Almost all of us have far more than we really need when it comes to clothing. If you take a fresh, honest look into your closet, you will find that you have considerably more than you use. In reality, most people wear only a meager percentage of their clothing repeatedly and disregard the rest.

Reasons to Declutter Your Clothing

Holding on to too much of anything takes up not only physical space in your home but saps mental energy as well. When you are hunting for something to wear, having too many clothes can make you feel like you are rummaging through never-ending quantities of clothing and yet still cannot find something fitting. After decluttering, you will be able to locate outfits that you love instantly. This will save you time, money, and keep your stress levels low.

Ask Questions to Help Decide

What Clothes Do I Want to Keep?

You probably have favorites you wear all the time. Consider taking all your favorite items and placing them in the keep pile first. This will help you as you work through the rest because you’ll realize the remaining pieces weren’t on the adored list and they may be scrutinized with the following questions.

Is This the Best Out of Like Items?

Once you’ve grabbed your faves and set them aside, look at groupings. Do you have ten black cardigans that almost all look the same? Can you just keep the best one or two? If so, choose from the set and grab the one that looks the best, is the best quality, has the most life left, etc. Then donate the rest.

Does It Make Me Look and Feel Good?

As you are sorting through your clothes, consider how you feel when you have it on. Are you excited to wear it? Does it fit right and make you feel attractive and ready to take on the world?

Clothing is a part of who you are, and how you feel in your clothes is essential to our daily lives. What we wear is the image we present to society. Keep only the clothes that make you feel self-confident, items that make you feel good and happy.

Does This Work with Who I Am?

For a long time, I would always try to keep a couple pairs of shorts in the closet. I thought surely I would wear them someday. Did I? Never. I just never wore shorts growing up and it just wasn’t something I enjoyed. I didn’t like sitting on things with bare legs. Though I do admit to jeans being a bit hot at a picnic. However, I realized, that with who I am, its okay after all these years to just let the shorts go. They didn’t fit with who I am.

If you have clothes like this that don’t seem to make sense, consider donating them so they can do some good somewhere. If you never, ever go to social events, even the company holiday party when it may be bad for your career not to go, then just let go of that little black dress you’ve got stashed away just in case. It will free up some room and peace in your mind that you know who you are.

Have I Worn It Within a Year?

A good standard to follow is that any clothes not worn within a year need to go. The rationale for the timeframe of a year is because certain items of clothing and accessories have yearly events that they are appropriate for. It’s okay to keep a few of those specific items but consider reducing the overall number while decluttering. For instance, if you have two beautiful little black dresses, consider just keeping the better quality one or, the more classic one.

Plus, many places have seasons that are very distinct in climate. So, depending on where you reside, you may have clothing that you don’t ever wear in the summertime, but faithfully make use of every wintertime… or vice versa. If you didn’t wear it in the past year’s appropriate season, it might be that this clothing is no longer needed, or that it no longer flatters who are.

Is It Wearable?

If you’re hanging onto items that are ripped, out of shape, have shrunken, or are stained — why? If it’s missing a button, are you going to sew one on or take it to the seamstress? Sometimes we have clothes hanging in our clothes whose time is up and just needs to be let go.

Is this Really a Sentimental Item?

If you’ve got any clothes in your closets for sentimental reasons, try to pull those out and work them into your sentimental pile for working through decluttering at another time. If you’re not going to wear it, you don’t need to have it be hanging out in your closet taking up space and using up your mental energy to weed through each day when you’re getting ready.

I had a lot of these types of items in the kiddos closet. Cute dresses that had long been outgrown, first pair of khaki shorts ever, etc. Once I realized these were sentimental items, I was able to open up a lot of closet space and help keep the closet easy to use.

Am I Holding Onto It Out of Obligation?

Many of us harbor clothing out of guilt. These are the things given to us by well-meaning friends and family. Unless someone knows your taste well, clothes generally don’t make an appropriate gift. Too often, when we are given an item, we feel stuck with it. Due to the guilt of honoring the intentions of the person who gave it to use, we may never quite feel right getting rid of it.

If you are keeping clothing that you avoid for this reason, just get rid of them. If you need to, take a photograph of the item to remember and honor it, then release the thing. By only keeping the clothes you love, you won’t feel guilty knowing that it hasn’t been worn and will probably never be when you see items kept out of this guilt.

Once you have made decisions about what to get purge, dispose of any damaged items, sell any clothes you consider valuable enough to spend time selling, and donate the rest to those in need. Organize what is left, and you will see what a difference it makes in your life when you have in your closet only what you need and love wearing. Enjoy your new simplified and organized closet and never search for hours for a lost item again.

What are the questions you use to declutter your wardrobe?