I shop for clothes two times a year, once in spring and once again in the fall. This system helps me get a better grip on building and high quality, diversified wardrobe than if I just pick up individual pieces on a whim throughout the year.
The March and September issues of fashion magazines are the fattest because that’s when the fashion seasons change the most significantly. So every February and every August, I take some time to clean out my closet and it’s that time of year once again.
To do before the shopping can begin:
- wash or dry clean and put away everything all at once
- remove anything damaged and either repair or dispose of it (if it’s damaged it’s not worth donating)
- try on anything that you don’t wear often and see if it still fits, if it looks good, and if you still like it (if any of the answers is no donate it)
- take stock of what you have, what you need, and what you want
- start tearing out inspiring catalog or magazine pages (if you don’t get any at home, visit your library and browse fashion magazines there for ideas)
Other things I’m doing to prep for my upcoming spring shopping session:
I have and love The Lucky Shopping Manual: Building and Improving Your Wardrobe Piece by Piece and I just found out that there is a follow up book called The Lucky Guide to Mastering Any Style: How to Wear Iconic Looks and Make Them Your Own so I bought it also and I’m going to read through both books before I start shopping.
And I’m obsessing over this spring palette from Pantone which I’ve saved on to my iPhone for easy reference while shopping. I won’t stick to it exclusively but I will use it as inspiration.
When was the last time you cleaned out your closet?
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Related posts:
- Spring Cleaning
- Cleaning My Closet
- It’s Time to Clean Out and Organize Those Closets
- Giveaway: Seventh Generation Disinfecting Cleaning Kit
- A Little Bit In, a Bit More Out
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{ 6 comments }
I clean out my closet when I move. How bad is that? But this 3 day weekend seems like the perfect time to do it as the apartment where I live has a small closet and not a lot of storage place. It’s good motivation get rid of unwanted things or things that just don’t fit.
This is a great series – thanks for doing this.
This is an excellent post and it shows that you really have discipline because you shop in two phases instead of randomly during the year like the rest of us do. How hard is that for you to keep up with? Like if you see something you really LOVE but it is summer time then do you wait and hope that it is still available in fall?
I wrote a piece on organizing my closet and I hope you will take a look at my site as well. Thanks for a new perspective on shopping…I will have to work on making my shopping less sporadic.
I avoid temptation by staying out of stores and not reading catalogs when it’s not time to shop so I don’t fall in love with things when it’s not time to buy them.
I also clean out my closet about twice a year. I enjoy it. I purge a lot but then I add back to it over time, not all in one shot. My main challenge is that my lifestyle is a moving target. For many years I worked in a newsroom and had a nice, casual-professional wardrobe. Now I work from home and have a small child. I have gradually gotten rid of almost all my professional clothes and tried to find things that work well for a variety of situations. Also, I have an old house and a very small closet. And I just turned 40 and am sensitive to the issue of “dressing my age.”
Take stock of what you have, what you need, and what you want – I think this is very important. Some of us tend to keep old clothes even if they don’t fit us anymore, thinking that we can still wear them if we lost a little bit more weight. Or, we just keep them because we just like looking at them and have a hard time letting go! The last time I cleaned out my closet was last Christmas — we gave some clothes away, but i still feel like there’s a lot more to give away! I really enjoyed reading your post — excellent tips on how to clean out one’s closet! I should do another cleanup in the next couple of weeks! Btw, we also wrote a post on our blog about donating clothes — that’s exactly what we should do after cleaning out our closets!
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