Raise your hand if you feel unmotivated every time you open up your wardrobe to clean. Clothes can be overwhelming and stressful to deal with, but don’t worry! Read on to find out how you can declutter your clothes in a day (it’s possible!).
Before You Start Decluttering
1. Speed Is Key
Image source: Coastal Cities Property Management
If you want to declutter your wardrobe in a day, you have to understand that speed is key. If you take too long to declutter your clothes, you might end up losing the drive and motivation.
To speed up your cleaning process, you can adopt the 4-box technique. Prepare 4 boxes or bins and label them accordingly – keep, donate, or toss. If necessary, you can prepare a box for your ‘Maybe’ pile too.
If you have a decluttering partner with you, go through your clothes pile quickly and toss it in the respective bins. Make a decision about that item within 5 seconds and if you can’t decide, place it in the ‘Maybe’ box and look through it again later on.
Tip: For clothing items that you can’t decide to keep or not, store it in a storage box and place it out of sight. If you completely forgot about it, you can get rid of it.
Also check out on StyleMag: 5 Home Decluttering & Organizing Methods To Inspire You
2. Try On Clothes That Are Rarely Worn
A common problem faced when decluttering clothes is – what if I want to wear this in the future?
To reduce the time taken for you to ponder over your ‘Maybe’ pile, here’s what you can do a few days before your decluttering day.
Pick out a few clothing items that you haven’t worn in a while and wear them out a few days. This gives you better sensing of whether you like how it looks and feels on you.
From there, decluttering would be a speedy process as you’ll know which items don’t suit you anymore.
Tip: If you’re unsure of which clothes to keep, you can consider keeping those that you can create more than 1 outfit out of it!
When You’re Decluttering
3. Declutter With Someone You Trust
Image source: Chloe Bridge
When you’re decluttering your wardrobe, it’s good to have someone with you, be it your family members or trusted friends (just make sure they’re not judgemental about your mess). They would give you a new perspective on your shopping habits and could convince you to toss out those items that you’ve been hoarding.
When you’re unsure of whether to keep something, share with your decluttering partner why you want to keep the item. Most of the time, reasoning out loud helps you figure out if your reason for keeping that item is valid. If it isn’t valid, you’ll find it easier to toss it out.
4. Avoid Being Too Sentimental
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Sentimental clothing items are one of the biggest obstacles when decluttering your wardrobe. It’s understandable to keep 1 to 2 pieces of sentimental clothes but if you have a whole box of them, that’s when you need to pare it down.
Change your frame of mind – wouldn’t your clothes be happier worn by someone else as compared to being stored in the closet forever?
To make it easier for you to part with your sentimental clothes, you can talk to your decluttering partner about what the clothes meant to you. Take the time to thank the clothes before tossing them out.
Tip: Before tossing out your sentimental clothes, take a picture of it and store it on your phones to preserve your memory of it!
5. Reduce Your “To Sell” Pile
Image source: Renae Cheng
As you declutter your wardrobe, you’ll most likely have a pile of clothes that you’d like to sell online. While it’s good to earn money from your unworn clothes, it might not be worth the effort if you can only sell them for a really low price.
Besides, if you have too many clothes in your ‘To Sell’ pile, you might never get around to listing them and end up with another clutter in your home.
Alternatively, you could swap or sell your clothes for new ones at stores.
- Swapaholic: Choose from 4 different membership tiers – each tier entitles you to a different number of old clothes you can send them. Get points credited to your account by sending over your old clothes through their representative. With those points, you can shop at their store and it’ll be delivered to your home within 1-3 working days.
- The Fashion Pulpit: The number of clothes you can drop-off depends on the membership tier you sign up for. Bring your clothes to their studio and earn points based on the quality and brand of the clothes. The points earned act as a budget for how many items you can swap.
- Refash: Pack up your old clothes that are still in good condition and sell it to Refash for cash or credit. You get a higher payout if your items are from their preferred brands and don’t have any defects.
You can also give your clothes a new home by donating them! Check out our StyleMag article 2021 Ultimate List Of Places To Donate Your Old Clothes & Items in Singapore for places you can donate your clothes to in Singapore!
Maintaining An Organized Wardrobe
6. Abide By The 1-In-1-Out Rule
To help you in maintaining your clothes collection, try to stick to the 1-in-1-out rule. For every new piece of clothing that you purchase, an existing item in your wardrobe has to go.
This rule is to ensure that your clothes don’t pile up – it also makes it easier for you to remember what you have in your wardrobe and make full use of every item you own.
Tip: Avoid making impulsive purchases. Only purchase the item if you still pine for it after a month or so. You’ll most likely make full use of that item if you still want it after a month.
7. Reverse Clothes-Hanger Trick
Image source: Supplied
For clothes that you just can’t bear to let go of, try adopting the reverse clothes-hanger trick. This trick helps you to pare down your wardrobe even further in your next decluttering session by giving you an indication of which clothing items you haven’t worn in a while. It’s simple – start by turning the clothes hanger such that the hook is facing outside.
When you wear a clothing item, hang it back in your wardrobe as you normally would. Check your wardrobe again in a few months to see which clothes you’ve yet to wear – you can donate, swap or sell it to make room for future purchases! If the item that you can’t get rid of remains unworn, it’s seriously time to get rid of it.
Tip: If you aren’t a fan of the hanger strategy, you can use safety pins as an indication. Remove the safety pin when you wear the item. The next time you declutter your closet, get rid of the clothing pieces that still have the safety pin attached.
With these tips, grab a decluttering partner and start decluttering your wardrobe! You’ll only be able to experience how life-changing having a clean wardrobe can be once you get on your feet and clean it out.
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Which one of these secrets do you find the most helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
