“Playing dress up starts at age five and never really ends” -Kate Spade
One memorable line from the hit series of HBO was uttered by Carrie Bradshaw, a self-confessed fashionista and clothing hoarder. In the series, her unsurpassed love was evidenced by her perpetually full closet and her sentiments as regards clothes stating that she wants her money where she sees them, hanging in her closet. In the real world, fashion forward women are pretty much the same. Their love for clothes and penchant for anything stylish are both unmatched. In fact, fashionable women would say that their love for clothes is anything but a penchant. Instead, they would say it is something akin to passion. With their great love for sartorial items, it would come as no surprise to find their closets and wardrobes filled to the brim with the latest finds, classic staples and the like coming in varied colors and styles. Unfortunately, one ugly reality you need to content with is that you cannot hold on to these things forever and at some point in the future, you need to purge your closet from sartorial items that are taking up too much space.
Not only would you be clearing up that much-needed space to make way for new clothes, but you would be getting rid of items which have not even seen the light of day in the past years. While letting go of clothes you once loved may be hard, you can think of it as an opportunity for a fashion catharsis. Get rid of all the items that would serve you no purpose in your closets, and you will be surprised that it might just be the perfect precursor to redefining or enhancing your style. Once you have come to terms with the need for a closet purging, how do you know which ones to donate, toss or keep? Well, to make your wardrobe purging endeavor easier, here is a checklist of questions you need to ask yourself while going through each item in your closet. It is highly recommended that you pick and ponder every item as a quick a scan would not yield the same effective results and would not help you at arriving at a decision.
1.) Is it still in style?
Your wholesale Steve Madden boots may be your favorite pair, and it certainly has a way of elongating your legs when you are wearing minis. But your favorites may not exactly be in trend or even in season today. While you might not have any fashion items from the seventies hanging in your closet, you might not be aware of the subtle shifts in fashion that would cause you to throw out some trendy wardrobe pieces that may potentially become fashionable once more in the future. It is no secret that fashion is cyclical, so a good workaround to determining which items you should chuck out and which ones you can keep for storage is to see if these items still work well with your current wardrobe. If they do, stash them away until such time that they become fashionable again.
2.) Does it still fit you well?
Keeping an article of clothing in the hopes that it would fit you one day when you finally lose weight is only going to succeed in clogging up your clothes. If you have gained or lost a few pounds over the months or have stopped working out altogether, some of your clothes may still fit you but are not going to look quite the same as they did when you first purchased them. Be honest yourself when it comes to this matter, and if you feel that it would take some time before you would finally fit into that blouse, it is best to toss or give it away. Besides, it might not even be in style by the time it would finally fit you.
3.) Does it still have a place in your life?
Admit it, at some point in your life; you may have bought sartorial pieces that were appropriate to wear in your profession. But if black ties, suits, high heels, pencil skirts and the like no longer have a place in your current life (unless you like wearing them to work), then there is absolutely no reason for you to be holding on to them. Whether it may be a career shift or a simple matter of wanting to change the tune of your style, if your clothes no longer serve you its purpose, then either toss them or donate them. Whatever the case might be, there will always be a time in a woman’s life where you need to make a sartorial shift—and throwing away tacky clothes is just one step in the process. Decide if you want to go through this transition, and purge accordingly.
4.) Can you flip it?
Under any under circumstance, it would be hard to part with an item that once held an exorbitant price tag. While this might be true, you have to take into account that you need the extra space in your closet. And if having that space would require you to get rid of an expensive piece that is no longer trendy or ill-fitting, then, by all means, you should. If you are afraid of underselling it considering the premium you paid when you first bought it, then sell it at a local designer consignment work who might pay you more. You can then use that money to buy something that is in season and would fit you well.
5.) Do you have a lot of them?
There is a saying that goes that if you want a pair of shoes, you should buy it in every color. Unfortunately, this SHOULD NOT be the case when you are looking to trim a little extra fat in your closet. Look for styles that you have a tendency to buy in repetition and look for those in bad shape. Say for example you own eight plain colored tees, look for the ones that are in the worst shape or the ones you have worn the least. Look for those items that you would not lose sleep over losing and donate them to charity.
Parting with some of our clothes may present itself as a challenge—especially if you are a fashionista with a taste for variety. However, if your clothes are sitting ducks in your closets, then they are not really doing anything to help your style. On the contrary, keeping so many of these stocked in your closet can even preclude you from reaching your true style potential. So, ask yourself the questions stated above and start paring down the items in your closet.