Try this wardrobe decluttering technique & thank me later! (declutter with me)

In under an hour, I removed 56 items from my wardrobe. I wish I had done this sooner. I wish someone had told me to do this sooner. Let me show you how. Today I'm sharing a wardrobe decluttering technique that is so quick and easy and will leave your wardrobes feeling fresh and organized. This was quick, simple and stress-free. Okay, let me start with a very quick story. My friend recently came back from holiday after Christmas break and she came back to her two-bedroom apartment. She has two kids under four and she came home and her Christmas tree was still up, the Christmas decorations were out, the kids' toys were everywhere and she had all their suitcases from holiday to unpack. And she said she walked into her house and she just felt so overwhelmed. She felt like she was about to have a meltdown. So in a moment of rage, anything that didn't have a home directly in front of her, she just put them into clear garbage bags and she put all her stuff in a storage room downstairs. She decided that when she felt like she needed something that was in one of those storage bags, she would go down and get it. And she would also then address that storage bag at the time and then organize and declutter what the rest of what was in there. She said to me, I can deal with one bag at a time, but I can't deal with my entire house at once. And all of a sudden she had this clean apartment and her kids had space to play and not get overwhelmed and everyone just felt a little lighter and happier. So that is a pretty drastic decision to make to just chuck everything in bags. But it kind of got me thinking and gave me the idea to do something similar with my wardrobe because right now my wardrobe is starting to feel crammed and I don't enjoy opening it. I had a lot of additions last year and the year before to my wardrobe and I don't think I got rid of as much as I brought in. There's not a lot of breathing space within my wardrobe and everything that is hanging up is actually so squished. It's actually just all getting really creased while it's hanging up and finding it hard to put things away. And I've also noticed that I am avoiding a lot of certain clothes and just reaching for my favorite pieces over and over again. So let me explain to you this decluttering technique and how I managed to clear all of those hangers. Okay, I'm very excited about today's declutter because I'm approaching it in a completely different way. And I think it's going to potentially be one, super simple and two, quite life-changing. That's a big claim to put out, but that's what I'm hoping for. So we'll see how this goes. I'm really excited to share this different kind of technique with you. Also, just so you know this, I am fresh out of the shower with wet hair. I did not plan today's video at all. This is very impromptu, but I just had that feeling and that urge to organize and declutter. And we don't often get that feeling. So I just want to roll. Someone's mowing the lawn. I just want to roll with that feeling today and use that energy of genuine motivation in myself to get this done. So I'm going to explain to you the technique that I want to use today. And then I'm just going to get in my wardrobe and start doing it. Oh, why, why, why are you mowing the lawn? You okay? Can you hear that? I wish you could answer. Anyway, the technique is very simple. Basically, what you do is you go into your wardrobe and rather than choosing pieces that you think you don't like, and then potentially deciding whether you're going to declutter them, you go into your wardrobe and start to pick out your favorite, most worn pieces. And you start kind of building yourself a mini wardrobe from your big wardrobe. Is all your favorite pieces, the ones that you know that you love and you wear all the time. And then you put those pieces aside. So I'm going to hang them on my clothes rack today, but you can put them on your bed or whatever, wherever you have room. And then what's left in your wardrobe are the pieces that you're a bit on the fence with. You're like, oh, I don't wear them that much, but I've been holding onto them for years, or I don't actually like it that much, or it doesn't fit me. I'm holding onto it for guilty reasons because someone gave it to me. Those things are the what's left in your wardrobe. Now, this is the brutal part here. Everything that's left in your wardrobe, you pack it up into a box and put it in storage out of sight. So you are then left with an empty wardrobe and then you put in all your favorite pieces into your wardrobe again. Someone's got like a chainsaw now, I swear. Anyway, and then you are left with this wardrobe full of your favorite pieces, pieces that you wear and love all the time. I like to think that this is a more simple way of doing things. Then you have like a couple of options with the things in storage. You decide how long they want to be in there for. You definitely want to set some sort of reminder on your phone or your calendar to remind you that they're in there so that you can go check on them. But also, as you are just going on and living your daily life, if you miss anything in particular, you can go into your storage items and find it. You can also, on the days where you're feeling tempted to shop, you can go into these storage items and shop your storage items instead of shopping the shops. I think it's a good thing for me to do this year because I'm doing a low buy year and I'm not planning on shopping and buying lots of new things. But you do have to be really mindful if you start, if you put away like half of your wardrobe, that you're not just going to go out and rebuy those things or replace them when they're in storage. So you want to try and remember what is in storage. You could even make like a little list of what is in there so that you know and you remember what you've put away in storage. But the idea is that when you then address those pieces, say three months later or six months later, however long you give yourself, you're going to see them in a completely different light. I've done this before with my maybe items and it works. It 100% works. You look at them and you're like, oh wow, I haven't missed that at all. Or, oh wow, like I love that so much. I've missed that so much. I'd love to try wear that again. But you don't know until you give yourself that space from those items. They have to be out of your wardrobe because when you unconsciously just like flick through them every day, you can still see them, but we want them gone. There's a difference. So like I said, I've done this with my maybe items in the past, but I haven't done it so brutally as to like, kind of create myself a mini wardrobe from my big wardrobe and then just put everything else away. It's a bit more, yeah, a bit more brutal. So I am going to just jump straight into my wardrobe and get started now. Remember, first step is to pick out all the favorites, all the most worn pieces. So I'm going to hang them on my clothes rack and then I'm going to see what I'm left with. I'd love to know what you think of this technique and if you've tried something like this before. Okay, let's get started. One thing I wanted to mention is I've actually got a lot of my hangers backwards because I did that backwards hanger trick about three or four months ago. So that's also helping me right now as I'm going through things, giving me a kind of an indication of what I haven't been wearing. And a lot of the pieces that I'm not choosing are those ones that are hanging backwards still and I haven't worn. So definitely, definitely worth trying the backwards hanger trick if you haven't tried it before. I put it off for years to try, but I think it actually has some value. Okay, I've done my entire upper rail. I think I was in there for about three minutes. Now I'm going to do the bottom. I just realized I took no before and after videos. I'm going to put everything back in, just in chunks and take some before and after photos. So you can see the difference from beginning to end. I think I need another coffee. So this is before up the top and my clothes start about here. That's Alex there. So I am taking up more space. Sorry, Al. This is the bottom cupboard. Alex's stuff over there. And then mine starts here at this blazer. This is quite choppers. I don't love it like this. Okay, so in that cupboard now, I only have the things that weren't a hell yes. I just want to say that all these things that are now left in my cupboard, they're all still pieces that I really love, but for some reason, I can't just say yes to decluttering them right now. There's still a lot of resistance and reasons why I can't just like say, okay, here, I can donate all these pieces. Cause there's still things that I really love, but I'm just being completely honest with myself, that they're not pieces that have been worn in my daily life. So that's the difference that this method gives you is all the stuff that's left in my closet. I still wouldn't declutter it, but I'm happy to put it away for a while. I don't have to feel as though maybe I've made a big mistake. If I put away in storage for a while, it's still safe in my house. I can get it again if I change my mind. And then after three to six months, however long I choose, I can then revisit it. And hopefully the decision will be way easier to make whether I'm going to keep it or donate it. I hope that makes sense. That's the big difference here. So I still have to do the other closet, but I've run out of room on my rack and I've got a big pile on my bed. So I'm basically going to swap now. I'm going to take all those things that are left in my cupboard out. I'm going to give my cupboard a good vacuum and a wipe while it's empty because when do we ever get the chance to do that? And then I'm going to put back in all of my favourite pieces and see how it looks. I'm very excited. Okay. My baby Fanta cans taking up this entire part of the bed. Definitely need to do some vacuuming and some wiping. Oh my gosh. It's dusty guys. Look at this. Stunning. Put everything back in. Oh my gosh. This is some kind of sick joke. It looks so much better already. I wish I had done this sooner. I wish someone had told me to do this sooner. Come have a look. Right. So this is the after. Obviously this is Alex over here. We don't worry about him. This is all my stuff here. Just look at the difference. Like it's a little bit more spread out the hangers, but honestly, those are all my favourite pieces right there. And down the bottom. Oh my word. Look at that. Look, look at that. All my favourite pieces. I just cannot begin to describe how exciting this makes me feel. And I don't feel that bad because all my other things are going in storage. Tell you what though. I am hot today. So that part of the wardrobe is done, but I obviously still have this part of the wardrobe and my dresses. Oh no. My dresses. My dresses take up this whole thing here. How long has it been? I mean, I've been filming and it's been about 20 minutes. So that's pretty good. These three are Alex's and then the rest down there is mine. That top drawer is Alex's as well. That is all my stuff. Got some winter storage and stuff. So I'll have to go through that too. The other part was really easy. I'm going to get myself another coffee, smash this part out and then come back to you at the end. Okay. Before anyone comes at me, I'm well aware that I'm not technically decluttering these pieces yet, but I am getting that incredible light feeling from having less in my wardrobe. I forgot to film befores, but here are the afters. I didn't actually take that many dresses out. Five dresses out. It's definitely better than it was because that was a really chockers cupboard. My shoes are looking gorgeous too. I took three pairs of shoes out. There were still three pairs of heels hiding in my cupboard that I just haven't been able to get rid of. But that part, my dresses is looking really good. And now I just have to do my sweaters and all of the storage boxes at the top. I'm listening to a podcast from a really lovely couple about meditation and it's just putting me in a really good place. So I'll finish up now. And then I'm going to talk to you about the plans for the rest of my wardrobe, what I intend to do and what I'm going to do with my things in storage. Hello everyone. Here's something random that gets kept in my wardrobe. Cat treats. Let's feed this king, shall we? Also this little bin. It's so handy. I also keep my hair clips and jewelry in here as well. Here are my drawers. I took this time to refold and reset these drawers and was able to donate a few things from here too. So what's my plan? Now this is all done. I removed 56 items. That's huge. I would never declutter that many items. So I guess the title of this video is kind of a lie, but it's not a real declutter, but it is a decluttering technique. This was really easy. Like this was so easy to do. I'm really interested to see how I feel on a day-to-day basis going forward with my wardrobe, the way that it is now, because it looks so, so nice compared to what it was before. There is so much breathing room. And then how I feel when I look at these items again in three to six months. I will obviously update you guys whenever that is, but for now I'm going to try to find room to store all these things. I think that's going to be the biggest challenge of all. But you'll be fine. I'll work it out. So I'd love to know if you're going to try this out, or if you have tried this out in the past and how you've gone. But for now, I'm going to go. Thanks for watching. Bye.