through that outfit that maybe you will wear one day to this or that??  Get rid of the “one day” mentality.  That day may never come.  Stop buying things because they look cute.  Think necessity not availability.

Gather up your donations and take them to a woman and children’s shelter.  Check your local churches for donations.

You might have to do this a few times over the next month.  If you keep staring at it in your closet and you are not wearing it within the month, get rid of it.  With exceptions to special occasion outings.   Enjoy looking at your “lean” closet with order and purpose.