Today, I’m going through some winter clothes/random clothing items that got shoved into an under bed storage box. Considering that we don’t even get snow where I live, I can really get rid of lots of the winter items, and lots of the other items are just too small. I was thinking about this song today, and I realized that it’s a really good decluttering theme song. After all, you really need are the “bear necessities” LOL. 🙂
Month: February 2016
Taking care of the clothes you love
I’m taking a little break from posts on decluttering, though I can assure you I will be back on it shortly. 😉
The nice thing about having less clothes is you can spend more time keeping the clothes you love in tip-top condition.
Such as with this shirt. I love this shirt, but the neckline was super tight and after pulling it away from my neck like ten times today, I decided that something needed to be done. While I’m hesitant to use a pair of scissors on any of my clothes, I found a YouTube video on how to cut the neckline out of a shirt.
First, I matched the seems up, smoothed out all the wrinkled, and pinned it in place. I only cut about half an inch below the actual neckline, but in the video I watched the girl cut her’s about an inch below the neckline. I guess it just depends how low you want the neckline.
In the end, I’m really happy on how it turned out! It definitely changed the look of the shirt, but it’s super comfy now. 🙂
Conquer your closet-the shirts
After being continually frustrated with how jammed my closet felt, I decided I finally needed to go through my closet. When I counted all my shirts, the total added up to over one hundred! Yikes!!! No wonder that rack seemed so cluttered. I don’t go shopping very often at all, but I had let stuff accumulate for quite a few years.
After about a month of continually going through shirts, the closet is finally in control. I believe I now have about fifty shirts. I would still like to get rid of more, but I’m definitely happy with my progress. Here’s some keys I learned while going through my shirts:
1) This goes for just about anything. Always remember, stuff is stuff. It’s meant to be an asset to our lives, not a burden. You control your stuff, not your stuff controls you.
2) You only need so many shirts! I started out by getting rid of items that were too small (or even remotely tight, if it wasn’t comfortable, it was a goner!) In just doing that I was able to get rid of 15-20 shirts. Attack the easy stuff first. 😉
3) Once you get rid of the too small stuff, go on to stuff you never wear. I am a t-shirt person. I always go for the t-shirt with the Bible verse printed on it. I had a whole lot of shirts that were comfortable and were in good condition. They even fit. However, they had been collecting dust in my closet for many years. I always passed them over. If you haven’t worn it yet, you probably won’t anytime soon. Bless someone else.
4) What looks good on you? Keep clothes that look flattering on you. I don’t look very good in red; it’s just not my color. I decided to keep a few patriotic red shirts for July, but that’s just about it. I’m trying to keep the colors and styles that look best on me. No reason to waste time with anything else!
5) Duplicates? If you have shirts of a similar style, maybe you only need one instead of three. Give it a try! I like to have some shirts that I can mow the lawn in, paint, ect. I realized that I had ended up saving about eight shirts for dirty chores. I got rid of half, no sweat!
6) Sometimes, we keep a shirt because it has some special memories. But we only have so much room in our closets for those memories. We have to pick and choose. I had two t-shirts from the kid’s ministries I served in. Even though it was hard, I decided one was enough. I had a t-shirt from an acting company I used to do plays with, but I realized that my old cast pictures taped up on my wall were enough. The pictures are more valuable.
In closing, going through my shirts was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be! You’ll be surprised at how easy decluttering is once you get going. Have fun!
Saturday decluttering fun!
Saturdays are often a very productive decluttering day for me. I love going into a cabinet and coming out with a bunch of stuff that can go. 🙂 It definitely gives you a glorious feeling of satisfaction. Best of all, you know you won’t ever have to deal with or clean that stuff again. It is no longer your responsibility!
Don’t feel like you have to completely go through a cabinet in one day. Decluttering definitely comes in progressive steps. One day you may go through a shelf and only get rid of a few things. Then the next time you go through that shelf, it will probably be easier for you because you’ll realize you really haven’t used any of the stuff you left in there. It can get really fun once you get going. 🙂
If you don’t love it, you don’t need it
You just dropped off your first load at Goodwill. It was easy to get rid of the junk and the broken stuff. After all, none of those possessions were functional any more. When you get home, you realize that there is still a lot of stuff all over the place. You can’t see any clear spaces where the stuff you got rid of used to reside. You realize that more needs to go, but what about the stuff that you are on the fence about?
Well, as Frederick Douglas put it, “Where there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
If you are on the fence about something, most likely you do not need to be keeping it. If you have not worn it or used it recently but are keeping it because you think you might use it someday for some reason, then just get rid of it! Face it, you’re never going to put it to good use. Save yourself the trouble, and just toss it! It can be a blessing for someone else who really will use it. After all, you don’t want to end up like this person, do you? 😉
Living Blessed with Less 