How to Completely Purge Your Clothing

I will show you how to purge clothes and live free from clutter!

Master bedrooms are often the last place we decorate, organize, and keep tidy.

They become an afterthought. A hidden room. A dumping zone. Or a messy little secret that you close the door to when guests are over.

The “public” rooms in our home become the focus; the organized living and dining room and kitchen.

But I think we are going about it all wrong!

Our master bedroom is our restful retreat in the evening. It’s where we spend those precious few minutes relaxing before we fall to sleep. It’s where we wake up in the morning and begin to think about and mentally prepare for our day.

But waking up and going to sleep in a disorganized and cluttered space is not relaxing or calming! And it doesn’t set the stage for having relaxed and organized morning routines, either.

And the first step in getting your bedroom organized? Start with your clothing!

Clothes are almost always the main clutter issue in most bedrooms. They tend to overflow our dressers and closets and gradually take over the room until we have less and less space to live in. Less space to breath and relax and sleep in. So today’s post is all about how to completely purge your clothing before organizing your dressers and closets…

The first step in creating a relaxing and calming, well organized master bedroom space is to purge all the stuff that is unnecessary, unused, and cluttering up your valuable space.

Today I’m talking about how to purge your clothing; but there are likely other areas in your master bedroom that you need to consider purging and organizing as you go through this challenge. But I also want to remind you to tackle:

• the nightstands
• all surface areas (such as the tops of dressers)
• any additional storage units or shelving in your room

Let’s start with purging your clothing.

First, set aside some time. This will take a while and you don’t want to be interrupted part way through or you’ll be living with a huge mess until you can get back to it.

Next, make your bed. Seriously. You need to make your bed to create a smooth, flat surface for dealing with the mountain of clothing you are about to handle.

Then, take everything out of your closet and dresser drawers. If that will be too much clothing in one step, then start with one area, then the next. And if you have piles of laundry anywhere; wash it and fold it and add it to the mix!

Once your clothing is OUT, you are going to go through each item, one at a time, and sort each clothing item into one of four piles:

Keep.

Things you LOVE, that you wear  regularly, that fit properly, and that are in good condition. These are the clothing items that “spark joy”, if you’ve read Marie Kondo. If you haven’t worn something for a while but “think” you still LOVE it, then try it on! Make sure. Take the time now or you will be redoing this in a month! The trick is to really listen to how you feel about an item. Does it make your heart leap a little? Do you feel super amazing when you wear it? Does it make you look incredible? Then keep it! Are you not sure about it? Ask yourself these questions:

Toss.

Items that are ripped or torn, stained, or unclean-ably stinky. Just let it go, even if it’s been a long time favourite!

Donate.

Items in good repair that you know you don’t wear, don’t love, that don’t fit, or that you no longer need. This pile can be a bit tougher to decide upon. Ask yourself the questions above!

If you are keeping something out of a vague sense of guilt;  because it is still in good shape but you don’t wear it; or because it was expensive so you can’t let it go,  then you may want to consider the next pile:

Consign or Sell Online.

Some clothing pieces are still in amazing condition and were expensive or a high quality brand; and these pieces can be harder to part with out of some vague sense of guilt. But if you aren’t wearing it and/or no longer LOVE it, then consider selling it or consigning it. There are more and more options for selling clothing with Facebook and online garage sale or sales sites. If you don’t know of any in your community, ask some friends or coworkers. Also look for local or nearby consignment stores that you could use to sell your good quality and barely used items.

Store.

Seasonal items that are taking up space and could be stored away. I’m not actually a fan of seasonal clothing because I’m too distracted and will definitely forget to make time for switching out my closet, but if you have a tiny storage area in your bedroom or live in a place with really significant seasonal weather differences, then this may be a good option for you.

I went through this process step-by-step with our closets and dressers and I ended up with one big bin of items to donate, and a few nicer items that I want to consign. I would have had more except that I did do some purging when we gave our closet a complete makeover last fall.

Now it’s time to organize your closet. Or dresser. Or both!

Head over here to read all about how I completely organized our closet and dressers, including my 7 tips for organizing yours!

You might also be interested in these related posts:

amazingly organized small walk-in closets /  fantastic ideas for organizing jewelry:

Want to remember this?

 

To check out the rest of the projects and ideas in this 10 week organizing series, head to my original challenge post:

 

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