Letting Go of Clutter in My Life – The Wardrobe Edit

Letting Go of Clutter in My Life – The Wardrobe Edit [Updated – Feb 2025]

Back in January I wrote a post all about a new mini series I want to start on the blog called “Letting Go”.

I explained why I am doing this and what it entails, so if you fancy finding out all about why I am Letting go and de-cluttering my life, check it out.

Anyway, today’s post is the first in the series.

Granted it’s came a little later than I was expecting, but better late than never, right?

Letting Go of Clutter in My Life – Wardrobe

The first section of my house that I started on was my Wardrobe.

I have been in a slump with it for over a year now and although I have had mini clear outs, I always held onto clothes just in case.

My thought process was “maybe I’ll fit into them again” or “One day I’ll find a use for it”.

I was constantly saying “What if” and “Maybe”, but the reality is they never actually get worn.

So, that’s where this clear out was a little different.

I was letting go of emotion and what if’s so that I could finally get rid of what isn’t needed.

As much as I hate to admit it, I have held onto these clothes for far too long and I felt a sense of doom at the thought of letting them go.

Opening my wardrobe and staring in at all the clothes made this task feel daunting because would I actually be able to cut down on the clothes?

I had one goal in mind, edit my clothes down.

Where I began Letting Go of clothes

To start I began by pulling all my clothes out and dumping them on the bed so I could see it all in one pile.

Honestly, looking at it I was a little disappointed in myself with the amount of clothes that still had tags on them or pieces I have only worn once.

When you see it all laying there like that it hits hard just how much I bought into fast fashion and consumerism.

Thankfully that is changing now.

Anyway, after I had them all laying on my bed, and some on the floor if I’m being 100 here, I began to make piles for everything.

I had Keep, Donation and Bin piles to work with.

Going Section by Section

I carefully went through my clothes section by section to make it feel a little easier, Dresses were up first.

Before I even began going through my dresses, I didn’t think I would have parted with any.

But I’m happy to report that I actually stuck to my goal and edited my collection down.

6 dresses went into the food & clothes bank pile, 11 into my keep pile and 2 into the bin pile.

After my dresses it was time for the skirts!

I found this section went quite quick and I got rid of 7 altogether.

From there I went onto my tops, followed by my trousers and then my underwear.

Going section by section helped me work through all the noise in my brain that kept screaming for me to keep items.

Normally I get quite overwhelmed and find myself getting attached to clothing even if I’ve never worn them.

Thankfully doing this method was a real winner here.

It took hours to clear

All in all, it took me around 2 and a half hours to fully clean my wardrobe out.

The end results were:

• Two black bags filled for donating to the food and clothing bank.

• Four Items went into the bin, two dresses and underwear.

• Two bags filled with scrap clothing for my gran to use with her sewing material.

I’m so glad we were able to save a lot of clothing from landfill! My gran saw what I was throwing out and went through it all, picking out what she could use.

Thankfully she took about 98% of it and it is actually getting used.

After the clear out my wardrobe and drawers were looking better than ever. No more over crowding on the rack and no more messy drawers.

Final Thoughts on Letting Go of Clutter in My Life

The experience of getting my wardrobe cleared out was a great way to start my de-cluttering project.

I found that I wasn’t as emotional about it as I thought I would be, and the process was quite straight forward. 

After getting through my wardrobe I decided it was time to move onto my room as a whole, which will be the next instalment of this series.

I feel like I have the cleaning bug now because I have been flying through the sections, probably meaning there will be two posts this month on it if I can manage it.

But, I have already ticked off my room and the bathroom, it’s all going really well. 

What I learned from this experience

This whole experience was definitely a learning experience.

I needed to see just how much I was keeping because I couldn’t bare to part with it instead of actually keeping them because I wear them.

It was a real shock finding clothes from when I was 16 in the back of the wardrobe, that’s when it really hit that I keep too much.

I even found a few tops of my mums that I’ve been holding onto just incase I ever needed them

What would I need them for? Maybe it was just because it was my mums I felt too attached.

But, the tops were tattered and far to big for me! There’s no way they could be used for anything due to their condition.

That was probably the hardest part, knowing I couldn’t keep them and having to let go of the tops.

Luckily my gran has taken them to create something for me using scraps of the material so it doesn’t feel like I’m really throwing them away.

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