Preparing my clothes the night before. By the way, I got that top in Scotland.

(Suzanne, that was the day we went shopping because we didn’t want to do touristy things without you )

Whether you’re in the Southern or Northern Hemisphere, the seasons have changed and it’s time to switch your clothes around.

My goal is to have all my clothes comfortably in one wardrobe. This is 98% – I have 6 pairs of corduroy pants hanging in another bedroom.

I remember YEARS ago when I first started working I had about 5 things to wear for work. It was so quick to get dressed in the mornings because there wasn’t much choice.

Even though most of my clothes fit in one wardrobe, I still switch things around because I put all the current season’s stuff on the right of my cupboard – the left door stays closed most of the time.

If you look closely, you’ll see long-sleeved shirts on the top left and long-sleeved suits on the bottom left. Those are my winter clothes.

Do you switch your clothes around? If yes, have you done yours yet? Can you declutter any items?

This is a sweatshirt I bought because I liked the colour and it was cheap, but really it is a size or two too big.

I put it on the other day and realised that actually, I do NOT feel great in it, so why torture myself by wearing it.

I know there are people who could use this so out it goes!

What are you decluttering today?

If you’re starting to fade…try some easy decluttering.

P.S. only 11 days left!

I’ve had these grey pants for probably 10 years. I know we shouldn’t wear anything with pleats but I camouflaged them for a good few years by wearing bum-length jerseys over the pants.

There is a particular jersey (pale-blue) that I LOVE wearing with these pants – they go SO well together.

They really started looking awful on me and I STILL couldn’t get rid of them (like an old friend) so I put them aside for a year. This year I am SO OVER them and it was easy to now get rid of them.

Bye-bye, pants. It’s been good

What are you decluttering today?

Please link to your specific Declutter Challenge post and not to your general blog. Thanks

I have a friend who is really great at decluttering clothes. She goes through their clothes every 6 months and gets rid of anything they haven’t worn that season. Her view is that next summer/ winter there’ll be new fashions so why hang onto old stuff?!

2. How honest are you being with yourself?

If you’ve been putting on weight steadily due to age or lifestyle factors, then deep down you know you’re fooling yourself into thinking you’ll be able to fit into that size ___.

In this case, I suggest that you just bite the bullet and get rid of the clothes. It feels better when you donate it to a woman’s shelter, trust me. Ask yourself, “who can use this today?”

However, if you were easily at a weight before getting pregnant and you’ve just had a baby, then by all means keep those old clothes while you exercise and get back to your pre-maternity weight.
That said, my sister is really slender (post-baby) and even she said when the baby was 6 months old that she’s come to terms with not ever fitting into those really skinny tops again

So what do I do?

If I LOVE the clothes, I get the stuff out of my valuable real estate (my wardrobe) and put them in my guest bedroom with the date on the container/ large ziploc bag. By the time the next summer/ winter rolls around, if I can’t fit into it, out it goes.

I know from my history that even if I can fit into it a year later, there are much cuter clothes out there which I’d rather have in my wardrobe

This system works for me. What works for you?

I publish a weekly tips newsletter and this Wed, I wrote an article on decluttering your clothes.

This is one of the emails I received after I sent it out.

Good morning Marcia,

Thank you for this week’s tips.

I have started with my clothes and I must say, it has been one of the best exercises. I realised how much old clothes I have that I don’t even need, let alone wear.

I feel like the weight on my shoulders has decreased tremendously. I am
very happy because I can see what’s going on in my cupboards.

I also did the kids and Hendrick’s clothes too and he is happy because we can identify stuff that’s missing, if there is any.

Another thing, this exercise has opened a new door. The clothes we did not like, and do not fit us anymore (of course, in good condition), we took to a local orphanage, and the experience was extremely overwhelming….

thanks
Claudia

I’ve always said that I don’t believe in organising just for the sake of things looking pretty (although that helps), but it’s the feeling of peace that being organised brings you.

Claudia gets it, do you?

Get your own weekly tips here.

If you’re a Flylady fan, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I talk about your evening routine.

This is one of the things that really works for me. I don’t do this 100% of the time (I don’t quite know why – stubbornness, maybe?) but I try about 3 out of the 5 work days. It’s easier when I know I have important client meetings because I do dress up a bit so it’s easy to just grab a suit and hang it on this hook inside my wardrobe.

Everytime I do, I am utterly amazed at how much time it saves me in the mornings.

This is my suggestion for purging your clothes closet.

Make 3 piles:

1. Clothes you don’t love anymore or that don’t suit your lifestyle
2. Clothes you love and that fit you
3. Clothes that you’re not sure about, for whatever reason

Then you action the piles

Pile 1 – donate or throw out
Pile 2 – organise in your wardrobe or on your shelves according to your personal preferences – by colour, style (smart, casual, etc), or season/ sleeve length, etc.
Pile 3 – move to another place in the house or to a storage container. Diarise a “to look at again” date. When you look at this pile again, fit everything on. You will be able to look at the clothes unemotionally and decide whether they deserve to take up space in your wardrobe (you want to keep them) or whether they need to be donated.

Last year when we moved into our new house I fit on ALL my clothes before I packed anything into my cupboards.

I made 3 piles:

1. Stuff I liked and that fit me (in the wardrobe)
2. Stuff I liked and that didn’t fit me (in a spare wardrobe – deadline 1 November this year)
3. Stuff I didn’t like and that didn’t fit me (to the church’s welfare box)

Well, I fitted on all the clothes (about 4 pairs of pants and 3 suits) from the spare wardrobe a few days ago (we’ll be on holiday on 1 November) and most of them now fit!!! There is also a suit that fits but that I don’t like anymore which is going to the welfare box this weekend.

The stuff that doesn’t fit me nicely will also be donated.

Week 1 – Declutter your kitchen counter tops.
Do you really need everything on your counter tops?

Go around your kitchen with “new eyes” and see what you can declutter.You should only have things that you use more than once a week on your counter top. If, for example, you have an electric frying pan out that you use once a month, consider storing it in a cupboard and only taking it out when you use it.

Tip – use vertical space wherever possible. Instead of a canister with your cooking utensils, consider mounting hooks above your stove for them.

Week 2 – Organise your clothes on shelves.
I would suggest that you put all the clothes you frequently use at shoulder height and the rest either one shelf up or down.

I swop mine around every winter or summer and I find that it helps to keep my shelves neat and tidy. My jeans and T-shirts are now at shoulder height and the long-sleeved tops and jerseys have been moved a shelf down now that it’s Spring.

Week 3 – Declutter and organise your recipe books and files.
This week, we are going to sort out all those recipe books in the kitchen. I know what it’s like because I’m just like you.

You see some gorgeous books at the bookshop, imagine cooking all those delicious meals and buy the book. If you’re lucky, you make one or two recipes and then that’s it – they start gathering dust.

So our challenge is to sort the books into two piles – books I use (or have used) and books that just look pretty and take up space. Let go of the second pile to other cooks, second hand bookshops, etc. and free up some space in the kitchen.

Once you’ve decided on the ones to keep, buy a pretty magazine folder and keep them together neatly. I download things off the internet too and use plastic flip files to organise those recipes.

Now and again I go through them and throw out recipes I know I have no intention of ever making.

I don’t know if I’m lazy or if I just prefer to cook more creatively but the only recipes I tend to keep are for baked goodies.

Have fun with this one – maybe you’ll even get inspired to cook or bake up a storm this weekend. THink of me if you make any muffins (I LOVE baking muffins because they’re so easy).

Week 4 – Spruce up your coffee & end tables.

Do you have an organising question for me?
Email your question

There are less than 3 months left before Christmas. Wouldn’t you like to have an organised, peaceful Christmas? Go to http://takechargesolutions.org/12org.pdf to see how I can help you.

I decided to post the organising challenge so that it’s easy to reference and stay up to date. I will edit my post every week and write a little bit about each week’s challenge, like I’ve already done for week 1.

Enjoy – each challenge won’t take more than 15 minutes, or definitely 30 minutes if you’re the type that loses focus quickly

Week 1 – Organise your sock and underwear drawer.
Throw out all those socks from 5 years ago that have seen better days. Any stretched, ill-fitting or plain ugly underwear must go. Treat yourself and go get some new things. You can still feel pretty (or handsome) underneath all your winter woollies. Use the bottoms of cereal boxes to partition your drawer and keep items neat.

Week 2 – Clear off the front of your refrigerator & tidy your spices and condiments.
Do you really need to have 50 magnets on your fridge? Many times a cluttered fridge makes the whole kitchen feel disorganised and out of sorts. Clear everything off and start with a fresh slate. Now put back only those things that you love or add value to your life – photos of loved ones, shopping list, menu for week, etc.
Throw out your spices if you’ve had them for longer than a year or two. Dried herbs lose their flavour after a year.

Week 3 – Organise your CD and DVD collection.
First off, go through all and decide if you still want to hold onto them. When was the last time you listened to or watched them? Has your taste changed? Are you hanging onto something because Aunty Mary gave it to you and you feel guilty giving it away?
Now, put them in whichever order you like – I do my CDs first by group, and then in chronological order. There is no right way – you need to organise according to how your mind works.
Lastly, pack them neatly in a CD holder, storage box or on a shelf. (Clicks has some lovely storage boxes for R29,99 that hold CDs, videos, photos, etc.)

Week 4 – Clear your desk by sorting out all physical and e-mail.
This week’s challenge is two-fold – it’s your desk at work AND at home. If you don’t have a proper desk at home, it’s the place where you dump your mail and all your papers! Now you know what I’m talking about!
1. Take a plastic bag and throw away anything that doesn’t belong – old cups from the vending machine, bits of notepaper, all used envelopes, junk mail ads, pens that don’t work, etc.
2. You should only be left with proper mail – bills to be paid, magazine subscriptions, letters and cards (does anyone still write real letters these days? On a nostalgic note, when I was at university, my friend Melody and I used to buy sheets of 100 stamps at the post office every couple of months!).
3. Diarise when you will pay the accounts and file any old, paid accounts.
4. Now for the email, delete, delete, delete. That is, delete anything you’ve already actioned, forwarded or read that you don’t have to keep for reference. My goal is to delete about 200 emails daily – easy on a Monday when all my newsletters arrive, but it forces me to go through old folders daily towards the end of the week. What will your goal be?
5. Now, file the rest in your action, to read, and personal folders until your inbox is empty.

I read something really cool the other day. Do you ever get home, take the mail from the letterbox, read through it all and then take it back to the letterbox? No, of course not. However, most people treat their inbox like this! They read the email and leave it right there in the inbox. Just something to think about!