I've been knocked down with some medical stuff this week (and am a little foggy-brained from medicine), so I'm just stopping in for a quick tip today.
I know most of us probably go through our clothes on a semi-regular basis to make a donation pile of things we don't wear anymore, but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between what we *think* we wear regularly and what we *actually* wear. I read somewhere that we wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. And I knew that was the case for me.
So one day I ran across a tip in an organizing book. I can't remember which one, unfortunately. It was probably one of these. But the tip was to turn all of your hangers around the wrong way. Then, when you wear something, turn the hanger back around. At the end of six months, reevaluate what hangers are still backward. Get rid of things at this point if you wish. I culled a few things at that time, but I gave it another six months after that to account for seasonal clothes. Then at a year, I could easily see what I hadn't worn. Some of it was surprising. Like I never would've guessed I hadn't worn certain things in at least a year if I hadn't been keeping track.
So once I saw what was still backward, if it wasn't some special occasion thing (like a cocktail dress or something), I ditched most of it. The few items I couldn't part with, I left the hangers backward and gave it another 6 month stay of execution. After that, it's gone. Because if I haven't worn it 18 months, I'm never going to wear it.
It's been really nice to whittle things down because it's made room in my closet and now I can easily see all the things I love to wear most.
So here's the quick and dirty:
1. Turn all your hangers backward.
2. Set a timer on your calendar to go off in 6 months.
3. When the timer goes off, reevaluate what is still backward. Ditch and donate some stuff if you want at that point.
4. Set another 6 month timer.
5. When it goes off, get rid of the clothes you haven't worn in a year. Someone else can put them to better use.
That's it!
Do you have any quick trick for organizing?