Keeping Your Closet CleanMay 29, 2026
A couple of years ago, IU was
reading about how the military prepares for an operation, and it suddenly hit me that I could use the same method in sewing. Preparing, studying all the options, training, executing, then the final was evaluating and giving myself feedback on the success or failure of the operation and sometimes evaluating techniques or different notions is included in that.
This sounds awfully regimented, but it works, and it's great for first-timers with working to regulate their time
management, and thinking in terms of a "contract." It helped me immensely.
So it's this tie of year, that I have to take a good look at my closet. Is my wardrobe working for me or vice versa? Yeah, I know it's boring as hell, but I feel so righteous after this. But I also feel enthused about what I need to sew. This is particularly great if you're sitting around wondering what you need in your closet. Right now I have a longer than usual list because
I'm changing my "look." That's another reason I need to thrash through everything and give it a good evaluation.
So here's how I'm doing this, and I have about 4 hours to an afternoon to spend on this, so it's also going to be time-efficient. One of the big probs with this, is that we can easily get stuck on that out fit you wore a couple of years ago, and you looked stunning in it but you've put on about 5 lbs, or taken off about 5 lbs and it's not the same, but it
looked so good, and maybe you could find photos of yourself in that outfit, then it's down the rabit hole of time (which I'll talk about more at the bottom). So let's not go there - let's stay organized and focus and this is how that looks!
Prepare your tools - 4 large bags or boses -
- Keep (current season)
- Store (Off season)
- Donate
- Trash
So let me talk a little about this because these categories are here for a reason, and once you know that you can understand how to use this.
Keep You love this. It's working for you. It fits and makes you feel great. It's one of your favs in your closet. Store Take out
everything off-season. Let's not confuse things. If you don't want to do that - move off season to one side so that it's out of the way. This is also a place for the "I don't knows." This is where you put something that you've loved, but aren't wearing - even if it's current season, put it in the off season for a while. I actually like to keep these things out of the closet, so if you can find a place to put them elsewhere, so. The purpose of this group is to
get them out of sight and out of mind, so that if you don't go back and pull out that "IDK" then it's obvious you aren't going to wear it, and you need to let it go. Donate I love donating to Goodwill and usually there's a thrift store in most cities. We have a good one downtown, and believe me, thrifting is one of the hot trends now, so don't discount your well-made garments. I do take the buttons off,
especially if they are favorites, and they might be a common button or even a cheap one that you like a lot and want to keep them. Buttons are hard to come by these days, so you will want to save your good ones. You can purchase some cheap ones and sew them on. But save your good ones for your button stash. Trash It may have brought you immense joy a decade ago, but it's time to let it go. I loved
the book that asked: "Does it bring you joy today?" as a way to figure out if you trash it or not. It might be gorgeous even today, but if it doesn't bring you joy, then time to let it go! OK continuing on!
- Take everything out of the closet - it's OK to groan at this, but this is going to help you save time. It will MAKE you go through everything so that you can really edit what's in your closet. Time to start sorting in those categories above.
- If you hesitate more than 10 seconds - put it in the Donate or Trash
- If it doesn't fit/worn out/never wear - trash immediately
- If you
don't have an opinion, try it on and if there's no "love at first sight" throw it in the Trash.
- As you begin to go through your stack on the bed or wherever you've put everything, you're going to find that you're missing some items....all your white shirts don't fit, or one one pair of overly-worn black pants, or that favorite red you like to wear is in the donor pile cause it doesn't fit anymore. This is where the fun really begins, cause you're going to keep track of
what's gone, and you know what's next - hitting the browser and looking for some great fabrics to make some wonderful things that you will enjoy and wear the daylights out of.
One thing about making these sorts of clothes - you know the kind that last forever and you'll wear them at least once, twice even three or four times a week - those white shirts, black pants, or white pants and black shirts - they are boring to make, but once you do get them done, you will be elated you have
them in your wardrobe. Right now I'm a little weak on white shirts and I have that at the top of my list.
- As a side note here, while you have everything out of your closet, it's a great chance to run the sweeper in there to get all the hiding dust bunnies and such, and that way your closet is not only culled-down to exactly what you love, but it's clean too.
Here are some other wonderful ideas for keeping your closet as a highly efficient means to your getting dressed in the morning. I find it also enhances my desire to get dressed every day and look my best. Obviously some days are better than others,
but I wear a pair of slacks and a shirt or jacket every day so if I have to bounce out or a client drops by, I'm ready and good to go. There's
also something special about being dressed for the day. Once I put on my slacks and top, I'm ready to do my day's work. In the morning I might have a cup of tea in my pj's and at night after I take a shower and brush my teeth, I might do a quick run on Insta or X and then I'm ready for sleep. Getting dressed and undressed marks my day, the ending and the beginning. This is nice structure for keeping our brains in good order. Getting dressed tells my brain I'm ready
for the day, and Getting into my pj's tells my brain I'm ready to end the day.
Some Fast-Start Hacks
- One-hour rule - Commit to just one focused hour. You'll usually finish or get 80% done because momentum kicks in.
- Reverse hanger trick (or edge of closet) Hang all your current clothes with the hangers facing backward. As you wear something, turn the hanger forward. At next seasonal cleanout, anything still backward is a strong donate candidate. If hanging front or back doesn't work,
try putting your favs on one side or the other, and once you wear them, hang them in the middle. Those left on either side, are the ones that need to be culled out.
Hopefully this will help you, and I guarantee you will feel like a million once
you've finished this, AND will have a to-do list of some fun things to make up for the next time you want to sew something but don't know what that would be. BONUS - Time Thieves What in the world are time theives? This came from Henry Cloud's Boundaries site, and he would interview fellow therapists, and one of them was a gal who was developing efficient work ethics, which will surprise you what she found. She found that constant work, work,
work, at maximum efficiency all the time, was not the most creative use of time, nor was it very long-lasting for the employees. She recommended breaks and down time.
This is particularly important for artists - and yes, that's you! The creative spirit is a fragile thing and sometimes wanders around at will, to places where we don't know what in the world is going on. So staying concentrated and focused is hard
when you're letting your imagination run wild! As a matter of fact that sounds darn near impossible.
But there are some things you can do. One of those is to be organized. And I like to stay organized like a professional military unit. And no this isn't going to be autocratic;
it's simply organized. In that same tone are the Thieves of Productivity. What research has found is that when you constantly work on an employee, the creativity drains out of them, and for those working to find solutions to problems at work, whether it's working through a list of items or figuring out a better way to make a widget. Employees engaged in such tasks are much better and more productive when they have short breaks and can stop to recharge. That goes for
the 5-day week, with 2 days to rest, as well as the 8-hour day, with the morning and evening to rest. The rest is just as important as the work time.
But one of the things this gal brought up was that there were Productivity Thieves. These are thoughts that go through our heads, and we think will make us better, when in reality, they are simply stealing time from us.
Time is one of those things that's incredibly valuable. But I often think we spend
more time saving money than saving time. We can often get sucked into a time thief, and before we know it, we wake up 3 hours later thinking, I have to get a newsletter out or I have to show that I've been working on a project. Here they are: (click on the graphic to download more info)
What makes them particularly deceptive is that they have a good side but also a bad side.
Drive - this is the impetus to get us to move to do something. But overdone and it becomes a mean animal that says to us, you can't have fun, you can't
rest, you can't even stop until this task is done - and the worst part is that is a task really done? Think of your garment you're working on right now. There is always something you can tweak that will make it better. The Drive Thief will be telling you that you can wear it till it's perfect. Uh, yeah, right! That ain't ever gerna happen. Excellence - along the same line - you can't stop until the project is excellent - you have to take that seam out cause it's just a smidgen crooked, and you will notice it even though it's on the inside of the leg, where it will never show. It's great to be
excellent in your work, but don't let this Time Thief take away the joy and fun of wearing a garment just because one stitch is 1/32nd out of place! Information ( yep, this is where I'm guilty) - when is enough information enough? I'm doing research on a garment, and suddenly, before you know it, I'm into looking at cloud formations over New Zealand. Really? How did that happen? It's usually on Pinterest, so I'm pretty savvy these days, but it still happens. It's spread over to Instagram lately! Activity - I know a lot of folks that hide in a schedule that would send me nuts.
6 am - exercise for 30 minutes,
6:30 am - take a shower 6:40 am - prepare tea and breakfast 7 am - get dressed 7:10 am - get in car
and go to work 7:30 am - be at work, with list from last night ready to tackle the list of tasks for today 5 pm taking home what wasn't completed
today 10 pm - take a shower, and get into pjs to finish the rest of the work 3 am - dead tired, can't work anymore, go to bed.
Yikes - that
sounds like some schedule from the Gulag! But for some folks, there's safety in this schedule cause it keeps them from thinking about scarier things - like am I being paid enough for this type of work? Is this type of work really productive? Why do I feel I need to work this hard? Why is it so attractive to stay up at night to do this? Yeah, there's more than work going on here, and it's almost sad to see this happen to a person cause once they are aware, and
continue it, then there's a real need for professional help.
OK - now I'm not saying that if you fall into any one of these traps, you need to get your head examined. What I am saying is that we all have time thieves, and as long as we're aware of them, that doesn't mean we're completely safe from them, but it does mean we can be a little more cautious when we get into the time thief that is most attractive to us.
The point is knowing about these little
corruptors can be a huge heads up, so while we're enjoying our closet cleaning and getting a lot done, remember your schedule. This isn't a career move. It's just closet cleaning. Get in and get out. There are a couple of goals here:
- Make your closet more organized
- Make your closet work for you
- Make your closet clean and neat
- Make a great place for your clothes
- Make space in your closet
- Find out what's missing in your wardrobe
- Have fun making things you KNOW you will use
You don't have to spend two weeks on this project, and it doesn't have to be perfect. You may have an item that's in the "think about" category that you go right back to, and you may have something in the donor pile that needs to go to the trash. This is not a
time to think in terms of perfection. This is a place to aim towards, and if we get 50% there or 75% there or 80% there, that's great - it's further than we were before, and hopefully this can be done in a couple of hours at most!
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NOTE: There are some folks who can't get my email, or it's sporadic, or something is hinky. I will always respond to any of you who send a private message, whether it's about the topic of the week or something else. If you don't get anything
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please ensure I'm in your email Address Book and check your spam, junk, and trash folders. Some email clients get extra excited when they see emails coming into the Inbox that go to many other receivers. They automatically think it's trash or spam, and it never makes it to the Inbox. I must constantly check my spam and junk folders to ensure I'm getting the emails I subscribe to.
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Tracking a fashion trend isn't all that hard after seeing a few of them.
Living from Mid-Century Modern through Twiggy...
It's worth the time to look at these styles, particularly today as
there is a group of that wants to look....
This is the way fashion used to be -- pretty, flattering and I can't wait to make some of...
NOTE: There are some folks who can't get my email, or it's sporadic, or something is hinky. I will always respond to any of you who send a private message, whether it's about the topic of the week or something else. If you don't get anything
from me, it's probably because the [email protected] email is blocked, and even a private message can't get through. In that case, I'm on Instagram often, and you can always PM me at @sewingartistry.
As a precaution,
please ensure I'm in your email Address Book and check your spam, junk, and trash folders. Some email clients get extra excited when they see emails coming into the Inbox that go to many other receivers. They automatically think it's trash or spam, and it never makes it to the Inbox. I must constantly check my spam and junk folders to ensure I'm getting the emails I subscribe to.
To view in browser along with past emails, click here. We respect your email privacy. |
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