I’m taking a break from food today to do a little blog post about my recent (ongoing, really) closet clean-out. In the past year or so I dove head-first back into thrifting, and I’ve acquired a lot. Exhibit A, below: a few irresistible finds that were part of a recent haul.
My closets — I have one in our guest room and one in our office — had gotten to the point of being so overstuffed that I had basically given up trying to find anything to wear, and instead was just grabbing the same maxi skirt/t-shirt/flat sandal combination I’d been wearing almost every day the whole summer.
The first thing I did was decide to be brutally honest with myself. If I’d taken a piece out of the attic closet (my storage area for off-season gear) at the beginning of summer and hadn’t yet worn it, it was going away. I didn’t document this process, but I can tell you I ended up with two garbage bags of clothes and a number of bags of shoes and accessories. Next I took everything to Scout Dry Goods and Trade and walked out with $55 in my hand. I also made a consignment appointment at Esther’s to take the best of the best designer stuff that I didn’t want and sell what I could.
I gave some of the clothes to friends, and I saved some for a future clothing swap.
The giant “keeper” pile that was left was daunting, to say the least. I sorted through the mass starting with dresses and skirts. They all live in the office closet. I recently read a similar (albeit with prettier pictures) closet clean out post here, and so for the first time, I sorted my clothes by color. I definitely do not need any more black skirts.
After I got the clothes hung, I sorted through the shoes and made space for the ones I wanted to keep. I have another shoe organization system in my other closet. This one is mostly for flats and a couple of pairs of vintage shoes that are almost too delicate to wear (top left, top right) but that I absolutely love. I promise to wear my Ferragamo flats this fall if it is the last thing I do, right after I take them to my shoe repair guy to have him stretch them one more time.
I still have a lot to do — there’s the main closet to organize, and I have to take my edited batch of summer clothes to the attic if it ever cools down. A number of items in my closet need tailoring or repairs, and I’ve vowed to finally get those done. The other great thing about a closet cleanout is the rediscovery of things you forgot you had. Two examples:
I thought I got rid of these crazy plaid Escada trousers years ago, but turns out they were just hiding. They still fit, though I’d like to get them shortened, so they went into the pile to be tailored.
This minaudière belonged to my late godmother. It’s totally going straight into the evening handbag rotation. One side fits an iPhone perfectly. The other side looks like this. Glorious! Next time I’ll show you my main closet and my absolute mess of jewelry that I still have to sort through. Thanks for reading!
