Making way for the Christmas goodies – ditching the excess, unwanted, and unused from your life.

We all love Christmas but an inevitable side effect is that we end up with even more stuff! From clothes to trivia games to the latest hobby aid it all takes up space. I tried to pre-empt it this year by throwing a few things out over the past week before the big day. Although admittedly when it came to the clothes I only just got around to ditching the excess.

A few days before Christmas I made sure to get my bedroom spotless for any and all incoming items as it was unescapable that they would be hanging around in piles on the floor until they found a home. I didn’t want the place to look worse than it had to.

Something I have embraced recently is getting rid of anything that I don’t actually use, or don’t realistically have any hope of ever using (looking at you collection of journals). Keeping hold of things for sentimental reasons is fine but you can only have so much stuff. I wanted to keep what was actually important and not things that were simply aspirational in their nature.

There was one area of the bedroom I particularly wanted to tackle: the wardrobe.

I went into this grand feat by agreeing to stick to three guiding principles:

1. Any item of clothing that is worn to the point of being damaged, is misshapen, or straight up smells must be discarded.
2. Any item of clothing that is poorly fitting or does not fit at all must be discarded. With an exception for 3 or 4 items of clothing I had that I would keep for when I shed a few pounds.
3. Any item of clothing that is not actually ever worn, or worn so rarely I literally forgot I had it, shall be discarded.

Here’s the before photo of the wardrobe:

I managed to fill two large black bags full of clothing which will now find its way to a clothing bank nearby – underwear was of course thrown away.

The process did not take me as long as I had feared as I think I already secretly knew that some of these clothes simply had to go. I did not even try some on before adding them to the reject pile. I also found a jumper I had completely forgotten about which I enjoy wearing. Now I have less jumpers I can add it back into rotation.

An interesting aspect of reducing your wardrobe is that with less clothes you also have to find new ways to wear combinations of the clothes you have left. I’m not exactly a savant when it comes to style but I’m still looking forward to seeing what I can muster.

Here’s the after photo of the wardrobe:

My clothes can breathe again!

I’ve also managed to move to using wooden coat hangers exclusively #snob but also #aspiration.

Once I have lost a little weight and before I go on holiday at the start of April I will have a small shopping trip to flesh out my wardrobe for summer but will try to keep the total number of items much lower than it was before.

I’m off to pick up a new (physical) wardrobe from Ikea this weekend which not only aided in catalysing the need to have a clear out but also will hopefully allow me to organise what I have better. A drawer just for my ties? Yes, please.

I will also add that it is a relief to finally have the clear out done. One less thing to worry about and check off of my ever-growing to-do list!

I’m eager to hear your stories of your last clear out of clothes or other bits, and how you handled finding space for any incoming presents this holiday season. Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Michael