In South Africa, we’ve been enjoying summer weather for the last month.

I felt I had to go through my winter clothes and do some good decluttering.

There is nothing as satisfying as seeing all these empty hangers and these piles of clothes ready to be donated.

I used my “rules” for decluttering clothes and got rid of clothes that:

1. I hated… for whatever reason…colour, style, etc.
2. didn’t look good on me
3. didn’t fit properly
4. I’d kept over from last winter and still didn’t fit

Here are the 3 piles!

What a fantastic feeling

If you’re inspired to go through your clothes, post a comment and let me know.

How often do you go through your clothes to declutter them?

It’s autumn in the southern hemisphere (in fact, very nearly winter) and it’s a great time to do some seasonal organising.

Have you switched your clothes around yet?

My babies have taken to having one lovely, long two-hour nap (maybe it’s the colder weather?) so I took advantage of the extra time to quickly change around my summer and winter clothes.

I donated some (gently used) shoes I hadn’t worn for about two years and packed up the last of my maternity clothes.

I reorganised my wardrobe so that it’s colour co-ordinated again – very useful when you’re having a “red” day, to be able to go exactly to all your red clothes

I also tackled the babies’ clothes and now have a huge bag of their things for another twin mom who works with me.

Dion’s clothes, unfortunately, is off-limits to me. But I did see him set aside some shirts for the gardener

It is so lovely to have space in the cupboards again.

Your organising challenge

Set aside some time every day for the next week to work on it. Every 15 minutes helps and will be well worth it when done.

Warning – your clothes may take longer to change around, especially if you haven’t organised in a while.

Be patient and persevere.

I do mine regularly so it was easy to do in 30 minutes. The babies, however, were another matter altogether

Wherever you are in the world, the seasons change every three to six months and it’s either warming up or cooling down in your part of the world.

Whatever your situation, take the time to sort out your wardrobe.

Pareto’s Principle states that 20% of your efforts result in 80% of your results.

Did you know that this principle also applies to your wardrobe?

That’s right – you only wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time.

The aim of your wardrobe is to have clothes you love, that look good on you and that flatter your body shape.

I’ve been reading up a lot on clothes websites and blogs and I gathered some tips for everybody:

If you wore the fashion the first time around, you shouldn’t be wearing it this time

Even if it still fits you, the styles and colours will have changed.

Pleated and tapered pants are out for all body shapes. Aren’t you glad?!

Now let’s get busy purging and organising your clothes.

1. Put on some upbeat music and call a friend or professional organiser to help you.

2. Set aside an afternoon and remove everything from your wardrobe.

3. Make 3 piles:

• Clothes you don’t love, don’t suit your lifestyle or don’t look good on you

• Clothes you love and that fit you properly

• Clothes that you’re not sure about, for whatever reason

4. Action the piles

• Donate or throw out

• Organise in your wardrobe or on your shelves according to your personal preferences – by colour, style (smart, casual, etc), or season/ sleeve length, etc.

• Move to another place in the house or to a storage container. Make a note in your planner or in Outlook to look at this pile again at a later date (I like to think of this as a pending file for your clothes).

When you look at this pile again, fit everything on. You will then 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.

Rather have half the amount of clothes and be able to wear everything than a full-to-overflowing wardrobe where you can only wear a few items.

When was the last time you decluttered some clothes?

These are 3 pairs of jeans I decluttered recently.

I decided to be brave and dedicate 20 minutes to fit on all 8 pairs of jeans that I owned.

I quickly separated them into three piles:

1. jeans that fit and looked okay (I still have to lose 1,5 kg of my pregnancy weight)
2. jeans that would fit once I lose that 1.5 kg (with a small frame, every kg is huge!)
3. “thin” jeans I had no hope of ever looking good in again

This is pile 3, the pile of “thin” jeans

I made a note of the date I tried them on and if, in three months’ time, pile 2 still doesn’t fit, out they go.

How long do you give yourself to get back into your “thin” jeans?

seeing as the babies are 7 weeks old today

this is the whole cupboard…before

returned one pair of pants never worn, washed and put away borrowed clothes and reorganised since it’s nearly spring here

here is the full cupboard view – after

Makes me feel much better knowing everything is in order once again!

When was the last time you reorganised your clothes?

Today we’re decluttering and organising sweartshirts and jerseys.

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you’ve just finished with winter so this is an ideal time to go through your winter woolies.

But that doesn’t exclude those of us in the Southern Hemisphere – as you move your clothes around, ask yourself honestly if you’re going to wear ALL your old winter clothes.

And especially if you’ve bought some new clothes, use the one in – one out rule.

In South Africa, there are TONS of places who are desperately looking for winter clothes for homeless and underprivileged people.

If you work at a large organisation like I do, you probably have some CSI initiatives to collect clothes – use the opportunity to lighten your wardrobe AND bless those less fortunate.

Over to you! Let me know how you do in the comments.

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The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

sweatshirts and jerseys

Are you ready for the challenge?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

pants and jeans

Are you ready for the challenge?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

Edited to add my decluttering pics

Today we’re decluttering and organising our shoes – takkies (trainers), sandals, closed shoes, slippers, the whole lot!

You don’t need to throw perfectly good shoes in the bin if they’re in good condition; rather donate them to a women’s shelter or another worthy cause.

These are the ones you want to get rid of:

• broken
• out of style
• doesn’t suit your lifestyle (if you’ve left the corporate world, then you probably don’t need all your fancy shoes you used to wear with your power suits )
• too many of the same kind
• hurts you when you do wear them
• haven’t worn them for a couple of years (they’re probably outdated by now)

I have at least two pairs to get rid of because I bought two pairs in Ireland and I have to stick to my one in- one out rule, so here we go.

Over to you! Let me know how you do in the comments.

The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?