Use Spring Cleaning to Easily Justify Your Shopping Addiction

Remember that one 80-degree day we had a few weeks ago? When the sun was shining and anything seemed possible? And then remember when the temperature plummeted back down into the forties, and with the temperature so went our happiness?

By now I think it’s safe to say that we have more or less recovered from the deep depression that that brief taste of spring (summer?) caused. The mercury has slowly clawed it’s way back up the thermometer, and can now regularly be seen flirting with the 60-degree mark (what a cad!). Not 80 degrees by a long shot, but definitely cause for some springtime merriment and what have you.

Despite everything you just read, this isn’t a blog about weather (though I do have a lot to say on the subject). It’s a blog about style! And what better way to make room for all of the fun fashion that springtime brings than to give your closet a good, old fashioned springtime scrub down?

Spring cleaning — a necessary evil

In the interest of complete honesty, there is nothing I hate more than organizing my closet. My stylistic creativity thrives on chaos, you know? Or, I’m really lazy. Just one of life’s unsolvable mysteries. But sometimes we must do the things we hate in order to have the things we love, and I love easily justifiable shopping. This is a rare form of shopping that can only happen after one goes through all of his or her clothes and separates them into piles, thus creating space for new clothes! So, here is what you do:

1. Launder All the things: Everyone loves doing vast quantities of laundry, right? This will help ease your mind when you are sorting everything, because it will be all ready to go to its designated place.
2. Sort All the things: Now that everything is clean and ready for judgement, get to sorting!
   1. Keep: The things that you love to wear and make you feel like a million bucks, or at least a couple grand.
   2. Toss: The things that make you look or feel weird due to grodiness, mysterious stains, offensive smells, disintegration due to washing, bad memories, untold amounts of cat hair, etc.
   3. Donate: The things that you don’t like anymore, but are still in decent enough condition for someone else to possibly enjoy. If you take really good care of your clothes, you could probably take advantage of the many consignment shops here in Portland, where they pay you for your old clothes. It’s like magic! Or commerce.
   4. Pack: All of the bulky sweaters, wool socks, thick tights, the winter jacket you can’t stand to look at anymore, fleece-lined pants, and more. It feels so good to put all of these things in a box, and then to put that box into a closet, and then to never open that closet again until next winter. When you do find that box next winter, everything will feel kind of new again!
3. Get All the things to their newly designated locations: Winter clothes box, Goodwill, your actual closet, the garbage. It’s best if you do this right away, as you will save yourself the temptation of reopening the bags of clothes you have already decided to get rid of.
4. Check out your new empty closet: Look at all that space you just made! Don’t you feel accomplished? I know I do. You know what I like to do when I’m feeling accomplished?

That’s right, it’s time for that easily justifiable shopping I mentioned before. This will feel extra good, because now that you’ve gotten rid of half your wardrobe, you’ll actually need things. Like denim jackets and platform wedges and flowy skirts and big sunglasses and floppy hats and and and… :)