Do you ever find yourself with a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear? If you’re like me, the issue may be that your favorite, go-to items are drowning among the clothes that you just don’t ever wear.
Many of us have clothes that we aren’t wearing, but we keep them for reasons such as:
- I used to wear it all the time (during a different stage of life/when living in a different climate or working a different job, etc.)
- I’m going to wear it as soon as I _____ (go on vacation/get promoted/live elsewhere, etc.)
- It doesn’t quite fit right, but _____ (I can safety-pin it/it’s just so cute!)
What are you actually wearing?
1. The First Pass
There are bound to be some items in your closet that you haven’t been wearing and don’t see yourself wearing anytime soon. Go ahead and remove those from the equation. You can sell or donate them now, or set them aside for a few weeks/months, to be offloaded after you conduct the rest of this exercise.
2. Seasonal Sorting
In order to get a sense of which items of clothing you are wearing in real life (not just in your head), you will first want to set aside the items that are not seasonally appropriate. Of course you aren’t wearing your big bulky sweaters in the summer, but that doesn’t mean you want to get rid of them!
I currently have all of my fall/winter clothes in a spare closet. Not only does this help with the hanger test exercise, but it’s also just nice to have a less cluttered closet.
3. Setting Up the Hanger Test
Now that your closet only includes the clothes that you would realistically be wearing at this time of year, it is time to truly begin the exercise.
Most people hang their clothes so that the curved part at the top of the hanger is facing them, and the open part points toward the closet and hooks over the clothes rod. (In the photo above, all of the hangers to the right of the scarf and immediately to its left are hanging like this.)
Turn each article of clothing so that the hanger is facing backwards compared to the way you would typically hang it.
In the photo, you can see that all of the clothes to the far left are on backwards-facing hangers. You will want to start with all of your hangers facing backwards.
4. Conducting the Hanger Test
Each time you wear something and then return it to your closet, face the hanger the conventional way. This makes it very easy to tell which things you have been wearing, and which ones you haven’t touched!
If you are eager to thin your closet ASAP, I would recommend that you give yourself one month before assessing your closet. If you aren’t in a hurry, you can wait until the season is coming to a close.
5. The Results
Once your desired length of time passes, take a look at which hangers are still facing backwards. Pull them out of your closet and sell them or donate them to a local second-hand store. It’s as simple as that!
Note: You may find that you have a handful of backwards-facing nicer items that you do love but only occasionally have a chance to wear. Getting rid of those would be silly because you will likely just need to go out and buy something similar when the occasion arises.
6. Repeat Seasonally
When the current season comes to an end, it will be time to retrieve the next season’s clothing from wherever you have been storing it. Just as before, everything you move into the closet should go in with the hanger facing backwards.
Bonus tip
You may be wondering why there is a scarf dividing my closet into two sections.
As I explained in a post about little ways to save money, I don’t tend to do much single-use laundry. I typically wear my tops and dresses 2-3 times before washing them, and the scarf divider helps me keep track.
After I wear something and it is still fresh enough to wear again, I put it back into my closet, hanging it all the way to the right side. This keeps everything that has been worn to the right of the scarf, and the freshly laundered clothes to the left.