I'm LOVING the motivation here!
I finished a short book about the philosophy of minimalism seeping into other aspects of life--like health, and social interaction, environmental affairs, etc. It made me want to race home and clean up everything! Buuut since I can't, I'll just write up week 4's assignment.
Week 4: Clothes.
This is a really hard assignment, especially for someone like me who costumes and loves to dress in wacky things on odd occasional events and keeps them all year just in case of said events. But even I can create a more streamlined wardrobe that works for me.
This is also hard to write about because everyone has different needs when it comes to clothing. Minimalist books write about three main concepts:
- Picking base colors and accent colors (3-5 colors in the entire wardrobe)
- Picking classic styles that never really go out of fashion or season
- Picking high quality clothing that fits you well
Choosing colors you know you like to wear, and clothing you know fits your body type well that won't be out of fashion next month (like those odd stretchy shirts that looked like a science-k'nex ball? Anyone remember those?) are principles we can all keep in mind when we're going through our wardrobe.
Now there are websites all over the place that will give you 10-piece, 20-piece, 30-piece, etc. wardrobes where you strictly follow these essentials and you'll have a functioning minimalist closet. But that's not really what YOU need. I think closets need to function around your life, and 30 pieces of clothing just won't cut it for me!
The principles I am using are just for me, but the concepts in the numbers are the same. If you're a fashionista, you may want to change "what I need clothes for" to "Types of clothes I need".. Like skirts, dresses, slacks, capris, etc.
So, here's the principles I am following:
1. Take a quick rummage through the closet and toss out anything that you haven't even touched in the last couple years. If something still has a tag on it from a year ago, or if it's stained but you couldn't stand to toss it out then, do it now. Also, take the time to pull clothing from storage areas like those space-saving bags and under-the-bed-tupperwares so you can see EVERYTHING in one spot.
2. Write down everything I need clothing for.
- Write down my weekly activities. Working out, yard work, work clothes, sleeping clothes.
- Write down my seasonal activities. Swimming, winter seasonal clothes, snowboarding, playing sports, gardening.
- Write down my yearly events. Formal dinners, costuming, st. patty's day, etc. anything that I go out of my way to dress up for.
I quickly flip through my wardrobe then, and if clothing doesn't really match up any of these things that I wrote down.. either I need to remember to write it down, or get rid of the garment.
3. Combine those categories into sections that function.
- For me, that's: Physical work in the summer, physical work in the winter, seasonal clothes, everyday wear, formal wear, yearly events, accessories, shoes, small clothes, army clothes, and work clothes.
4. Separate clothes into these piles. An article MUST fit into a pile. While we're not quiiite narrowing clothing down yet, take a small look at clothing as you pull it out and into those piles. Things you know will never fit again should be tossed out.
5. Create separate spaces for these piles. Creating a place for a section is the best way to keep it all together. A small set of drawers for work-out clothes, for example, means not having to rummage through those old t-shirts in the catch-all "t-shirts" drawer to find the ones you like to wear after the work out. This also means that you'll have a guaranteed place for everything you own, and shows you just how limited space really can be. If you can only put "accessories" in a small drawer now instead of strung about the whole room, then you'll need to toss out some of the scarves you never wore anyways.
- For me, I have work shirts and play shirts.. (work shirts being used for painting, exercise, and anything that'll make me sweat or ruin an article. T-shirts I like more go into the play drawer, and I wear them when I'm just out and about doing my thing.) ..Shorts and pants, work-out shorts, army-clothes, small clothes, and sleeping wear, all in different drawers. Everything has a drawer so laundry is a snap, and I know just where to find anything I need in a hurry. Seasonal clothing went in a tupperware under my bed, and costumes in another. Easy to find, but out of the way since I don't use them on a weekly basis.
6. Now that you have space, evaluate your piles.
- Can something be used for more than one purpose? (i.e. Do I really need a "painting shirt" when I have plenty of work-out shirts that get grungy and nasty with sweat anyways?)
- Can clothing pull double duty? (Most of my winter pants are thick enough and strong enough for outdoor work, same with the long-sleeve shirts, so I skip the "outdoor work clothes" category altogether, tossed all of those that I was keeping and not really using anyways, and kept a few pairs of my winter clothes out all season instead. Also, this is the category shoes fall under a lot.. A good, nice pair of classic shoes can replace 20 pairs if you coordinate your colors and accessories right.)
- Do you have an overflow of a single category? (If you have 200 t-shirts because you just love the Beatles.. think about maybe taking your band-shirts and repurposing them. There's companies that create quilts out of old t-shirts so you can enjoy the shirts you love without having to wear them. You can also sell a bunch of your gently used clothing to help pay for a pair of slacks that you just now noticed you don't own at all and sort of need.)
- Does the article match anything else in the pile? (If you have a shrug that looks awesome, but is way too fancy to go along with the rest of your work clothing.. or if you have 10 blue-purple-green colored skirts and tops for work, and one blood orange top... you get the idea.)
- Can I get this else where? (If you have plenty of female friends around your size.. do you really need 20 semi-formal cute dresses? Or can you get by with your favorites, and trade and borrow with friends if you have a special event that calls for something new to wear?)
- Can someone else use this more than me? (So, you were a bridesmaid last year, got a spiffy and nice-looking dress.. It fit right, it looks great--and it's WAY too formal for anything you'll ever attend until the next wedding and, hey.. everyone will recognize the dress, so you may not want to wear it. HOWEVER! There are donations for things like girls getting dresses so that they can go to prom wearing something nice that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it.. How much better suited would that dress be being used in that way?)
- Is this something I wear? I know this seems silly to put at the bottom of the list.. but by the time you've asked all of these questions about every pile.. You may get tired, look at a garment, and go "You know what? I don't even like this enough to evaluate it, moreless wear it.. *toss!*" Easy as pie.
After all that craziness, just put the things where they go and you're done! If you still find that you're trying to make room for a particular section.. maybe you need to make that section a bigger priority, give it the bigger space, and downsize a different category. If you notice a category is pitifully small (like that your formal wear is non existent and that's why you always get stressed during those sudden formal events), it's probably because you had too much stuff to notice what you needed!
One tip that many books talked about was avoiding BUYING more space. Do not create more space to store your stuff. Chances are, you already have plenty of space.. you just have too much stuff. This is not the same as, say, what [MENTION=4050]ceecee[/MENTION] did with those baskets. She had a section, just wanted to organize it more. Do not buy more drawers, more closet-extenders, or those hooks that turn one hook into 5.
See what you have, put in place, and THEN see if any gadget would make it easier on you.. Chances are, those diamond separators for the drawers aren't really necessary. They're socks, not gems, they can touch and be sprawled about in a small drawer without bothering anyone. Spending money on making a closet too organized may keep you from keeping it organized too! If I have to roll my underwear up to make it fit into a small slot, I'm never going to do it.. they'll just sit in the laundry hamper until I need them. Throwing them in a drawer and forgetting them, though, I can do.
Welcome! Now get in that bathroom and start cleaning! 
I love it!! A great deal on those too! In the book I'm currently on it talks about cleaning your clutter, finding places for it, and only then getting organizers together for those items. The baskets are super attractive. 
) then they really aren't worth keeping around. Decorating should be a fun time. Even if you go crazy with decorating, that's cool, just make sure you use everything every time. (I heard of neighbors with themes to their christmas decorations swapping ornaments to change it up instead of buying all new ones. I thought that was an awesome idea.) 
Things like this you'll just have to evaluate. Part of taking the time to drag all your storage stuff out into the middle is seeing if you REALLY want to drag it back. If even carrying it back to be stored and maintained again sounds like a chore, it probably isn't something you should keep. That skateboard you got thinking you'd relive your childhood and never touched after could be better used by a kid next door. 
Im glad the tips are helping a bit! Glad to hear it 
