Kylie Healey Wardrobe Declutter This weekend, allot yourself a couple of hours to de clutter your wardrobe. It's a big job, but once it's completed you'll be able to find clothes a lot easier and you won't be going through as much I don't have anything to wear mornings.
For the wardrobe you'll need. - Garbage bags at least 2 large ones, probably more - Clothes hangers (use the ones in the wardrobe first) - Your sewing basket on hand, or needle and thread - A tie/scarf/belt hanger (nice, not a necessity) - Shoe polish and related items - Iron and ironing board (bring them into the bedroom and near your wardrobe for this exercise). - Pen and Paper - Hat boxes (if you own hats) - Drawer separators - Shelf separators The wardrobe is a big task, and for a lot of elements in decluttering your wardrobe you may need a close friend to assist. Depending on your mood, you may wish to complete do your half of the wardrobe 1st, and then your partners. Or better still, have him/her do their own. This exercise is going to involve taking everything you own out of the wardrobe, inspecting it and then putting it back, in order. To make it easier, before you start, try to have as much laundry completed as possible. This will make it easier for you to determine what to keep, what's no good, and to group your clothes into order. Lets start. Open the window and let the breeze flow through (unless there's a blizzard outside). Grab 2 plastic bags and keep them near by. One for donations and one for items to bin. Take everything out of your wardrobe. Scarves, belts, dresses, t-shirts, shoes, etc. Lay them out on your bed (shoes on the floor). While you are taking everything out it you notice something immediately that no longer fits either bin it or put it in the charity bag immediately. Anything you store on the shelf of the wardrobe should be pulled out as well. Most wardrobes only have 1 top shelf above the hanger. If this is the case, see if you can place another shelf about 30cm (1 foot) above the existing shelf. It will depend on the wardrobes design if you can, and you will need a friend to help you. Let's start putting everything back in and making sense of what you have. Take the pen and paper and draw roughly how much space you would like to dedicate to each part of your wardrobe. For example, note you would like to place coats up one end, after 5 clothing down the other. You will need to group: - Coats/jackets - After 5 wear - Suits - Skirts casual and formal - Blouses/Shirts casual and formal/work - Trousers - Dresses - T-Shirts - Jeans - etc It's helpful to keep your casual clothes at one end your wardrobe and work clothes at the other end. We're handling everything once from now on unless it needs repair or ironing. Start preheating the iron now. Take each piece of clothing and prepare to hang it back up. Before you hang it up ask yourself the following questions: - Does it fit if no and it is in good shape, donate it to charity, if not bin it. - Is it still in style and have I worn it in the last year? If you haven't worn it in the last year you probably won't again. Again donate it to charity or bin it. - Can I wear it with at least 3 other pieces in my wardrobe. The bright green body suit may look great but if there is nothing to wear it with, why are you keeping it? - Is it outdated, worn, stained or tattered? - Do I need 12 white blouses? Probably not, so donate what you can. Before you hang your clothes up, you will need to inspect each piece for required repairs. If a skirt is in good keep but it needs a zipper, don't put it back in the wardrobe, put it in a pile. Nothing is going back into the wardrobe unless it is wearable immediately. Your jeans, jumpers, and t-shirts may benefit from going into your tall-boy /chest of draws if you own one. If so, leave these items out until we declutter that. Keeping the iron hot? That's good because we're going to iron the pieces before they go back away. Now is the time to hang up the scarves and ties. Simple plastic hangers designed for this purpose are available for $5 from K-mart or Target and will let you see at a glance what you own. Use the same principals with your scarves/ties as you do with your clothes. Donate what is not needed, or bin what's terrible. Another alternative to a hanger for these are stick on hooks for the back of your wardrobe door. There are some exceptions to the rules above, for example your winter overcoat, we're not going to throw that out just because it's summer. If you are pregnant, we won't throw out your pre-pregnancy clothes, we'll store them instead. If you have had a baby and plan on having more in the near future, keep the maternity clothes, but store them. If you're not having or planning on any more children, dispose of any maternity clothes, either by donating them or giving them to a pregnant friend. Wow, you're creating a lot of space in your wardrobe and I bet you're discovering clothes you didn't even know you owned. After you have put away your clothes, iron anything that you still haven't and put them away too. You'll probably have a pile of spare coat hangers. Keep these aside for now. Next we look after the shoes. Before putting any of them away, ensure they can be worn with your clothes (and having your clothes sorted will make it easier). Polish all the shoes you intend to keep and throw out/donate what doesn't fit or is broken. Don't keep your shoes in boxes, how will you know what you've got? Invest in a shoe rack. The only exception is those really good and very expensive after 5 shoes that you don't wear very often. Put your hats in hatboxes and store them on the shelf above. If you don't wear hats that often, donate the excess ones to charity. If you have a lot of caps put them on hooks at the back of your wardrobe door or on the side of your wardrobe. Apart from the hatboxes, nothing at this stage should go on the shelves above. Any clothes you are storing (like maternity, winter or summer clothes) should be neatly packed and placed on the top shelves of your wardrobe. Now lets move onto your draws Just like the wardrobe, we're going to pull everything out of your draws. Underwear, socks, t-shirts, and so forth. Nothing should be left at all. This applies to your bedside draws as well. The process is going to be the same for sorting your clothes. Remember the steps we went through before about donating /keeping /repairing/ throwing. We're doing it all again. Before you start putting anything away, decide what drawers will hold what. The top draw next to your bed is a good place for a notepad, pen, and anything personal you like to keep nearby at night. Invest in some draw dividers. This will help keep your hair ties, hosiery, underwear, etc separated. Let's start with putting away your underwear. Check for any holes and broken elastic as you go. Throw any like this away immediately. These are something we can't donate. Next hosiery, any that is unboxed and you have worn previously check for holes and runs. Throw these out straight away. Jumpers. Fold these neatly before putting them away. Remember to air the draws they live in occasionally. T-Shirts. Remember all the t-shirts from the wardrobe. We'll put all of them away now. T-shirts most of the time do need ironing, but its probably best to iron them before you are going to wear them or the night before and leave it hanging on the door. Ironing Ts before you put them away folded will only mean you need to iron them again. Jeans. Fold them and place away. There are probably more items of clothing you would like to keep in your draws. Follow the same principals as listed above. Remember the shelf space on top of the wardrobe??? We're going to store handbags, blankets, and go through everything else to ensure we need to store it there. Remember organising the linen cupboard and the blankets you stored. If you can, take them out of the linen cupboard with the pillows and store them accordingly. Now, apply the same rules as you did with the linen cupboard to the rest of the space above. Now it's repair time Repair and then iron your clothes before putting them away. It's time for your children's and husbands cupboard Maybe not today. But if you're feeling up to it, start now. The sooner you complete this take, the sooner you will be more organised and have more time available. ~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^* I have a spelling checker, It came with my PC; It plainly marks four my revue, Mistakes I cannot sea. I've run this poem threw it, I'm sure your please to no, Its letter perfect in it's weigh, My checker tolled me sew. ====================================================================<<< Never pay another Internet phone bill! Freeserve AnyTime, for all the Internet access you want, day and night, only �12.99 per month. 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