Spring Cleaning ✨

Let me guess New Year, New You? Welcome to January, the month where everyone creates a long list of new goals while wearing the same old clothes. But it’s okay, we can get your closet together, together.

When starting a project as big as a closet cleanout, creating a set of guidelines is an important starter. For me, personally, I like to ask myself a set of three questions while going through all of the clothes that were previously hung in my closet. “Will I wear this in the next month?” or, “If I saw it in the store today, would I buy it?”, and last but certainly not least, “Can I even fit this still?” Y’all may think I’m trolling with that last question, but if it's been a while since you’ve had a good purge, there is a possibility that the item may not fit the way you want it to anymore. Therefore, you gotta, unfortunately, let it go. 

First things first, establish three separate areas in your room for piles: Keep, Donate, and Scrap. If you’re like me, a person who gets distracted easily, having these piles far away from each other is beneficial for a smooth sailing cleanout. After mentally labeling the areas, it’s time to get down to business. Take everything that you may have hanging up or folded and dump them onto your bed. This’ll allow you to also take a minute to really evaluate how much space you have in your closet, and if you find yourself running out of space a lot, I’d recommend investing in a good closet organizer where you can utilize those shelves for storing your basic essentials like solid colored shirts and bottoms, leaving extra hangers for the statement pieces and jackets that need them. 

Now at this point in the cleanout, we would start what I like to call, a rough draft, which is just adding contents to our piles without thinking twice. This step usually just gives me an idea of what I’d put into the scrap pile, which would contain any items that are too damaged to keep or give away, like your old 5th-grade field day t-shirt.

Another thing I like to do before refining my piles is giving my closet a quick sweep and dusting, making sure it's physically clean while feeding into my bad habit of procrastinating. After sweeping excessively in order to kill time, I would now separate my "keeps" and my "donates" with the three questions mentioned earlier and a few other guidelines. 

• Keep 
• Items that are good in any season (heeled boots, lightweight outerwear, hats, etc.)
• Multipurpose items: items that can be worn in multiple ways (skirts, dresses, scarves, etc.)
• Items that aren’t trendy 
• Your Holy Grails 
• Items that you clearly remember the last time they’ve been worn 
• Items you feel your most confident self in 
• If you typically have long busy days, trust me, keep the good-fitting sweats. 

• Donate 

*any tip given is written under the assumption that the item is in good condition*

• Items that do not fit you anymore
• Items that do not suit your style
• Basic items that can be worn on a typical day 
• Business professional items
• Multipurpose items: items that can be worn in multiple ways (skirts, dresses, scarves, etc.)

As a college student, I understand the demand for constant cash, but instead of taking your donations to centers that do clothing swaps for cash like Plato’s Closet, Buffalo Exchange, and Uptown Cheapskate, I encourage you to donate it to local charities, your friends, adult centers, and maybe even a local high school that’s accepting donations. 

Look at that, the work is done! Let's clap it up ‘cause you just did your first closet cleanout with Six Eleven Magazine. All that’s left is hanging everything back up & making various outfit combinations in your head. Happy cleaning!