Skip to main content

Editing My Wardrobe / Closet Clean Out!



With all the new quarantine clothing I've purchased since March, I definitely needed to do a closet clean out. I spent most of Friday editing my entire wardrobe. I started around 11 am and was finished by 5 pm with a couple of breaks. Quick note- it is best to do laundry before starting this project. You want to see every piece of clothing you own. I still had a couple of items in the laundry basket like bras and shorts but as I just wore them I knew they were keepers anyway.

First thing I did was pull out every single item in my closet. Although I did not do socks and underwear. I'll probably go through that on another day. This is what it looked like. I piled it all up on the bed and it was piled HIGH.

(Yes there are a few items that still have tags on! 😅)

I decided to go through my work wardrobe and my t-shirts first. I donated a couple of pairs of pants and a handful of tees that I didn't like anymore or just never wore. I also picked out a few sweaters that I no longer liked. My work wardrobe is not that big. I think I managed to go through all of that in an hour. Then I dug into my Lululemon/Athleta clothes. 

I started by making piles based on categories. For bottoms- I made separate piles for pants, leggings, shorts, joggers, and jeans. For tops- I separated out wraps, tanks, short sleeves, and bras. 

(I started separating it out with the wraps on the top left, then the bras, and leggings. I was still sorting through some of my graphic tees at this point.) 

One thing I want to mention before we dive in. If there is ONE item in particular that you absolutely LOVE, keep it close by. You will need it when you're trying to decide whether or not you should keep an item in question. If it doesn't make you feel the same way as the item you are in love with, it makes it easier to put the questionable item into the donate/sell pile. It's a good base item to have around as a reminder of what's worthy of space in your wardrobe. For me, the item I absolutely love is my new Rally Wrap. It's so soft and super comfortable. I've been wearing it a lot since I got it.

I went through my winter coats first. I didn't have that many to begin with. Ever since moving to the south, there's really no need for heavy coats and I had gotten rid of a lot of them but still kept a couple of wool coats that I've had for years. I tried them on and it turns out they don't even fit me anymore! So I placed those in the sell pile. My down jackets and sherpa/faux fur are relatively still newish from the past few years and they still fit and liked them enough to keep.

(These are keepers.)

Next I went through my wraps. They take up the most space just due to size so it was better to get that out of the way. It also feels good to see the pile of clothes shrink significantly within a short time. I pulled out two wraps that were pretty worn and pilled. They were not in good enough condition to resell. Both are Athleta wraps. I ended up tallying up sixteen wraps to be put back into my closet. As I went through each piece of clothing, I would try them on to make sure I still liked how it looked and how they felt on me and to see if they still fit. Wraps are pretty much super comfortable, so the deciding factor whether on not to keep was how much wear did it have and if I still liked the style enough to keep.

(All of my Lululemon wraps.)

(My Athleta wraps.)

(My hoodie collection.)

Then I went through my hoodies and sweatshirts. I managed to pick out two hoodies. One was super worn but it was also my favorite hoodie for about ten years or so. The other hoodie I decided was good enough to sell. The sweatshirts are all newly purchased from quarantine so I basically just put them back in my closet. 

(Lululemon sweatshirts.)

(Athleta sweatshirts.)

Next I went through my tanks. Turns out that I pretty much wear all of my tanks regularly for working out and didn't really see a need to get rid of any. That said I tallied up a total of eighteen tanks plus two fancy pieces that are more for going out. I think maybe if I do add more tanks to my collection I will enforce the one in one out rule.


(My workout tanks)

(My fancy Lululemon tanks made of Cupro and oh so soft!)

I went through my short sleeve tees. Here is where I had a hard time deciding if I should get rid of any. I don't like to wear short sleeves for working out, I prefer tanks just because of how sweaty I get. Sometimes I wear the short sleeves casually, but more often than not, I forget to. I counted thirteen short sleeves in my collection and picked out three to sell. That leaves me with ten. I think that's a good number to keep?

(My tanks and short sleeves.)

A couple of months ago I decided my collection of Free To Be Wild Bras had to go. The straps were cutting into my shoulders. It seems that my workouts are changing the shape of my upper body. My shoulders are getting bigger and wider? I don't measure and only go by how my clothes fit. So anyhow, I ended up selling most of my Free To Be Wild Bras and decided to keep two of my favorites, but after some thought I will only keep one. The butterfly one is definitely my favorite. It's really old and pretty stretched out which is why I can still wear it! 


That sums up all of my tops. At this point, the piles of clothing were slowly disappearing off the bed. I think I took a break and decided to have lunch. This was about three hours after I started, so around 2 pm. Good move on my part because after eating a meal, it's definitely a good idea to start trying on pants, right?! 😅 I was pretty sure my full belly would allow me to pull some items out to donate/sell. 


Let's talk about jeans. I really dislike wearing them, but there are certain occasions where jeans are just more appropriate than leggings and joggers. I had 5 pairs of Athleta jeans. Pulled one out to sell (wasn't liking the fit), so now I'm down to four! 


I don't have as many bottoms as I do tops. I tried them all on and made sure they still fit me and I still liked the style. For leggings I managed to pick out four that no longer liked the fit and placed them in the sell pile.

 (Keep pile.)


My personal rule of thumb for bottoms is this- as long as they all fit into one drawer, that's how many I can have. I don't think I will buy anymore leggings except maybe for a pair of 17" Aligns (but the color or pattern has to be amazing), but I do see myself adding more joggers to my collection. I have twelve pairs at the moment.

(My short collection.)

 From my workout shorts, I picked out three to sell. Keeping thirteen pairs. I mainly were Speeds, but now that I discovered Hotty Hot Shorts do work for me, I am looking to add a few more to my collection. I really want to try the high rise version if they ever restock them. I also have three pairs of On The Fly Shorts.


I went through my pant collection next. I have seven pairs if On The Fly bottoms and four are Athleta Brooklyn Pants. I did pick out two pairs that I no longer liked. One I will donate, the other I will sell. 

(Here you can see my pant collection. I decided to keep fourteen pairs.)

I just wanted to show you my collection of tees. I use the same rule for tees as I do for my leggings and joggers. As long as they all fit into one drawer that's how many I can have. As you can see I definitely have some extra room for more, but I really don't need anymore! 😆

(The solid colors are for work. Yes, I wear a lot of black tees. 😂)

That is it! Whew, that was a lot of work! But I made it through and I managed to pull out 36 pieces! I think that's a fairly decent number. However I really need to be a lot more selective about what I add to my collection. It's probably something I need to do every six months. I hope this helps for those who are looking to do the same. My next post will cover what to sell, what to donate and how to list an item for sale. 

(The donate/sell pile.) 

That's it for me! Let me know if you have any questions or comments! 


Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing this, Leslie! I really enjoyed going through your wardrobe clean out process without having to actually do it LOL!

    I’ve been thinking of cleaning up my wardrobe but since all the charities have stopped picking up donation of clothes, I don’t wanna have bags sitting around the house. There are definitely gently used stuff that I would like to put up for sale but in view of the high Canada postage costs, I don’t know if people are even interested in paying for that, especially for heavier items like duffel bags.

    Having said that, I’m really interested in reading your post on how to sell items on say eBay, I’m sure that’s going to be helpful for a lot of your readers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hah, thanks Andrea! I didn't love doing it, but I do feel a lot better afterwards. I still need to tackle the rest of my closet. Shoes and bags. Bags will always be my weakness and I'm more attached to my bags than anything else in my closet.

      How much is shipping in Canada? I don't usually ship outside of the US to keep the shipping cost low for buyers. Usually if it's just one item of clothing I charge about $5. For bags it's usually $20 for priority shipping. Much bigger and heavier boxes.

      I have a giant bag of donations I need to drop off that's been sitting there for probably 9 months. This is stuff that's just accumulating for a while. So I feel your pain!

      I've been listing items today. So far 8 items. I'm hoping to have 14 more items listed by the end of the week. I'll have a post up for Friday! You guys are definitely inspiring me to have it all completed!

      Delete
    2. I figured the shipping cost here would be more of less two times of the U.S. rate. My husband has sold something on eBay before and that buyer claimed that the shipment never arrived. He claimed PayPal and my husband didn’t get paid at all. PayPal told my husband he should’ve shipped with tracking. :(

      I’m worried that the same thing would happen to me but then shipping with tracking would be very expensive.

      Delete
    3. Yes, always ship with tracking. I didn't know Canadian shipping costs were so high. Even the $5.00 first class postage comes with tracking. It used to not, and you would have to add it for $1.45 I think, but they changed that a while ago. I've been Ebaying for a long time now and I've only had a package lost once or twice. Luckily they weren't high cost items and I just refunded the buyer. Sometimes it isn't worth the hassle.

      Delete
  2. Thank you for posting this. I was able to show my husband that i am not the only person with an excessive number of lululemon items! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am impressed with what you accomplished in one day - nice job! I think my lulu collection is at least as big as yours, yikes! I started selling on ebay about 3 years ago. It is a process that I don't enjoy and don't have time for so I let things pile up. My experience with eBay has been pretty good for the most part but I am still figuring things out, sometimes the hard way lol. I would love to learn from your experience. Have you tried Poshmark and other selling sites?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! It is really hard pairing stuff down but when I saw just how much stuff I had, it's a little easier letting things go. I have not tried Poshmark because of the high percentage fee. They take 20%. Ebay fees are a little less. I also worry about cross posting because I would be paranoid if an item sold on both sites at the same time. So I pretty much stick to ebay.

      Delete
  4. Good job. Your closet looks great! I'm impressed that you hang your sports bras. Mine are in a drawer, saving valuable rod space.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, I love how it looks hung up on hangers. Reminds me of the store!

      Delete
  5. Thanks for the inspiration! I did a closet clean out last fall of my athletic wear but it's still covering my dining room table - time to buckle down and complete the job.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sarah, you can do it!! It's also worth it in the end.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We tried HelloFresh for the past two months - Here's our review

Hi everyone! This post is written by my husband. Some of you may know he does all the cooking around here. 😅 We noticed we were spending a lot of money on food and eating out every month and wanted to see if a meal kit service would save us money and time. After looking at a few meal kit services we settled on HelloFresh. Without further ado, here's Jared's review. (Original post date Aug 2022). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As you may have seen from Leslie's Instagram stories for the past 2 months, we've been using HelloFresh for most of our meals. The main drivers for this were to better track what we eat and because on the advice of my doctor, I should be eating more home cooked meals. Before I go any further, it should be noted that my original career path was in culinary arts, but twists and turns in life changed that. So I do have formal cooking experience. A little background story. Over the years, I've developed

Review! Lululemon's Large Everywhere Belt Bag Size Comparison Plus Video!

  Happy Friday! I can't believe it's almost Halloween! I actually have a dentist appointment on Halloween. One of my molars chipped and needs to be filled in. It's a tiny chip that I didn't even notice until my dentist pointed it out to me during my last visit. I'm not looking forward to it at all since I will need local anesthesia. Anyway, today I have a belt bag size comparison review for you all! For reference I'm 4 feet 11 inches tall and typically wear size 4 in Lululemon tops and bottoms. From Top To Bottom: Everywhere Belt Bag Large  Gray Sage Everywhere Belt Bag  Deco Pink Mini Belt Bag  Brier Rose also wearing:  Scuba Oversized Full Zip Hoodie Natural Ivory Size XS/S Softstreme High Rise Straight Leg Crop True Navy Size 6 This is the Large Everywhere Belt Bag in Gray Sage. It's double the size of the regular Everywhere Belt Bag. There is also a $10 price difference between the two. I'm wearing the Scuba Oversized Full Zip and I feel like the b

Review! Everywhere Belt Bag Extended Strap VS Everywhere Belt Bag Original

  Happy May! Can't believe summer is right around the corner. I'm looking forward to visiting my family later this month. It's been nearly a year since I've been back to NYC. I'm already thinking about all the dim sum I'm going to cram in the 10 days I'm there! 😆  Today I have a review of the new  Everywhere Belt Bag Extended Strap  compared to the original  Everywhere Belt Bag  that is slowly being phased out. 😢  **** Update - The original Everywhere Belt Bag has been phased out completely. The website has removed the Extended Strap from the name. The updated version is now called the Everywhere Belt Bag!**** For reference I'm 4 feet 11 inches tall. Typically wear a size 4 in Lululemon tops. Left - Everywhere Belt Bag Tidewater Teal  Right Everywhere Belt Bag Extended Strap Lavender Fog If you missed it, you can check out my original  Everywhere Belt Bag Review I have both belt bags at the longest setting. The extended strap version is a couple inche