New Year New You - A Lazy Girl's Guide On How to Spring Clean Your Wardrobe

 It's the beginning of another year. January 1st 2022 and your wardrobe is spilling out into all sorts of places that it shouldn't. Jumpers you've not worn in two years, jeans you haven't fitted into for 15 years and items in shopping bags with the labels still attached that you have never worn, guiltily shoved to the back of the wardrobe. And that is before I even get started on the coats that take up way too much room and the boots and shoes you can't bear to get rid of (even though they are so uncomfortable) because you have convinced yourself they are akin to art.

But it's January 1st, and even the TV is telling you you could do with a tidy up. Every week there seems to be another app from which you can sell your unwanted clothes/rubbish. Vinted, Depop, Shopify. 'Just snap a picture of your unwanted items, upload your pictures and the selling starts. It's that easy' the television offers. Can they see inside your house? you wonder. Even your own television seems to be quietly accusing you of having lost all control of your wardrobe. 

The truth is, there's something about a messy wardrobe that makes your life feel messy. Perhaps it's because it's the first thing you look at every morning - who wants a chaotic explosion of clothing - like Zara's rails after the first day of the summer sales - to be the first thing you see when you open your eyes? And why do so many of us seem unable to keep our wardrobes under control? Cheap consumer fashion certainly has a lot to answer for. Previous generations seemed to own far fewer clothes, that were far better quality. The backlash against cheap fast fashion and the waste it causes is already underway - consumers now are looking to create a more sustainable wardrobe. Great Britons alone send 700,000 tonnes of clothing to recycling centres, textile banks, clothes collections and to charity each year. That's enough to fill 459 Olympic-size swimming pools. 

So with a promise to myself to shop ethically henceforth, to buy myself a sewing machine to learn to upcycle my mass of unworn clothes, and to sell all my unworn and worn pieces that I no longer have a use for, I have put together a not too taxing (it's the 1st day of the year after all) way to give you wardrobe a mini spring clean that doesn't involve hiring one of those Trinny and Susannah types who come to your house for a thousand pounds and make you throw away all your favourite clothes. 

Whether you are someone who has read Marie Kondo's 'The Life Changing Magic of Tidying' and live by it's message as if it were 'The Art of War' vs. mess, or whether you are someone who has managed to tune out the piles of clothes draped over that chair in your bedroom, you can always find a few new tips to help you declutter. Read on for some expert advice on how to navigate your winter wardrobe cleaning.

Make a Plan

All great plans start with a 'To Do' list in my life, and cleaning out your closet is no exception.  There's a certain comfort that comes of writing a list and ticking things off on said list, so this is a great way to start dealing with that Everest of clothes that is your wardrobe. Imagine your perfect closet space. How does it look? What's in it? How is it organised? Plot it all out before you tackle it in person. Once you know where you want everything to go, start kicking out things that don't fit your vision. Be ruthless. This is no time for emotion - you won't get rid of anything if everything you pick up to throw away reminds you of some incident in your life - 'I wore this dress on our first date', 'This was my favourite clubbing top when I was 18', 'I wore this jumper that day I saw Gerard Depardieu shopping in Topman Oxford Circus (true story)'. Detach all your emotions from the piece and look at it as what it is - a piece of material sewn together in a way that either fits you and looks good, or doesn't fit you and looks bad. Keep it or bin it on this basis. Unless of course it's your wedding dress, or a jumper your granny knitted with her own hands. You can keep those.

Edit Down

Spring Cleaning doesn't have to be done in the spring. In fact, you don't need to wait for any seasons to change to tackle your mountain of clothing. Purging can happen whenever you fancy. Packing to go away for a weekend? This can be a great time to have a look at what you've got and have a quick chuck-out while you're packing your cases. (I would recommend this only for those whose wardrobe purge isn't going to be the mammoth task that mine is. Who wants to start a huge job just before you go away for the weekend? This is for those who have a few bits too many, not a shop-full like myself).

Next step is to ask yourself that famed closet-cleaning question: 'Do you love it?' If you don't love it, why do you have it? Why is it taking up space? If it doesn't make you look hot-a-f anymore or it's not comfortable, why is it in your wardrobe/bedroom/house? If you're on the fence about an item, put it away for a period - say three months - and see if you miss it. Separation anxiety exists for clothes apparently.

Anything you've purged can go to charity or be sold. Avoid the temptation to store it in a black bag to go to charity or be sold. It will sit in said black bag in the corner of your room for the next year. This is no different to having it in your wardrobe. You are just moving the mess to another corner of your bedroom, only now it's in a bin liner. You need to get the clothes out of your house straight away.

Maximise Your Space

Review every drawer, shelf and wall space before deciding where you want things to go. Utilising overlooked areas — like the back of a door — will help you make the most of your space. Try not to put bulky stuff like jumpers and tracksuits in drawers - those plastic bags that you suck out all the air from and shrink your jumpers down to miniature-dog clothing size, work wonders.

Organise By Style, Then Colour

This is really showing off. If you manage to get to the stage where you've got all your jumpers organised by hue, then I really hate you - we have nothing in common and you shouldn't be reading my blog.

I'm kidding (a bit), the plan is to get your wardrobe to the stage where it is organised by style, colour and weather. For those who have a different weekday and weekend wardrobe, sort by use, keeping office wear and casual wear separate so it's easier to find.

Fold Your Jumpers

This is a tricky one. Jumpers shouldn't be on hangers as it ruins their shape. However, I've found that items laid out flat encourage the dreaded jumper munchers - moths. I don't have enough expletives in my vocabulary to truly express how much i hate moths. The pleasure I get from ending a moths life is quite visceral - I feel like Patrick Bateman after a particularly good kill. I recommend those plastic storage bags lined with lavender you can buy in John Lewis to keep them out. 

If you don't have a moth problem, you can stack your wool and cashmere in pretty colour coordinated piles that are both convenient and aesthetically pleasing. Whatever you do, if you're storing your knits in drawers, don't overstuff them. You'll ruin your clothes, break your drawers, and everything will end up a huge mess that you have to refold. Trust me on this one.

Hang Your Jeans

If you have a walk in closet or ample racks, then hark at you - aren't you lucky! But really - if you have either of these you should be hanging your jeans. Increased accessibility is the main reason for hanging your trousers. If however, your bedroom is the size of a walk in closet, shelves are second best alternative, You can also hang your favourites and put away your lesser worn items. For those poor unfortunates using drawers for trousers, vertical file folding (with the pocket side crease up) is the best storage method. Sort jeans by style and then by colour for easy selection.

If in Use Keep Boots On Lower Shelves

Boots take up a lot of space, so if a pair is gathering dust and not getting any street time, they should probably find a new home. Keep the ones you wear more often on a lower shelf and use boot stuffers to ensure they stay upright. Place any showstopping pairs on higher shelves, so you don't have to look at them and be reminded that you have barely worn them in two years and you hope your feet haven't become so fat from lockdown overeating that they don't fit anymore.

Maintenance Tips

We all have that one corner or chair that becomes our go-to deposit site for where you throw your worn clothes at the end of the night that aren't clean enough to go back in the wardrobe or dirty enough to go in the laundry basket. This corner/chair becomes a sort of Bermuda Triangle of clothes with one more wear before they are washed. This deposit site also harbours those outfits that don't come to fruition or the freshly-washed blouses that have yet to get hung up. The simple solution to this problem is to stop being so lazy and hang up your clothes.

How to organise your wardrobe once and for all

 I Collect Clothes—Here's Everything I Know About Wardrobe Organisation

Something most of us need (and probably fail) to do once a year, something that makes us feel clean and virtuous is a spot of closet reorganisation. And what better time to get your wardrobe back in order? 

You might think yours is in a perfectly acceptable state, but if it includes teetering piles of clothes you haven’t touched in years, shoes covered in a fine layer of dust or doors that won’t close, then I’m afraid you’re mistaken. Yes, I'm pledging to make 2021 the year when the bottom of my wardrobe won’t resemble the beginnings of a car boot sale—and I think you should join me.

1. Don't Cling to Pieces That Just Aren't Working

First things first, do a proper clear-out. Marie Kondo, the master of decluttering whose first book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has sold 5 million copies and counting, says the question you have to ask yourself when deciding whether to get rid of something is along the lines of “Does it bring me joy?”

A vintage ruffled skirt I got some years ago that came with complimentary tea stains and jeans so tight I have to lie down to do them up definitely don’t—so why have I kept them? (A mix of laziness and the optimistic thought that I might attempt some stain removal/lose some tummy rolls.) I’ve finally accepted neither will happen, so both have been sorted into recycling and charity bags respectively.

Side note: Research has found that an estimated 235 million items of unwanted clothing in this country will end up in landfill as a result of spring cleaning. Don’t bin your garments—when you can, take them to charity shops or a Traid recycling bank. A few other rules to follow when deciding what goes? Anything that doesn’t fit, anything you haven’t worn in two years, anything that can’t slot into at least three outfits without having to buy something else, and any badly stained or scuffed shoes must go. Doesn’t that feel better?

2. Spend Money On the Perfect Storage Solutions

Now that you’ve triumphed over the detritus, it’s time to organise what’s left. This starts with getting the right gear. If you’re a few-pairs-of-shoes kind of gal, start with a shoe and accessory organiser from Wayfair. It hooks over your wardrobe’s door and will mean you don’t trip over your accessories in the middle of the night. Any more than 10 and I suggest a separate shoe cupboard (try Habitat, Made.com or Paramountfurniture.co.uk), as well as storing away your summer shoes in winter and vice versa (IKEA has fabric boxes that will stack up neatly).

If your wardrobe is on the small side, save space by getting trouser, shirt and skirt hangers with multiple arms from Harbour Housewares. The website also has a wealth of fabric storage boxes that can sit at the bottom of your cupboard and hold all the paraphernalia that tends to collect there like scarves, belts, gloves and hats.

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Tidying Up: The Psychology of Clutter

Decluttering expert, Shelley Davies

When Shelley Davies arrives at a client’s door with her big black eyeglasses and calm, focused demeanour, she could be mistaken for any professional making a house call: A physician, tutor, stylist, therapist or, perhaps, exorcist. She is, in a way, all of these things.

The founder of Details Modern Order, Davies makes house calls that can feel as personal as a doctor’s consultation, as consoling as a therapy appointment and as cleansing as an exorcism. Her goal? A cure for our modern malaise: clutter.

“The words I have heard over and over again are ‘I’m drowning,’ or ‘I’m suffocating,’” says Davies.

The feeling of being overwhelmed comes, says Davies, because “when people are surrounded by too much clutter they feel stuck.”

Our clutter problem has become something of a 21st-century obsession. The Netflix show Tidying up with Marie Kondo, replete with its soothing, almost holy rituals of holding and letting go, has cashed in on the anguish and helplessness that we who live cluttered lives feel.

In the era of fast fashion, easy credit and urban density, many of us simply have too much stuff and nowhere to put it. The never-ending stream of clothing, dollar-store gizmos, seasonal decor, gifts, paperwork, sentimental items, unfinished projects and overloaded Billy bookcases is just too much.

Unlike hoarding, which has been classified as a psychiatric disorder since 2013 but affects just two to six per cent of the population, the emotional consequences of clutter have not benefited from wide psychological study.

Perhaps they should. According to the Professional Organizers of Canada, 83 per cent of Canadians indicate they are extremely disorganized and 91 per cent of Canadians feel clutter negatively affects their lives. According to Planet Storage, the average Canadian spends 12 weeks a year looking for stuff they can’t find.

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