Decluttering the Closet

Hi There!  You might have heard me talk about simplifying around here. It has been on my mind for some time now. Years even.

I had so many excuses while I was working outside the home, but now I find I’ve run out of excuses and am practicing what I’ve been thinking of doing all those years.

Anyway, I’ve already taken some steps to decluttering our home and recently, my closet got an overhaul. In my quest for more simplicity I’ve decided to go over my closet and sell or give away anything that I really don’t wear, that doesn’t completely fit me, or where the fabric is not completely skin friendly (I’m pretty sensitive about that). I just can’t seem to feel comfortable in polyester mixes, no matter how nice the outfit looks. I’m not quite ready for the 40 hanger rule which I’ve read of on some blogs, but I’m off to a good start.

Lucky for me, there is a woman’s clothes bazaar in our area this weekend and I was able to get a sellers number. I’m able to sell 30 items of clothing there (believe me, I have more to get rid of). 30 items is a good start though and I’m planning on selling the rest on Ebay. I’m really hoping all of my clothes sell at the bazaar. But if some of them don’t I will definitely have to list them on Ebay or the like.

Since I’ve been a full-time homemaker for the past 1 ½ years, I realized I don’t need all these clothes. While I was working, buying clothes seemed to be some sort of “make me feel good” crutch. Unbelievable, but even then I don’t think I wore half of that stuff. Sure, people that work outside the home need more “workable” clothes, some more than others, but seriously…it’s ok to wear one outfit more than once a month! I was lucky at my workplace I could wear jeans and basically whatever I wanted, as long as it was clean in every sense of the word. But I still managed to stock up on quite a jeans inventory! Half of them not even fitting right. By fitting right I mean that they actually fit size-wise, they just weren’t comfortable or didn’t make me feel good in my figure. You know how it is, some clothes make you feel like a million bucks, and others, well, they just make you feel like a million pounds!

I read a wonderful post just today by Kelly Snider at Redifined Mom that says it so well.

So tonight I’m going to drop off the clothes and tomorrow after the bazaar I will pick up my cash or whatever clothes are left over (hopefully none). All the sales are done by volunteers of a youth group so I don’t have to actually sell them myself. 15% of sales goes to the youth group, so it feels good knowing some of it will go for a better cause (than just my pocketbook!).

It’s very tempting, but I will not visit the bazaar to shop because it is just way too likely that I will buy something else I don’t need! Shopping second-hand is great sport, but I usually end up with things I don’t really need.

It’s another check off on my mission to declutter and it’s feeling great!

Are you taking any steps to declutter? What are your thoughts on simplifying? I’d love to hear from you!

Wishing you all a great weekend!