Every spring, around the first week of April, I sort out my summer clothes, and every autumn, at the beginning of October, I sort out my winter stuff. It is much more efficient, and means I do not cram all the clothes onto the rail- just the right ones for the season. I fetch down the case from the loft, and empty everything [from case and wardrobe] onto the bed – along with the hangers.
This morning I did the autumn sort
The stuff which needs to be packed goes into the case – along with a contents list [because I might suddenly need a pair of striped shorts in December!] compressed into those useful vacuum storage bags.
And here’s the bag ready to return to the loft
This year, I am conscious that there are a lot more clothes not going back into bag or wardrobe, as they are simply too big! That’s very satisfying. But I still have plenty of garments which do fit well [or they will, after a little modification] No need to spend lots of money on new stuff then!
Bob’s just sorted out all his baggy trousers as well. And there is now a carrier by the front gate, for today’s local charity collection [its OK, we have checked this one is pukka]
And I have another pile of stuff for the ‘swishing party’ which I hope to organise next month.
Now I have to iron all that un-compressed stuff, and hang it neatly in the wardrobe. One tip I learned years ago – at the start of the season, put all hangers on the rail with the ‘open’ part of the hook facing you. As you wear and replace a garment, put the hook on the ‘conventional way [open part to the back] Then when you get to the season swap over, you can immediately discover which clothes you have not worn at all – and then consign them to the charity bag.
This is all very satisfying. I have decided to rename my ongoing “Autumn Decluttering Programme” – it will now be referred to as “The Fall-Out”
Did you know that in England, this season was always called ‘fall’ ? The Pilgrim Fathers, and other early settlers took this word across to the USA with them in the 17th century. Then it became fashionable in the UK to use the French word ‘autumn’ and ‘fall’ sort of fell out of favour.
When I sorted my wardrobe last year , I found that lots of the clothes I loved were miles too big. The wraparound dresses wrapped around rather too much, I could have fit another human inside the coats, and the winter trousers quite literally fell down past my hips! Satisfying as the weight loss was, I was quite sad to say goodbye to some much loved clothes, but hope that someone else is loving and wearing them, and that the money the Salvation Army made in selling them is helping people in my area. x
ReplyDeleteI packed my summer clothes away back in September like you said it is good because you wont have to cram all your clothes on the rail. May i ask, what is a swishing party
ReplyDeleteYou are soooo organised, Angela, sigh.
ReplyDeleteI am working on sorting out my wardrobe, too, but all my Summer things are simply stored in a chest of drawers in the spare bedroom. which of course means that if we have visitors, they all have to come out again........
I wish I had a loft. When I have sorted out the back room I may get a holdall such as yours to put in the bottom of a wardrobe that would be better than them being on the rail.
ReplyDeleteWell done for losing weight x
That's interesting about "fall". I hate hearing British people use Americanisms, but I read somewhere a letter by a British officer (Admiral or General Somebody) in the war of independance who used the word "gotten" instead of "got". So that's another "Americanism" that actually was originally a "Britishism". So I've modified my view somewhat but don't expect me to say "y'all"!
ReplyDeleteI need to have a clean out myself, just need to find the time to do it.....
ReplyDeleteGill in Canada
http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com
Oh, I need to sort through clothes--I've got tons I haven't worn in ages, and they need to go. I'm impressed by your changing out clothes with season.
ReplyDeleteI'm also impressed by all those clothes that don't fit. You're an inspiration, Miss Angela!
xofrances