I am the definition of anti-hoarder. If I can make anything ‘capsule’ I will. TV shows like ‘Britain’s Biggest Hoarder’ have me covered in a cold sweat, pulling out my hair. My flatmates have to stop me marching into their rooms armed with washing up gloves, something reminiscent of a CSI jumpsuit and a roll of bin bags to give them my ‘expert’ help. When it comes to my wardrobe, the slimmer the better. Perhaps I’ve just watched too many YouTube style videos or maybe I was a fairy godmother in a former life, but suffice to say I do love a good wardrobe clear out at the weekend.
Because my hoarder girlfriend is the ying to my yang, she is point blank refusing to let me go anywhere near hers, so I thought I’d pen down my five steps to wardrobe clarity for you lucky girls instead. So if you’re drowning in clothes that haven’t seen the light of day in years… Read on!
Step 1: Be BRUTAL. Get everything out, lay it all down and take a good long look! My rule of thumb here is if it hasn’t been worn in the last year then it’s out. Of course exceptions are made for special items like graduation and birthday numbers. I mostly keep those just so one day I can show my future kids and we can have a bawl at how ‘noughties’ those were. Get walking to that bin bag…
Step 2: Do the whole summer/winter half & half thang. It sounds a little cliché but if space is of the essence then siphon your clothes via seasons. A vacuum bag is a small but significant investment. I’ve got a whole bunch of winter jackets & coats vac-packed under my bed waiting for September, fingers crossed maybe even October. The same goes for your summer stash, there’s not point having a million pair of flips flops kicking about when it’s close to -5c out there!
Step 3: Get organising. So now you’re done editing, it’s time to rehang. Here’s how I do things in my chateau: I order everything in clothing categories: tops with tops, shirts with shirts, skirts with skirts… You get the concept. In actual fact it goes dresses, skirts, jeans/trousers/shorts, short sleeve tops, long sleeve tops, shirts, jumpers, jackets. Feeling OCD yet? Everything’s pretty easy to spot and it saves at least 3 minutes each morning, which is 3 more minutes in my bed: time well spent!
Step 4: Get down to IKEA and get yourself that fancy rope hanger thing. While this might seem like a really unnecessary step and a bit of a strange addition, I have this bad boy nudged in between my skirts and tops section. It’s reserved for special things only: belts, little pouch bags, scarfs etc. Basically if it can hang but doesn’t fit in any of my OCD’esque categories listed above then on it goes. Nice addition no?
These are surprisingly useful!
Step 5: Fix up, look sharp. This is by far my least favourite part of this whole shebang. I guess a real wardrobe spruce wouldn’t be complete until any broken bits are fixed though, so get those mini sewing kits out (my faves are cutesie ones from Cath Kidston and they’ve got an online sale just now, grab yours for £7.50 ) and start finding spare buttons, cutting loose threads, unsticking zips and then some. This is officially the worse chore of all time. Time to salvage my unstitched Primarni playsuit –it’s needle and thread time.
The Gay Agenda 