5 Tips to Let Clothes Go and Finally Purge
Getting rid of clothes pose some of the toughest decision making challenges. They represent memories, money invested, emotions, time, energy, hopes and dreams. My philosophy is, If you love it, use it often and have space for it then keep it! Keeping it otherwise tends to create closets that don’t feel or function good often negatively affecting the quality of the living conditions and self esteem. Transform your closet into a space of positivity with my 5 tips to let clothes go.
Your Clothes Conversations
After organizing hundreds of closets, I always hear the same reasons why someone hasn’t let go of their clothes.
- “I don’t like this anymore but I spent a lot of money on it so I can’t get rid of it.”
- “It doesn’t feel good when I put it on, but I like it so maybe I’ll wear it someday.”
- “This doesn’t fit me right now but I will get back into it someday.”
- “I got that as a gift and I should wear it. I would feel bad getting rid of it.”
Sound familiar?
Having a closet full of clothes with negative attachments tends to affect one’s self esteem and quality of living. On the flip side, having a a closet with only clothes that are loved and used promotes a more positive self esteem and better quality of life.
The good news is letting go is possible and it doesn’t have to be as hard as you think it. Try out my clothes purging tips and see just how easy letting go of clothes can be.
Yes, No or Maybe
To start the process, sort your clothes into ONLY three piles; yes, no and maybe. While sorting, it’s tempting to make sub-piles like donations, give to family and sell.
I highly encourage you to at least get your clothes sorted into the yes, no or maybe piles first before you make sub-piles.
The trick to getting through this step fast is to make this decision in ten seconds or less (see tip below). Too many piles can lead to visual overwhelm creating confusion and slowing down the decision making process.
If the decision can not be made in ten seconds or less, put it in the maybe pile to be decided on again later.
Fit Good, Feel Good, Look Good?
When making a decision on whether to keep a piece of clothing or not, start by asking yourself three questions:
Does it fit good?
Does it feel good?
Does it look good?
If it’s a yes to all three, then you got yourself a keeper.
If it doesn’t fit, feel or look good, no matter how much you try and talk yourself into wearing it you most likely won’t. All it will do is sit there and probably make you feel bad in some way while also taking up valuable real estate in your closet.
Big But
Here’s a simple exercise you can do to reveal how you really feel about your clothes. Grab an article of clothing you haven’t worn in awhile and just start talking about it out loud to yourself. Ask yourself does it fit, feel and look good.
Pay attention to the conversation you’re having with yourself. Chances are you’ll hear yourself saying at some point, “I like it but.”
Whatever you say after the “but” is either the reason why you aren’t wearing it or the reason you are talking yourself into keeping it but not wearing it.
This is when it’s time to have an honest heart to heart talk and accept that if you have to talk yourself into wearing it, you’re probably not going to wear it.
All it’s doing is taking up valuable real estate that could be used to store items you love and use the most.
Let Loose
When my clients are having a lot of difficulty with purging, I use my “Let Loose” strategy.
Instead of asking them for a yes or no decision, we just move their things by either re-arranging them or moving them to another space.
The simple act of physically moving things causes the brain to shift to have to adapt to the external changes.
This shift creates an opportunity to break the emotional and mental stronghold they had with their things and opens them up to the possibilities of letting go.
10 Seconds Or Less
The key to going through a clothing purge efficiently is to make fast decisions.
It’s very easy to get sidetracked during the process, which will slow things down and make finishing very difficult. When making decisions on what stays and what goes, keep your decision time to 10 seconds or less.
If you can’t make the decision right now, it’s ok, just add it to the maybe pile and keep moving.
Once you are done making decisions on all of your clothes, then you can go back into the maybe pile and try again. You will be surprised at how much easier it will be for you to make the decision the second time around. You might even find yourself thinking about how else you can declutter your life.
Letting go is hard, but using these strategies will make it easier to make the tough decisions that it might be time to make. The reward is a closet of clothes that you genuinely love and use which will raise your energy, make you look great, feel great and create a more positive day.
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