Is this you? Do you look at your closet and desperately want to get rid of items you’ve had for too many years, but when you get out a trash bag, you can’t get rid of anything? You torture yourself with the thoughts of, “What if I want to wear option A with option B someday?” You know in your heart you won’t wear it often, and you’ve contemplated putting items into storage. Do you feel like your closet is blah, taking you 4 or 5 tries to put together an outfit? Your wardrobe needs a kick in the pants.
First of all, this describes classic fear-based decision-making. When you pick up something from your wardrobe, instead of determining its purpose in your life and how it fits, you worry about not being able to pair items together in its absence. Switch your mindset. Instead of thinking about what you should get rid of, think about what you should keep. Make decisions based on positive feelings rather than negative feelings. Keep items that genuinely ignite excitement at the thought of wearing them.
So, this leads me to turning fear-based decision-making into giving back. Let’s get to purging and donating. Twice a year, I get this intense urge to streamline my life, which includes getting rid of clutter. This purging usually coincides with seasonal changes, which is where we are right now. Regardless of the reason or motivation for wardrobe purging, you must do this occasionally to maximize your outfit efficiency and purchase efficiency.
You can use your clothes in new and exciting ways by combining things you wouldn’t ordinarily. You can’t do this efficiently and effectively if you’ve got a lot of unnecessary clutter in your closets and dresser drawers. When your wardrobe is cram-packed with extra items that you never wear, don’t even like, or didn’t know that you even had, you tend to grab and gravitate toward the items with which you are most comfortable.
Interestingly enough, we as men get attached to things, including clothes. I’ve had underwear that were so worn out that they wouldn’t even hold a testicle, let alone two. I kept them for so long because I loved them. I also had a couple of shirts long past their prime simply because I liked the specific color. And I’ve also kept shorts that I loved even though they made me look like I had a vagina. I’ve done it, you’ve done it, we’ve all done it. We have something in our wardrobe right now that we’ve hung on to way too long that we should not be wearing, has holes in it, or is worn out. We keep it for whatever reason.
Now, worn-out clothes are just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure you have items in your wardrobe that you’ve been hanging on to for years and haven’t gotten rid of them. You never wore them, but they are…
