Minimizing Monday: Minimizing Our Closets
July 14th, 2008 | By Kendra
Having less clothes to wash means less dirty laundry piling up, right??
We are very fortunate to live in such a prosperous country; it seems that we often forget how incredibly blessed we truly are and easily slip into greed and vanity. When our closets are packed floor to ceiling, clothes hangers pressed from wall to wall, and shoes spilling over from their containers, I’d say there’s a slight problem – wouldn’t you? And yet somehow we can still walk into that very closet, and whine because we “can’t find anything to wear”!
Do we really think that the people around us notice, or even care about what we are wearing? Let me ask you something: can you remember what your friend at church was wearing last Sunday? Do you even remember what you wore last Sunday? Probably not, and I bet nobody else remembers what you wore either.
Simply put – this is vanity. Hey, we’re right there with you, but we are determined for a change.
Our challenge for you today is to go through your closets and drawers, and slim them down…significantly. Do we really need so much stuff? Think of how nice it will be when you can wash all of the dirty clothes in just one day! No more piles of clothes tumbling over in every room. So, here we go. If you want to join us, here are some tips for tackling your closets:
First Step: Go through EVERY single article of clothing (closets, drawers, even storage if you can get to it) and bag up anything that you know you won’t ever wear again, and anything that you haven’t worn in the past year.
Second Step: Now go back through and get rid of any of the following items:
- Anything that is worn out or in bad shape.
- Anything that you have duplicates of (ie: two black skirts, or like me, two bathrobes!); keep the one you like the most.
- Anything that does not fit you right now; that means if it used to fit, or if you hope one day to fit in it, there is no need in having it right now. If you ever get to that size again I’m sure there’s a Goodwill close by, you can get more then.
- Anything that you have been meaning to fix, but haven’t had time to do it. If you aren’t going to do it today, just let it go.
- Anything borrowed- Give it back.
- Anything that you need to buy something else to go with before you can wear it. (ie: if you have a skirt without a matching top, get rid of it.) You’ve had it this long and haven’t worn it, you don’t need it.
Third Step: Getting down to the nitty-gritty. Okay, now comes the hard part. Consider what clothing you have left… it’s probably still a lot of stuff. Don’t you usually find yourself reaching for mostly the same stuff every day? Keep aside all of your every day wear, and consider bagging up the stuff that you hardly ever use, yes, even if it’s really nice.
Try to keep stuff that you can mix and match.
Try not to keep tops that require layering, unless either layer can also be worn by itself.
Instead of keeping a pair of shoes to match each dress, see if you can find one or two pairs (maybe a black and a white) that could go with a number of dresses.
We’ve both been pulling stuff out of our closets all week, and we’re finally done. Here are each of our results:
KENDRA
At first it was a little hard to part with a lot of the stuff I bagged up, but after a few days I found myself reaching back into the closet to pull out something else that I decided I can live without. The more time went by, the more stuff I decided I really didn’t need anymore. Here is a picture of everything I’m getting rid of:
70 pieces of clothing, and 5 pairs of shoes!
The hardest part was getting rid of things that I have only worn once or twice, and especially stuff that still has tags on them! And it was hard getting rid of my cute work outfits that I used to wear before becoming a stay-at-home mom. Somebody is going to score big time at my yard sale!! (Though I think I’m going to take the really nice stuff to the consignment store and see what I can get.) I can’t believe I am able to get rid of so much stuff!!
I did keep a few things 
Here is what is left in my closet:
Some summer, some winter, casual and dressy. Plus 4 pairs of jeans, and one pair of shorts.
Still more than I initially intended, I really wanted to only own like 5 shirts, but I know I would regret getting rid of most of this stuff. Baby steps… I have to be proud of how much I did get rid of though! And who knows, I may get rid of even more eventually. Now, onto the kid’s closets!
SASHWHY
It actually took me about three days to really get everything down to where I wanted it.
What I did was analyze my weekly activities (stay at home: 6 days per week, Wednesday evening church, Sunday morning and evening church), then I tried to only get down to the outfits that I needed for those occasions.
I didn’t realize how many clothes I had! How embarrassing. I guess they just piled up during my college days, and I never really did a “clothing purge”.
My goal was to get down to the following items (though I still think this is a lot! Maybe I’ll do a second round of purging once I see if I wear all these clothes):
- 3 weekly outfits for the week (that I’ll switch on and off): 3 shirts, 3 skirts
- 5 church outfits for the month (that I’ll rotate through Wednesdays and Sundays)
- 3 cardigans
- 3 work-in-the-yard outfits
- 1 athletic outfit
- 3 pajamas (tops and bottoms)
- 4 pants
- 5 shirts
I did end up with more shirts than I wanted, so they may need to go in the next “purge”
Here are some pictures:
My closet before:
My closet after:
Whew! Glad that’s over with. When I showed my husband, he was amazed and asked me to do his clothes too! Which I gladly did. Our closet is now feeling pleasantly “open” and “free”.
Feeling inspired? Even if you are taking baby steps, we’d love to hear what you are doing to live with less. Let’s encourage each other to be free from all of these things that complicate our lives! To join us in “Minimizing Monday”, simply write a post on your blog about how you have minimized your closet (or any other tips, advice or ways that you are minimizing in general) and come back here to leave your link below. We’d love to hear from you!
Says:
Wow you did great. At the end of every July, I dump every piece of cloths the kids own, and make them try them on. That way I know what is needed for the new school year.
However I think it’s time for me to do this with my cloths and my husbands cloths.
Thanks for the nudge.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:32 amSays:
You should totally put up a Mr. Linky for this. I plan to do my closed purge when I get home today and would love to be able to share picture of what I get rid of.
Thanks for the inspiration!
July 14th, 2008 at 7:45 amSays:
Thanks so much for starting this carnival! I’m excited to get some inspiration and look forward to hearing what my readers think of it!
July 14th, 2008 at 8:50 amSays:
Sashwhy-
You’re lucky your hubby offered up his side of the closet. My hubby pretty much said, leave my side out of this!
July 14th, 2008 at 9:22 amSays:
Lately I’ve been considering that for many, many years, women owned ONE church dress – and there was nothing wrong with that. It gives me much food for thought! Thank you for the inspiration. :>)
July 14th, 2008 at 9:45 amSays:
Wow, I am very impressed with both of you ladies. I don’t think I could ever get down to one pair of shorts, Kendra!! And I’d be happy if I could get my closet to look like Shashwhy’s *before* picture. LOL!
I’m planning a cleanout/reorg of my storage this Friday. I’ll have to link back when I’m done!
July 14th, 2008 at 10:14 amSays:
I don’t think less clothes means less laundry. It means laundry more often. Wearing your clothes more than once before washing it means less laundry.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:09 amSays:
Man, oh, man was I needing some inspiration to finally get rid of my pre-pregnancy clothes that I have desperately clinging on to hoping I will one day fit back in them.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:50 amSays:
Great job! I plan to tackle our clothes today. I just keep shuffling piles around but it’s time to do something with them. I have some already bagged to donate and some I will try to sell at a cosign sale in the fall. Hopefully I can finally make some progress and get rid of some of these clothes that we never wear.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:23 pmSays:
Love it! Ive been thinking a lot about minimizing my household for a while now. I like to hear that Im not the odd one out.
This give a bit of accountablility for keeping with it.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:06 pmSays:
This a great idea…I started in my kids room. Before we had 6 different toy boxes throughout our house. Now there is one and some children at the women’s shelter are going to be very happy.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:26 pmSays:
I’m not as ok as having few clothes in my closet. I do get rid of them if I don’t want them anymore but I think I won’t feel good if I only have very few sets! I only do laundry every 2 weeks and if I only have few clothes, it means, I will have to do laundry more.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:05 pmSays:
Wow, I am so impressed! I have mounds and mounds of laundry that I am doing right now as we moved to a new house 6 weeks ago and had some items in storage (don’t get me started on this!!!) that really should have been sold/donated before now. We are having a yard sale on Saturday and will donate whatever remains after that. Will post pics later this week. Great carnival theme — I will likely link to it from my blog as well. Great job!
July 14th, 2008 at 8:39 pmSays:
I cleaned out storage bins from my boys’ closets and ended up with 2 bins of clothes and 2 bins of toys and books to take to Kid to Kid, a resale shop near by. I’m not posting any pictures though so family members and friends don’t notice anything they bought being passed along!
July 14th, 2008 at 9:00 pmSays:
While reducing clothing amounts may not mean less laundry in the adult world, I have found that less clothes does equal less laundry in my kids’ lives. Especially girls . . . My three girls, left to their own in the choosing, dressing, and room cleaning, contributed piles of laundry on a daily basis. Now, each weekend we put just 8 outfits in their drawers and I can’t believe how my laundry loads have dwindled!
July 14th, 2008 at 10:09 pm~Erin
Says:
Hey, can you remind us how to add your buttons to our blogs?? I can’t figure it out!
July 14th, 2008 at 11:14 pmSays:
I love this.like i said i am going thru my boxes and slowly but surley it will be done. I plan to have a yard sale and then donate what was not sold for the yard sale.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:34 pmSays:
Thanks for the inspiration! I pared down my own closet only a couple of months ago, and today I still had plenty to throw out (now I’ve pared down my husband’s as well). Our entire wardrobe is clearer, and I have a HUGE pile of clothes to get rid of
July 14th, 2008 at 11:42 pmSays:
I am so encouraged by this. I will be tackling this, today and tomorrow. Stay tuned for pictures on my blog!
July 15th, 2008 at 9:15 amSays:
Thanks so much for all the inspiration!
July 15th, 2008 at 9:31 amSays:
I put a few pictures up of my clothing pare-down. Blessings!
July 15th, 2008 at 2:09 pmSays:
Im in -ill post my before pics tonight
July 16th, 2008 at 2:44 pmSays:
Thank you SO MUCH for doing this! It was just the inspiration I needed. I’ve been getting rid of clothes over the last several months, and so far this week I’ve cleared out 63 clothing items, 10 pairs of shoes and one purse. And after I finish all the laundry, I’m sure there will be more! So after this week, my wardrobe should be down to about 1/3 of what it was six months ago, and it feels GREAT! I’m really looking forward to what you’ll have in the coming weeks.
July 16th, 2008 at 4:27 pmSays:
This is great- I’m very inspired! I’ve been really thinking about minimizing lately, as well. We’re planning a big garage sale soon, and one of my goals is to really pare down what we own, and clothes are definitely on the list of things to go.
I want to have a lot less clutter, less stuff to manage and tidy and clean and organize. I want to focus less on having “stuff” and more on loving people and serving God. It’s so easy to get drawn into materialism, though, in a culture that says we should have everything we want, isn’t it? Thanks for a great post!
July 16th, 2008 at 6:40 pmSays:
Wow! Thanks so much for the inspiration. I’m very doubtful that I could ever get that minimized, but as a long time pack-rat, I have a ways to go. After I read this it inspired me to clean out the closets in one of our bedrooms. I’ve recently had a baby and I had a bunch of clothes in there that no longer fit. (I’m back to pre-pregnancy weight.. but apparantly it’s proportioned differently.. LOL). I have one huge blue tupperware container and a large box, plus about 8 or 9 dresses to get rid of just by cleaning out that room (plus one smaller tupperware container of stuff to use as fabric for stuff for Avery. I’ve decided to limit myself to only keeping what can fit in that box and no more. Thanks a bunch! =o)
July 20th, 2008 at 11:23 pmSays:
You & Crystal inspired us to do our closets. It’s been so nice since. I even simply organized it: church tops or dresses, reg.tops,all bottoms. My husband loves it. I gave him a work clothes section and he says his morning is much smoother. :O) Thanks
September 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pm