Closet Purge: First Pass

My lease was up at my apartment at the end of April, and as much as I loved my apartment (seriously, it's gorgeous) I did not love the idea of paying $150 per month more on top of my already expensive rent... so I moved! In preparation of the move, I wanted to do a heavy assessment of my stuff all throughout the apartment and decide what really needed to come with me.

I am a bit of a pack rat and I really like to keep things for "sentimental" reasons. Unfortunately, most of the time that means I just have boxes/piles of stuff that is "sentimental" that has absolutely no true useful purpose in my life. Thankfully, I'm aware of this personal characteristic and I am doing what I can to combat my pack-rat nature and refrain from slowly allowing my closet to slip in to hoarder status.

Here are the simple steps I took for my first pass at getting rid of some of the clothes in my closet:

1. Clear The Things That Hadn't Been Touched Since Last Closet Cleaning
First up, there was a stack of t-shirts on the very top shelf of my closet- a shelf so tall I can barely reach it. These t-shirts had literally been there untouched since I moved in to my apartment nine months ago. Down from the shelf and on to the bed they went for sorting.

2. Scan Item By Item
Next, I went shelf by shelf through my hanging items- it is pretty easy to pick out the things that I know I haven't worn at all more than once in the last few months. Obviously it has been winter so some summer things are excluded from this assessment, but even with those summer tops or the "going out" tops that haven't been put to use it is not too tough to be honest with yourself and think back on how much use they got even when the weather was appropriate.


3. Consolidate Items Into Keep/Donate/Trash Piles
From there, all items selected for the purge went on to my bed for one last look through. This is where is gets easy to talk yourself out of giving things away. But stay strong my friends! With the exception of a few t-shirts (kept for sentimental reasons... maybe they will go in round two of the closet purge) I separated everything out in to items for the goodwill and items that were just for the trash can.

Next step, actually take those two trash bags full of clothes to the good will- since they are currently sitting in my laundry room...

What other tips do you guys have for making sure your closet stays current and clutter-free?