Photo via Pinterest…if you know the actual source, pleaseplease tell me!
I know “spring cleaning” is supposed to be where it’s at, but really, it’s more mid-February (hey, that’s now!) when my “clean it up, toss it out” juices get flowing. This is when I’m officially beginning to tire of my winter wardrobe, when I’m coming to terms with which fall/winter pieces in my closet are officially not getting worn, and which are due to be retired.
Besides tackling my own treasure troves, I’ve been helping a dear reader with a major closet clean-out/reorganization this month (truly, there are few things I love more in the world than editing closets. If you need a hand, you know where to find me). And it’s gotten me thinking that I have a few tricks up my sleeve I may not have mentioned. Like my no-fail solution to the “I have nothing to wear” wail that issues from my closet at least twice a month. Want the secret?
Next time you’re stumped, try my quick trick: instead of looking for things to wear, look for things to ditch. Standard policy in my closet is that whenever I utter those magic words, I must immediately find 3 items to put in my Goodwill bag (which I always keep in the bottom of my closet). Why? It shifts your mindset from “I can’t possibly wear this” to “Hmm, could I ever, under any circumstances, make this cute?” (we are selfish creatures that way). It makes you creative. It also makes you troll the scary nether-regions of your closet to track down the low-hanging fruit it’s easiest to part with. And I almost always find a gem buried back there by a well-meaning husband.
Last time this happened, in the process of tossing a 3-sizes-too-big white button-down, a five-year-old Anthropologie turtleneck (seriously?) and a disastrously-faded J.Crew sweater, I unearthed a bright chartreuse cardigan that hadn’t seen the light of day since the Clinton administration, paired it with a striped linen tee I was “saving” for spring, added a chunky necklace and a skinny jean, and in the end, didn’t look half bad, I think.
Let me know if you give my trick a try. Much like the “bend and snap”, it works every time!
