Cleaning Closets: A Personal Journey

Note: This is a post by Liz Becker-so this personal story does not belong to me, but it's a good one!

Like a lot of people, I'm guilty of collecting more stuff than I actually need.  I'm not a candidate for Hoarding: Buried Alive or anything, but my space can definitely get a little cluttered with stuff I may have needed once, but have no use for now.  It's to the point where what storage space I do have is steadily reaching capacity and, like George Carlin used to joke, I'm going to have to get a bigger house for my stuff... Or start getting rid of things.

Making the Decision

Deciding to get rid of stuff is easy; deciding what to get rid of is another thing entirely.  The first thing I needed to do is sort through all of my stuff; but since I have three large closets, it was a lot easier said than done.

The Hall Closet

I decided to start with the large hall closet, where I store all of my holiday decorations, linens, and clothing that is either out of season, or no longer fits.  The closet was actually fairly easy.  Since I no longer host big holiday gatherings at my place, I could easily donate a lot of the decorations to charity, or give them to family members.  I had managed to get down to just the Christmas tree, a wreath, a couple strings of lights, and several ornaments that had sentimental value.

The linens were also easy-I managed to get rid of the bulk of my table cloths and napkins-giving them new homes with my kids, as well as any sheets or towels that were faded, frayed, or otherwise worn.

The clothing was a little more difficult, mainly because there were things that I keep convincing myself that I would wear again, if only I could lose that last fifteen pounds.  Once I was willing to accept that they were doing me no good gathering dust, I was able to bag them up and send them to Goodwill.

The hall closet finished, I decided to tackle the next monster: the closet in the spare bedroom.

The Spare Bedroom

The spare bedroom was a little more problematic because that was where I stored all of my fashion accessories, like my belts, scarves, shoes, and designer handbags.  These were all items that I'd spent a lot of money on, and which were still in great condition, but I just didn't use them often.

Still, each item had been selected with care, or gifted to me, and they had a certain degree of sentimental, as well as monetary value.  I couldn't just ship them off to Goodwill-these items needed special care.

I sorted them into three groups:

• Things I loved, and couldn't get rid of.
• Things I liked, and would like to keep.
• Things I'd bought because they were fashionable, but if I were really honest, I didn't really like them that much.

Once I finished sorting, I returned the stuff I loved to the closet.  I decided to re-gift the things I liked to friends and family members who I thought would appreciate them.  I also started looking for places to sell designer handbags and other luxury items.

The closet in the spare bedroom done, I moved on to the last project: the closet in my bedroom.

The Bedroom Closet

I thought this closet would be the easiest of all, because it held all of the stuff I was currently using.  It turns out that I didn't regularly use nearly as much as I'd thought.  For example, I had found several clothing items that I had only worn a few times before hanging them in the back of the closet to be forgotten.

Yet, even though they had been forgotten, I had been reluctant to let them go once I'd remembered them.

Ultimately, I did manage to cull things, and either donate them or send them off to good homes, but it took some time.  After all is said and done, I now have a lot more space in my closets, and I even got a little cash from selling some of my handbags.