How to Declutter Clothing Using My No Mess Decluttering Process

i'm dana k white i'm the author of several books including decluttering at the speed of life so i have a five-step decluttering process that is designed to help me make progress and only progress never a bigger mess okay today i'm going to talk about applying that five step process to clothing that's a question i get sometimes because it's like wait a minute clothes can you can you do the trash easy stuff does clutter blah blah can you do that with clothes yes you can here's the thing i use this process for any clutter situation that i have that i'm dealing with because it keeps me on track i don't need to be reinventing the wheel so i'm going to show you how to apply it to clothing okay but here's something that i think is important to say before we get started talking about clothing i used to not understand that clothing could be clutter i look back and think how did i not know that it was like a revelation to me because i thought clothing is useful it is we have to wear it really please um i thought clothing was useful and so it couldn't be clutter but then i realized as i worked on decluttering my house overall that clutter is anything that consistently gets out of control in my home clutter is anything that i have more of than i personally can handle okay clothing absolutely can be clutter when you look at clutter that way okay all right so let's talk about the five step process the first step in this process is trash trash when we're talking about clothing is clothing that is damaged in some way to where i'm not going to wear it it can be a real hang up for a lot of us and i have another video coming later talking about how to get rid of clothing that's actually trash but let's just call it trash okay and for today's purposes for anything in the trash step i use a black trash bag so i can't see what i put in there and second guess it and other people in my house can't see what i put in there anyway i'm gonna throw away trash clothing so here's an example of that here is a shirt that y'all if you design shirts for teenagers for like youth retreats and things like that maybe don't do white i'm just saying anyway but this one has some little like you know those i don't know it just has stains on it okay but here's the thing i probably should have gotten rid of that the first time i realized there was a stain on it i didn't we're not going to worry about why but i i'm not going to worry about why i'll say that i'm not going to worry about why but when i am going through clothing saying i'm going to declutter clothing having this trash step helps me go oh wait yeah that's trash why have i pulled it out and thought about wearing it realized i wasn't going to wear it and then some for some reason stuck in a dirty clothes or put it back in my closet whatever i'm just gonna realize yeah this is trash and having that step helps me identify that okay so damaged or whatever kinds of clothes that i'm not to wear it because it is imperfect in some way that's going to be my trash clothing all right so i'm going to get that out of this space it's just a purposeful looking through my clothing and saying what in here is actually trash oh that favorite sweater that really makes me mad that it has a big old rip in it or whatever that can't be repaired blah blah that's trash i had kept it in there out of hoping that it was just gonna magically repair itself in the closet well it never has so i'm gonna call it trash i'm gonna get it out of here okay step number two in the process is easy stuff easy stuff is anything that has an established home elsewhere in the house but for whatever reason it's here i'm going to get that stuff out of here easy stuff for your closet or for some type of clothing area drawers whatever might be clothes that belong to someone else in your family it happens it might be other stuff that's in this area that's like how did this end up in my closet this doesn't belong here um it might be something that you realize oh for some reason i hung my coat up in here but we actually have a coat closet somewhere else and that is where this coat should actually be so i'm going to take it there because that gets stuff out of this space okay and that's my goal because we want to have less in this space than we did when we started that's the definition of decluttering success is just stuff leaving the space and going to its final destination trash where it actually belongs whatever um so we're getting stuff out and with everything that leaves i feel a little bit less overwhelmed and more able to deal with this stuff in this space okay all right the third step is where you're going to find a lot of clothing and that is declutter so i put this step in my five step process just to give myself permission to grab things and throw them in the donate box like there's no questions that need to be asked and a lot of times this is a really powerful step with clothing because it just makes me go what in here needs to go okay like what what not no questions to ask no nothing to analyze just literally like what needs to go in the donate box um so for example uh when i asked myself what in here is duh well i went well this shirt that's you know just thin enough that i would have to wear something under it and because of the season that it is i wouldn't want to wear anything under it because that would make me hot and i don't like being hot i'm recording this in the summer i don't know when it's going to come out but just so you know if i'm sweating that's why those types of things when i go oh you know what this is a perfectly great shirt i choose not to wear it because the sleeves are weird you know so like all these different things that i just go i don't have to answer why it is that i'm getting rid of it i'm just going ahead and using my instinct and asking myself the question what in here needs to go okay that i can get out of here now i just want to tell you these three steps are so important because with no emotions okay we've done trash easy stuff and duh we remove a lot of stuff from your space with clothing you can remove a ton of stuff easily which helps you really make progress which helps you feel less overwhelmed which helps you keep going so before you get to the point where you are asking yourself questions and really having to make some you know what could be tough decisions even though my questions take the emotions out of it when i get to that point i've already made a ton of progress and this space this space is so much better than it was before and i haven't made any bigger mess that's the whole point of my thing things have either gone into the trash they have gone to their home because their home was easy i didn't have to think about it or they had gone into the donate box and so i could stop at this point this space is better than it was before that's great or i can keep going because i'm inspired to keep going and i feel less overwhelmed and like i can okay all right so step four the other thing i want to say is you can use any step like if you say i'm just going to do one thing i'm going to look for dot clutter great because there is no i got to do this and then these three things to finish that it's like no you're making progress with every single thing that you do if you decide i'm gonna walk into my closet and just say what in here is duh and get rid of it great okay you've made progress but following the five steps is how you fully finish decluttering a space okay all right so step four is asking the two decluttering questions it feels a little weird to ask yourself my first decluttering question which is if i needed this item where would i look for it first when you're in your closet with clothes and you're like what but all clothes go in the closet go ahead and ask yourself because you can work through that super quickly because maybe there's something that you've been looking for in your drawer but for some reason at some point you hung it up and you're like oh wait no i would look for this in my drawer and i'm gonna go take it there now but the key thing with this question is the take it there now all right if you know me at all you know that take it there now is like my number one solves so many of my clutter issues okay what i mean by that is when i ask myself the question if i needed this item where would i look for it first okay now where should i look but i'm not gonna go into that right now but where would i look for it first when i answer that question on instinct okay literally the first place where i would look if i was going ah where's this um then i take it there now that's what helps me that's what allows me to declutter without making a bigger mess to not make piles and things that i'm gonna have to come back to later and get distracted whatever i take it there now i deal with that item now so with your clothing even though you're saying oh where would i look for this first let's say it's something that you're picking up off of um you know like a shelf or something in your closet and you pick it up and you go okay where would i look for this first well i would look for it hung up okay and then you realize oh so for example i have this um jacket that i ordered off of thredup which i love thredup um but i didn't realize i know they say these things in their descriptions but obviously i did not check it has to be hand washed like i didn't realize it was like wool and all of that and so it's just been sitting like i don't want to wear it because it came from thredup which is used stuff um and y'all do what you want i can't wear it unless i wash it but then i didn't want to wash it because it was hand wash only and so it's been sitting there and so with the take it there now what that does is it makes me go dana you have to deal with this now if you're going to keep this you have to deal with it right now because that is how we declutter without making a bigger mess without just making piles and things to deal with later if i'm going to keep this i have to deal with it now so that means if i really love this thing enough i need to go start the hand washing process whether that's ordering some wool light or whatever you need to do that whether it's reading the directions whether it's watching a youtube video on how to hand wash something that's wool i don't know but if i really want to keep this i have to deal with it right now that's the take it there now and when that's part of the process it makes me realize i don't want to do that i'm probably never going to want to do that so i'm going to stick it in the donate box okay it was clean enough that thredup sold it to me so it's clean enough for me to donate i don't want to be the one to actually deal with it and do what needs to be done and maybe somebody else will be like fine this smells fine so i'm gonna wear it whatever i don't care the reality is i'm not willing to do what needs to be done right now and this is my time where i am dealing with this stuff i'm not going to put this pressure on future me someday i'm going to you know really deal with i'm just going to go ahead and let that make my decision i'm not willing to take it there now so it needs to go in the donate box then asking yourself the question go ahead and ask it sometimes okay so in a normal decluttering project you don't have to ask the second decluttering question if you have an answer to the first one because you've already taken it there now but with clothing go ahead and ask yourself if i needed this item would it ever occur to me that already had one if i needed a formal black dress would it occur to me that i already had one whatever it is if i needed this type of item would it ever occur to me that already had one or would i head out to the store and go shopping for it um and that's where i make the decision that i'm going to stick it in the donate box if it would never occur to me that i already had this i'm going to go ahead and stick it in the donate box okay that one is a little bit like oh but now i remember i have it it has a place in my home keep it if you want but you can use that question to help you get rid of more stuff and be realistic about what you would go looking for in your clothing all right okay so the final step in the five-step decluttering process is make it fit that does not mean shove everything in okay that is not what that means what it means is embracing the reality of the space that you have in a way that makes that space usable for you okay get to ability is key so this is the greatest step when it comes to clothing but that doesn't mean the first four steps aren't important the first four steps are great because you've already gotten stuff out that doesn't even need to be dealt with at this point in the process you are down to only things that you would look for in this space okay the first part there's two parts to the fifth step okay the first part of this step is consolidate put like things together this is everything with clothing okay i mean like this is hugely helpful with clothing put your black skirts together put your black tops together put your flower dresses together put whatever just the act of doing that is probably going to reveal things that actually are does okay when because it forces you to look at and touch every single thing because you're putting all the like things together okay so consolidating is part of the process for example when i consolidated i realized oh i've actually got two black suit jackets that i wear with like jeans or something i like both of them hadn't really occurred to me on a regular basis when i wasn't dealing with clothing that oh i've got two of those somehow i ended up with two and when i realized that as i'm consolidating and putting them next to each other then it naturally reveals to me oh wait that's right one of these has itchy shoulders because i bought it used and somehow somebody else had taken out the shoulder pads and then they didn't sew it up and it was itchy and i'm like well i could probably fix i don't need two they're actually very very similar in how they look how they're cut i feel good in both of them except that one of them has itchy shoulders and so when i look at it that way i'm like oh i can get rid of the one with itchy shoulders i did put it in the donate box i debated but somebody else can fix that and somebody else might not be as itchy prone as i am anyway but i put that one in the donate box because when i know that i have two then i can get rid of the one that i like less and it's not difficult emotionally to me where before i was like oh wet certain types of things i like to wear those that black jacket and in my mind i just had one and it had itchy shoulders and oh well it's worth it because i feel cute in that thing and so i didn't really worry about it but then when i realized i have two i'm like oh one of these doesn't have itchy shoulders i'm going to keep that one and get rid of the itchy shoulder one okay got it so consolidating will help you do that it also just helps you go wait a minute i did not realize i had five pairs of black dress pants those of you in england think trousers okay dress pants dress underwear anyway anyway um i did not realize i had five pairs of black trousers for you know like looking nice ish um and when i put them all together then i realized oh yeah i don't actually need five pairs of black trousers pants whatever and when they're all together i go these are the ones that i like these are the ones that i'm hoping to find when i go looking for black trousers it's the ones where the ankle looks correct this one the ankle looks a little bit funny so i can get rid of these three pairs and just keep the two or get rid of all of them except one i don't care but do you see what i'm saying it just naturally reveals oh wait these things are actually duh but they didn't register as duh until i had them consolidated and put them all together got it okay but there's less to consolidate because i already got a layer of duh clutter out of here and then the final part of the process which is the second part of the fifth step make it fit okay is to embrace the realities of the space that i have if at this point my closet is still crammed and tight i need to get stuff out of here i need to pull things out until i get to the point where it fits comfortably easily get to ably if i still would have to do a lot of to be able to get something out of there it's too full i need to be able to get something out easily and quickly and put something away easily and quickly okay so at this point i just pull out my least favorite stuff until it fits comfortably okay that's embracing the realities of the space that i have i can only keep what will fit easily and usably in this space and if i try to keep more than that then there's no hope of this space being under control okay so i'm just going to pull out my least favorites until what i have left fits easily and usably okay if you would like a copy of the five steps you can go to aslabchemsclean.com5fivee you can sign up for my newsletter there and get a printable with the five steps but know that the five steps are also in organizing for the rest of us with pictures showing how it works in general decluttering and they are in decluttering at the speed of life with a chapter specifically on clothing talking you through using this process to declutter clothing okay i will talk to you all next week bye you

Channel: Dana K White

Views: 266,535

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Id: j6zSnySTo6Y

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 08 2022