Reduce Your Clothes By 80 Percent

Those of you who read my most recent post know that we decided to pursue a radical minimalist experiment in order to pay off debt. The first area of my house that I attacked was our closet. As I thought about whether or not I actually could part with 80% of my clothes, handbags, and shoes as the Minimalist Mom did, I panicked. After all 80% is kind of a large percentage. Well, I’m here to tell you that it can be done! I ended up giving away 7 large trash bags of clothes, shoes and handbags, about the equivalent of 80% of my wardrobe. I’ll offer up some benefits of reducing your closet by 80%, then I’ll show you some pics of what I did and give you a few pointers for reducing your own wardrobe.

What are some benefits of purging a closet by 80%?

I see exactly what I have and don’t buy duplicates.
I vary my wardrobe more because I only possess the clothes I really like and rotate them. This is better than living out of the “clean clothes” bucket and only washing the same bucket over and over because I can’t find any of my other favorite items.
I feel better about buying high quality items because I know they will last longer and I will use them.
I have peace of mind when I look in my closet.
I can wear my favorite things until they get worn-out, then I can replace them.
It makes me focus and realize the kinds of clothes I want and love to wear.
It makes doing the laundry so much easier, especially putting away clothes.
I save a ton of time each morning by not digging around for things.
I freed up space in our “overflow” closets. All of our clothes, save for the winter coats, are located in this closet and our bedroom drawers.

Ready for a crazy before pics?? Apparently I have no shame. Please note that this picture doesn’t even show the other 2/3 of the closet on the left and right hands of the closet. It’s bad, very bad.

After. I cut down my clothes section to the areas from the skirts on the left to the robes on the right and the two stacks of jeans on the left.

Here are some close-ups of the left and right sides of the closet. I spent no money doing this project and merely used the organizing tools I already had. I even got rid of an entire large, stand up shoe rack because I slashed my collection.

As for handbags, I only kept my nice handbags, like my Cole Haan (purchased on our honeymoon at Dillards for 1/2 off), my D & B work tote, a small Betsy Johnson clutch and an over the shoulder “vacation” side purse. I also saved a high-quality leather Fossil mail bag that I’m going to gift to my brother the artist for his b-day {shhhh, don’t tell}. The tall stack of jeans on the left are nice jeans that I’ve found on sale that I can {almost} fit into. As I fit into more of these jeans, I’ll give away the ones I am wearing now. Every single pair of shoes that I currently own are on that rack. I gave away about 15 pairs of shoes.

As for the drawers, I am only using five drawers. Also, not many things are stacked in the drawers, i.e., the items are laying flat so I can see them all and know what I have at all times. I like to see all of the nitty-gritty when I try something kind of crazy, so I’ve provide a list of everything I currently own in terms of clothes, shoes, and accessories. Please note that I am not currently at home so this is a rough estimate, but it should be pretty close.

Two nice business suits
Three robes
Two pairs of cropped jeans, one white cropped pair of jeans, and two long pairs of jeans.
One nice dress and two dresses that can be dressed up or down.
One rain jacket, two hoodies, a thick outerwear sweater and a winter peacoat.
Three long sleeve button up sweaters and three short sleeve sweaters/coverups.
Three long sleeve sweaters for winter.
Six “nicer” shirts and four plain t-shirts.
One pair of black dress pants.
Three skirts (one nicer skirt and two summery black and white skirts).
As for shoes, you can see the basics of what I kept.
Four scarves, one pair of nice gloves and a winter hat.
Four pairs of workout pants/shorts and four work out tops.
Three pairs of pajamas.
Six camis/tank-tops.
One pair of shorts.
One bathing suit.
One drawer of underclothes and socks.

Ready to try reducing your own closet? Here are a few tips I gathered along the way:

Set aside an entire morning or afternoon to tackle the closet all at once. It took me about four hours to sort, organize and decide what I really want to giveaway. If you tackle it all at once while you’re in the purging mind frame, you’re more likely to part with more things you don’t need. You also end your session with one completed project under your belt. I wouldn’t recommend doing more than one closet at a time as it becomes seriously overwhelming!
If you haven’t worn something in the last six months, just give it away. Just do it. I don’t even remember most of the things I gave away and I don’t regret giving any of it away. Keep this in mind: if you give something away and end up needing it, you can always buy another one. It will still be cheaper then living with tons of items you don’t need.
If you have one or two sentimental things, keep them. I kept a shirt signed by all of the debaters I coached, a Steve Nash jersey, my wedding shoes and some shoes my brother designed for me. But that’s it.
Try to save items that are basic and can be dressed up or down and worn for different occasions. For example, one of my three skirts can be worn casually in the summer with flip flops or with black tights and boots in the winter. I also saved the nice t-shirts that can be worn as short sleeves or with a button up sweater in the winter. Similarly, I saved one pair of “Ugg” type boots for winter and one pair of leather boots. I really only need one of each type of boot.
If you do have some seasonal extras, pick only a few items or one item in each category and store it in a single tote. For example, I stored all of the dog’s extra chew toys and winter sweaters in a single tote back on the left hand of the closet shelf. Once I filled the tote, I gave the rest away. I also stored our gloves, hates and scarves in a single tote bag.
If you have some really nice things that you no longer use, but that you don’t want to give away, consider giving them to someone who would really appreciate them as a gift. If they are in good condition, they will make a great gift for someone else!

Ready to start? Comment with your ideas and/or progress. Let’s go guys and gals, we can do this!