At the end of my last post, I wrote briefly about how I am determined to sort through the piles of *stuff* we've accumulated ever since we moved in to our apartment a year ago. Tonight, Jeff and I started by going through our clothes. It's amazing how frequently I mutter to myself "Gahhhd, I don't have anything to wear" since my closet is literally BURSTING with clothes. Honestly, I don't wear most of it, either because I don't think a piece works with anything else I own (I feel like I suck at putting together complete outfits) or because certain pieces just don't fit right and I haven't been willing to suck it up and get rid of them. Well tonight I tried to be as discriminating as possible and I ended up with a garbage bag full of items to toss (holes, stains, tears, faded, etc), a big laundry basket overflowing with items to sell, and a metric shit-ton of liberated hangers. My closet is still pretty full, but at least I can now actually see what's hanging there. I still have to go through my dresser and my shelves of sweaters, but I shall save that for another night. I'm quite please with tonight's pruning efforts! It feels good to clear out the extra stuff that was cluttering things up and making it hard to function easily-- my mantra this summer is going to be STREAMLINE.
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| I would go to this sale, wouldn't you?? |
I've decided that I'm going to have a garage sale the first weekend of August (which also happens to be Park Ave Festival weekend... aka: TONS of foot traffic in our neighborhood!). That gives me two weeks to finish going through my clothes and to collect household items that we don't want, don't use, and/or don't need. We have a lot of duplicate items (like sets of pots & pans, kitchen gadgets and utensils, etc) because we got nice stuff from our bridal shower to replace the stuff we'd been using-- I figured a garage sale would be the perfect opportunity to make room for the new items and earn a little extra cash in the process! All proceeds from the garage sale will go directly to our "down payment for a house" fund, which already has a nice little sum started. Hooray!
I dream of a super-organized, perfectly staged garage sale, with cute signage and little color-coordinated price stickers and perhaps even a little lemonade stand or table of baked goods as an added source of revenue! If you've got any stuff lying around your house and you'd like to donate it to our sale, let me know- I'll happily take it!
Here's a little "clean out the closet" process I learned - possibly from Oprah. Organize your clothes by type and color first. Turn all the hangers facing the wrong way (hanging from behind the bar rather than in front). Every time you wear something and then hang it back up after doing the laundry, turn the hanger facing the right way. After six months, see what you haven't worn - chances are you probably won't wear those things again and can get rid of them.
ReplyDeleteIt does take about a year or so to go through the whole process, because of seasonal clothing (I personally don't wear my sweaters in July). And if there's an "off" season, like a really warm winter or really cold summer, it can throw things off. But I've been doing this the past two years and it's really helped me clean out the crap.
I don't do it with my special occasion clothes because I don't wear that sort of stuff often enough anyway. I usually just check that stuff over once a year to make sure it still fits, both in terms of size and personal style.
Incidentally, you might consider donating to the Rescue Mission or Salvation Army rather than having a garage sale. You won't get any money up front, but you can claim the donation on your taxes and get a far greater return than you would for a garage or yard sale. Especially if you use a tax software like TurboTax, which will actually assign a value to that dress you don't want anymore.
Just food for thought. :)