SandiSplash

I’m not too worried about the big appliances. The daunting task is figuring out how all my clothes are going to fit into his place.

This week, a friend asked for pre-loved clothes to donate to a charity. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to actually take stock of the clothes we have and cut down where we need to. And in the process, create cupboard space for myself.

We first started with the fiancé’s wardrobe to create the cupboard space and then moved on to mine. The fiancé is actually quite reasonable with understanding what needs to be kept and I am a lot more emotional. Here are my tips, if you are planning on spring cleaning your wardrobe anytime soon.

Don’t hoard

I am a hoarder. I don’t buy a lot of clothes so when I do buy something, I just add to my existing pile of treasure. My cupboards get untidy again or I find myself without time to dress up in the mornings and then I end up wearing the same things over and over again. Most people I know will update their wardrobes by buying a new collection of clothing. If that’s you, great – you can now get rid of the older stuff in order to make space. It’s a great idea but I wouldn’t do that so I need to find another way to stop my hoarding. Maybe regular spring-cleaning…

Adding to the give-away pile

I decided to try on all of my clothes while cleaning out my closet. Because of that, I knew exactly which ones to add to the give-away pile:

- It’s out-dated, faded or doesn’t look nice on me.

- It’s too small. When I moved to Joburg, I was a size 28. Now at size 32, I really doubt I’m going to get that skinny again to keep those clothes.

- Too much of the same item. The fiancé realised he had tons of blue jerseys so he just added some of them to the give-away pile

Adding to the repair pile

There’s always those items that still offer quite a bit of life to them but need to be repaired. If you’re lazy to do them yourself, take your shoes that need new heel tips, jackets with missing buttons and any garments that need to be hemmed to Fordsburg one day. You’ll find tons of cobblers and tailors who are much cheaper than anyone in the northern suburbs. All you loved items will be renewed!

Donate

Giving to those less fortunate than me is quite dear to my heart and considering that I missed the Twitter Blanket Drive this year, I think 3 massive suitcases filled to the brim more than makes up for it. A lot of people take for granted what they have and don’t realise that there are a lot of people out there who desperately need some clothes. If the opportunity doesn’t come knocking at your door, there are other ways from giving the clothes to specific individuals to donating it to a church, the Salvation Army, the SPCA and even to specific drives that come around every once in a while like the Twitter Blanket Drive.

Assess your clothing needs

When I was done, I realised that I have so little clothes left. I think I gave away more than I actually kept. This is probably cos I refused to buy clothing in my size for a long time. I kept thinking that I would get back to a size 30. At this stage, most people would assess their clothing requirements now and go out and buy what they need. I need to first pay for my wedding and then I’ll look at stocking up.

As emotional as the process was of getting rid of my things, I actually feel quite relieved right now. Logically, it made sense to not hoard so much of things. I’m now giving others a chance to benefit from my clothing. And the most important part is that there’s space in the fiancé’s closet for me…and my clothes will be able to fit in there.

Hopefully this inspires you to spring-clean your cupboard and if you did, let me know if you also shared similar rollercoaster emotions.