Decluttering your closet can fill you with doubt as you wonder if you'll wear items another time. The DWC - Don't, Won't, Can't - System helps you take a practical point of view on the clothing that isn't serving you.
I hear the same thing time and again from women when they declutter (or even think about decluttering) their closets.
“If I declutter my closet, I’ll have to go out and buy new clothes.”
I gently explain that they’ll only be decluttering clothing that they haven’t worn for ages … not the things they actually wear.
But they insist the extra space in their closet means that they won’t have enough options to wear.
However, according to the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 Rule), we wear 20 percent of our clothing 80 percent of the time. So, it’s a bit ironic to focus on options when we already do a good job of limiting what we really wear.
The Goal of Decluttering Your Closet
You declutter the contents of your closet to make it easier to get dressed. You can more easily see what you have … and it’s all stuff that you can wear.
Imagine reaching into your closet and finding things that fit your lifestyle, body, and mood of the day. This is what you’re already doing … but you first have to sift out the stuff you don’t, won’t, and can’t wear.
Don’t, Won’t, Can’t
I was teaching a decluttering class a few years ago that only two students showed up for. Instead of following the planned talk, I turned the class into a 2:1 coaching session … and a lot of questions centered around sorting through the contents of their closets.
I felt like I was offering the same reassurances over and again and, off the cuff, summed up my advice to the women as getting rid of the clothing that they didn’t, wouldn’t, and couldn’t wear. One of the women grabbed her pen and asked me to repeat what I’d said … and I wrote it down too. DWC is a quick way to determine the usefulness of an item of clothing.
Why Decluttering Clothing Is Difficult
Decluttering isn’t about getting rid of stuff for the sake of getting rid of things. You’re not tossing things you use or like.
So why is it so difficult to get rid of the clothing that you don’t wear?
The garments may remind you of how your life has changed. Your weight changes. You moved to a different workplace and needed to dress for your new position. You had children. You got divorced. You moved to a different state or country and needed clothing that reflected the climate and lifestyle of the area.
Even if these changes are positive, sorting through your clothing is an acknowledgement that you’ve changed … and in most cases, you aren’t going back to how life was.
The clothing may remind you of what you imagined your life would be like. You’re not alone if you’ve ever bought clothing for the person you hoped to be … someone thinner, who dressed up more often, who vacationed on cruise ships, who embraced a boho (or other) fashion style.
But the clothing didn’t motivate you to (perhaps dramatically) change your life. Looking at this clothing in your closet (or in storage bins) makes you feel discouraged that you couldn’t live up to your aspirations.
Because clothing is something that you wear (or is an item you could wear), decision making can feel more personal and intimate. You are choosing items that reflect who you are, what you do, and how you feel about yourself.
The Clothing You Wear
You know the types of outfits that you wear all the time. You also know what you keep in your closet to wear on occasions like job interviews, nice dinners out, funerals, weddings, parties, and other infrequent events.
Once, while approaching the topic of closet decluttering, the first item a woman mentioned was the dress that she kept for wearing to weddings and anything else that required her to dress up. With a sigh, she said, “I guess I’m supposed to get rid of that dress since the most I wear it is once a year, if that.”
I was a bit confused that this was where she was starting this process. “So, you wear this dress? You know when you’ll wear it?” Yes. “Then why would you get rid of it? If you don’t like it, you could certainly get something new.”
It turns out that she liked the dress but felt that because it wasn’t in her regular rotation, it didn’t deserve a spot in her closet.
This dress, or more appropriately, the rule she felt applied to it, was acting as a barrier to her entire decluttering process
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When to Go Shopping (and What to Buy)
If you wear something, then it’s earned its place in your closet. You might wear it weekly, seasonally, or yearly. If you wear it and know why and when you’ll wear it, then keep it in your closet.
Maybe you’ve worn something so often that you’re bored by it. You wear it because it meets a requirement in your life. If you want to replace it and you can do so, then consider buying something similar because you already know that this is what you love to wear.
However, it isn’t necessary to buy a new wardrobe every season (unless following fashion trends truly makes your heart sing).
Instead, think about what you wear most often. You can be general here … I wear leggings or skirts or button-down blouses or jeans or maxi dresses, etc. Chances are you wear what works for your lifestyle, job, activities, and so on.
You can certainly go shopping after decluttering your closet. In fact, the process will highlight what you do wear and what you don’t. For example, you may notice that you’ve decluttered every light gray item in your closet. Although you buy light gray clothing because the color seems so practical, the color makes you feel drab, and you avoid wearing it unless it’s the only thing in your closet.
This is a valuable insight that will save you from buying something that will just sit in your closet.
What to Declutter
You will declutter clothing that you don’t, won’t, and can’t wear. If you aren’t wearing something but you hesitate to get rid of it, consider why you aren’t wearing it. You can even think of this as the DWC System for Closet Decluttering. I’ll dive deeper into what these categories mean.
Clothing that You Don’t Wear
Chances are that this clothing is in good condition (it may even be new) and could be worn, but you don’t. Of the clothing in your closet that you aren’t wearing, this may be the most difficult to get rid of because there doesn’t seem to be a good reason to get rid of it.
These are the items that you tell yourself you could wear someday. Maybe you wore them in the past but realized the length of that skirt was a bit too long or the fabric of that sweater was too itchy and so you stopped wearing the item.
You can rationally explain why you don’t wear these items, but, still, you feel that you could. However, “could” tends to be followed by qualifiers such as, “If I replaced the zipper,” “Got this hemmed,” “Wore a shirt under this sweater,” “Felt more comfortable wearing a bold print.”
The money spent on the items may be a big factor when it comes to holding onto these garments. If this is the case, consider, could you sell the items (perhaps grouping them in lots … long-sleeved blouses … to ease the process).
Otherwise, consider that someone could make use of this item that you’re not wearing … if you made the decision to donate it.
Clothing that You Won’t Wear
This category is a bit of a hodge-podge for practical and emotional reasons.
Maybe you don’t like the color or style of an item and that makes you feel uncomfortable. Maybe the fabric, embellishments (lace, ruffles), patterns (bold geometrics) don’t feel like “you.”
You don’t like the way red draws attention in your direction, lace itches, or whenever you wear yellow (a color you love), people always seem to ask if you’re feeling well.
Or you love the look of peasant blouses and flowing skirts … on other people. When you wear these items, your sleeves fall into your soup, and you manage to knock things over with your skirt. You love the items, just not wearing them.
Consider that someone else won’t have these problems with, or reservations about, the item.
Express your gratitude to these items for the lesson they’ve taught you. Although you’ve spent money on these types of items in the past, you’re now more in tune with what you enjoy wearing.
Clothing that You Can’t Wear
This category of clothing has the most practical reasons for these things not being worn.
Maybe, the item is stained, has a hole or tear, or the fabric has faded or pilled in the wash.
Or the item doesn’t fit. Maybe you’ve gained weight, and you keep telling yourself that you’ll go on a diet and then the item will fit. However, if you go through the efforts required to lose weight, will you be happy to know that wearing these old clothes is your reward?
And if you’ve lost weight, do you really need clothing two or more sizes too big to keep doubts about your new health habit in mind every morning you open your closet door?
How to Declutter Clothing
There’s no need to pull everything out of your closet before you make your first decision. Instead, consider going through garments one at a time, returning to your closet the items you’re considering keeping.
You can do that once or twice, winnowing the contents of your closet. Then, if you want, you can empty your closet and group types of items together so you can better see the variety and quantities that you own. Maybe it seemed sensible to keep stained tee shirts to wear when cleaning the house or doing yardwork or gardening. However, you realize that you’ve designated 32 tee shirts for this purpose when three shirts would be plenty.
Remember, you can declutter your closet and then go through the contents again in three or six months, looking for seasonal items that you didn’t wear. (This can simply involve flipping through clothes as they hang on their hanger or sit in a drawer as opposed to emptying the contents of your closet and dresser).
To sort through the contents of your closet, pull out one item at a time and look it over.
Can you wear this item? It’s in good condition, with no stains or holes. If you’ve downgraded a garment to leisurewear or cleaning duty, is it physically comfortable to wear the item for this new purpose? Are you keeping an appropriate number of items, eliminating excess?
Will you wear this item? You feel physically and mentally comfortable in this garment. If this is something you would rarely wear, you know when you’d wear it as opposed to thinking that you could wear it sometime.
Do you wear this? This is a purely practical question. You wear this item during the appropriate season, activity, or occasion.
What if you’re thinking, “Well, I might wear this someday”? Describe the situation when you would wear it. This is a s simple as, “I’d wear this to work in the summer.” Or “I can wear this to brunch with my friends.”
Now, will this event happen? If you’ve gone out to brunch once with your friends seven years ago, do you really need to hold onto a special outfit should such an occasion come up again? Or could you pull together an outfit from what you own?
What If You’re Still Struggling to Let Go?
Maybe you logically know that you won’t wear something, but you still can’t let go?
Would you feel more comfortable selling the item? The newer the item, the more desirable it will be. You don’t need to hold onto clothing in the hope that it will be worth something in the future when it’s considered vintage.
Do you have the time to sell through an app like thredUp or Poshmark? Not certain? Give it a try. If you’re procrastinating the process, consider selling your clothing online might not be an option for you.
Can you bring your clothing to a local consignment shop? You’ll be splitting with the shop what the items sell for. And the shop may be very selective because they know what will sell to their clientele.
Want to simplify the process of rehoming your clothing? Donate it. If you have a lot of office-appropriate clothing, then a women’s shelter that’s getting their clients back into the workforce, may be a great option. Organizations helping girls get a dress for prom may be interested in evening dresses.
If it will be a source of procrastination to get clothing to specialty groups, then do what is most convenient with the thought that the Universe will get the items to the people who need those items.
Decluttering your closet should make getting dressed in the morning a calmer experience, which happens when you eliminate the items that you don’t, won’t, and can’t wear.
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