Thursday Tippity Tip: Declutter Your Clothes Closet While Shopping!

Most of us women in the US have more clothes in our one closet than most small African towns. We have been blessed with clothing for every occasion from lounge around yoga pants to that drop dead gorgeous evening gown that fits us in all the right places. And let's not even mention the plethora of accessories and shoes! But it seems like even though we have our own mini store full of clothes to pick and choose from, we tend to wear only about 10% of our closet on a continuous basis. I find that I keep clothes because of their color or because I think one day it will  be cold enough  to wear that sweater or whatever reason I give myself for each item. Thinking of cleaning my closet feels like a nightmare and is usually defeating. :\ Even if I start with the intention of getting rid of clothes, inevitably as I begin to take that shirt out from the furthest, darkest corner of my closet (that I didn't even remember I had) I suddenly have this attachment to it and don't want to get rid of it even if it's an annoying blouse that I hardly ever wear because I found it too scratchy or not quite as flattering as I had hoped it would look when I first bought it. What is a woman to do in such a case? Well, I have FINALLY come up with a FUN solution that will give you a reason for a girls night out (or should I say in?) AND an excuse to try on clothes by going shopping, as it were, in your closet! Here are three tips on how to declutter your clothes all while having fun!1) Invite 2-3 of your best friends over that you know will give you their honest opinion and bring a fun but opinionated attitude with them. You want to make sure they will truthfully and critically analyze what you are wearing but in a sweet way . They are going to be like your personal clothes stylists! When you try on an outfit and model it for them, they are going to tell you if they think the outfit is flattering, cute, so-so, plain ugly or just something that needs to be given away because it's just not the style for you. Make sure to supply them with drinks and snacks and perhaps play some fun background music to set the atmosphere!2) Prepare your closet! This can be done in a variety of ways and it's totally up to you how or if you want to do this step. You can organize your clothes by outfits, by seasons, by shirts first then bottoms next. You can try on shoes and accessories with your clothes if you want and this will also help you decide which of those items you want to keep or give away. Get two laundry baskets or two boxes and label one "keep" and the other one "give away or whatever creative name you would like. This way your friends can put the clothes in their respective places after you've tried the pieces on. You can also just have the clothes you're going to keep be put back on a hanger or folded and put away while you're trying on another outfit but that is totally up to your preference. If you want to make it even more fun, you could have one of your friends pick out individual clothes or complete outfits for you to try on and have the other friend or friends "judge" the outfit.3) TRUST your friend's opinions!! My suggestion is that once you take the clothes off, hand them to one of your friends and let THEM put the items in the "keep" basket or the "giveaway" basket as they see fit. Don't even look because chances are you won't even remember what clothes are missing but you might second-guess all their choices if you keep peeking at what they decide. IF there is an outfit that you particularly love even though you know it's not the most flattering but it's say...a lounge around outfit and you really don't have too many of those it's okay to go ahead and keep something like that just so long as it's not 1 of 10 such outfits haha! ;)That's it! Now you have a fun way to spend an evening or afternoon with your girlfriends laughing, fellowshipping AND decluttering your closet without even realizing you are doing any work. Happy shopping! ;)