For those of you who don't recognise this one .... it is one of my essays on the website ... just in case you forgot LOL http://www.clutter.btinternet.co.uk/essays.htm -#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#
Essay 28 Clothing How many times have you looked for something to wear and found nothing even though your wardrobe, closet or drawers are over flowing with clothing. Decluttering and organising your clothes is probably one of the most beneficial things you can do. Not only will you find more space to put your clothes in, but you will be able to find that particular outfit when you need it. You may also find that you have more complete outfits than you realised! Unfortunately this is not a ten minute task, so set aside a couple of hours and enjoy yourself, after all who doesn't enjoy trying on clothes. Make sure that you have made the bed before starting because we need to take everything out of the cupboard, closet or drawer that we are going to tackle and the bed is a good flat surface to put things onto. I will assume that your clothing is either hanging on a rail, on a shelf, in drawers or in the laundry process. I have also learnt from experience that there may be clothing in bags, cases and boxes. We will ignore the stuff in the laundry process for now, unless of course it is waiting to be put away, in which case put it on the bed, along with any clothing in bags, cases or boxes. If you want to start small, start with your underwear, but where ever you start be honest about each item. Go through everything and ask yourself a few questions about each item. Do I like it ? If the answer is 'No' get rid of it, if you don't like it you won't wear it, so why keep it. Does it fit me ? If it doesn't fit and hasn't fitted for a year, the chances are its not going to fit in the coming year, so get rid of it. It is better to part with an item of clothing, however beautiful, if every time you see it, it only reminds you that it doesn't fit ! If you are pregnant, or have been pregnant in the last year then obviously this one will not apply to you. Drifting off the subject slightly, I have heard of people buying something that doesn't fit to motivate them to gain or loose weight. If you have such and item and it is motivating you then keep it. If it has been in your possession for a long time and you have never actually worn it, then ask yourself 'is it still fulfilling the task it was bought for ?' If the answer is no, then I am sorry it might be better to get rid or pack it away with the out of season stuff. Does it need mending ? How often has an item of clothing gone back in the drawer because it simply needs a button or seam redoing. If you haven't done it yet chances are you are not going to, so get rid of it. If however it is a favourite outfit, then get it mended either by yourself or someone else, but get it done this week or ditch it! Is it in season ? If it has passed all the above questions but is out of season then put it to one side. Later when you have finished the drawer or cupboard, it will go in a container and be stored away until it is in season. If its the middle of winter you are not going to want those skimpy shorts are you, so why let it take up valuable space. You should, hopefully, now have a pile of out of season clothes, a pile of clothes to get rid of and a pile of clothes to put back. The out of season clothes need to go in an airtight container which you need to label clearly and store away. The pile to get rid of needs to be sorted into throw away and donate and the pile to put away ... we are going to organise !!! The key to organising your clothing lies in the available places you have to keep your clothing and your lifestyle. For the purpose of this essay I will assume that your lifestyle is similar to mine and that you have a place to hang clothes as well as drawers and shelves. This is how my clothing is stored: I have a drawer of underwear, one for socks and night things, in another there are all my T-shirts, and a drawer for jogging bottoms and leggings. On hangers I have skirts, trousers, jeans, blouses, jackets and dresses. On shelves are all my sweaters and sweat shirts. The stuff on hangers is organised into like with like, so all the skirts are one end of the rail, then the trousers, then jackets, and so on along the rail. Notice how the shortest items are at one end and the longest at the other. This gives storage space underneath without getting in the way of the hanging stuff. If you find that you can hang your long stuff somewhere else, you could if needed put another rail under the existing one to hang more short stuff. I found that when I hung all my dresses in another wardrobe that was too narrow for anything else I was able to get a chest of 3 drawers in the bottom of the existing wardrobe. OK I had to shop around for one that would fit but I would have been unable to find the room for another chest of drawers otherwise. The skirts are all at one end of the rail, but even then they are in order of colour, darkest to the left through to the lightest on the right. The same with everything on the rail. Why, because it is quicker to see what will blend, tone or match colour wise. I split suits too, that's how I discovered that I had other things that I could wear with the skirt but not the jacket, before this I would of never dreamt of wearing the skirt without the jacket! This same principle of colour is carried though the stuff on the shelves and the contents of the drawers as is the like with like. Its winter here at the moment, so all my summer clothes including my sandals and flip flops are in cases in the loft. I do have a basket on top of the wardrobe that has my scarf's, hats and gloves in. OK so I have to stand on the bed to get it down each time, but I have no where else to put it and at least they are all together. I have improved my basket ball though when I put the things back :0) Shoes I don't have many pairs of shoes but I know people who have lots. You need to treat them the same as clothes when decluttering. So if they are out of season, store them. If they don't fit, get rid of them. If they need mending, get them mended this week or throw them away. If you haven't worn them in a year think about why you bought them in the first place. My shoes conveniently fill one shoe rack which fits nicely behind the bedroom door at the side of the wardrobe. My house shoes (slippers) however are either on my feet if I am at home, by the bed if I am in it, or by the front door if I have gone out. My wellington boots are by the back door, otherwise I'd be wearing my slippers in the garden and bringing dirt into the house. So what do you do if you have lots of pairs of shoes that you actually wear. You don't want to be falling over them all the time when you are not wearing them so you must find them a permanent home. Somewhere to keep them when you are not actually wearing them. Many people have a basket by the door, so when members of the family come in they can leave their outside shoes in it. But this basket should only contain the shoes that have actually been worn that day. At some point the owner, if not wearing them the next day must put them away. You might have a shelf or shoe rack, but the same principle applies, the owner has to put them away at some stage. It is not storage for all the shoes that person possesses. If you don't have room for a proper shoe rack or shoe cupboard you could store them in their original boxes and put the boxes in the bottom of a cupboard or under the bed. Yes I know space under the bed is at a premium but if it is the only place to store shoe boxes there is no better place. If you do store shoes under the bed but haven't got the boxes they still need to be contained and kept together in pairs. So you have no room under the bed or in the bottom of a cupboard, and no room for a shoe rack or shoe cupboard. How about a shoe shelf, or a shoe tree, or even hang them on hooks! Lace ups are easy just knot the laces together and hang them up by the laces. A shoe tree can be a board with pegs at 45 degrees to slip each shoe onto. It could be a pole with lots of pegs or hooks. How about draw string bags to put pairs of shoes in, then hung up or under the bed. I was once asked 'How many pairs of shoes should I have ?' the answer is if you manage to wear them all in a normal year, you have enough, if not you have too many! Coats I am lucky enough to have a spare wardrobe in another room where I keep all my coats. I have a lot of coats! Our weather demands different coats for different times of year. I also have coats to garden in, one to go to work in, a casual coat, a dressy coat, a coat for wet weather in the garden, on a work party, in town. I even have a special coat for walking the dog, if your a dog owner you'll understand why! I have one long coat which is hanging with my dresses, but all the others are in the spare wardrobe. Coats can be bulky and sometimes difficult to get into a normal wardrobe without the doors being ajar all the time, which is why I had to put them in a wardrobe of their own. The out of season ones are in the loft. The ones in the wardrobe are only sorted by length, making available space underneath. The coat I happen to be using now is in the hall on its hook. You have to be as honest with coats as you are with every item of clothing you possess and the same guidelines apply. If you can only hang them in your wardrobe or closet with all your other hanging clothes, put them at one end of the rail. My dressing gown is hanging on the back of the bedroom door, and I think that is all the coats I have .... except the one hanging in the shed where I do some of my gardening, and the one in the workshop I wear when washing the car, the one by the back door to wear to get the washing in when it is raining ......... You see I have lots of coats, but I do wear them all regularly !!!! Louise ~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^* 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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