BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Cleaning Decluttering Clothes

My boyfriend is notoriously bad about ever getting rid of old clothes. So I have to take things in stages.

Right now he has his shirts / t-shirts in 2 closets. The rarely used ones are in the closet in the office, so if he never goes in there, it starts to indicate that those clothes are no longer needed

For the "active" closet, I take a different approach. I have hung every item in it "backwards" - that is, with the hook open part facing me. Usually when you hang clothes you hang them with the hook open part facing the back of the closet.

So everything is backwards in the closet. As he takes out and wears things, and they go back in, they'll go back in normally. So after say 3 months, anything that is still backwards hasn't been worn at all in 3 months.

Angie, this might be a *good* time to look at your winter items. Or at least your winter accessories, like hats, scarves and gloves. It might be easier to have less duplicates of things that are wintry when it's getting hotter out!

Lisa, that is pretty smart thinking. I wonder if Bob will be willing to let things go after you've proven that he really doesn't wear them?

Hmmm, what is next for me to look at? I think I still brought too many jackets into the RV. I pared them down to five or six for different weather conditions, but it's probably still too many when I keep reaching for the same one or two. Let me look at those now.

This is funny...I did all that closet cleaning a few months back, but now that it's time to make the switch and pull out the spring/summer clothes and pack away the winter stuff...I can't find what I did with the summer clothes...maybe I threw them away thinking that we needed new ones this year (stained, holes...etc...)

Too many sweaters and my slacks are getting that comfortable worn look. I've already begun a pile for discarding.

BigBrother BigSister is coming in three days! Hurrah! Now to go from room to room and find something in every room to put into boxes ...

Jill - my plan after 3 months is two fold. First, I'm going to seriously prune things in his "never used closet" when we've proven he hasn't even opened that closet door in 3 months. That will clear up space in there.

Then I will move everything that hasn't been touched in his main closet into that never used closet. We will see, again, if he ever goes into that never used closet at all. So that will be a staging area. He is very, very resistant to doing this so I have to go slowly.

Lisa - my ex was just as resistant. She went to visit her parents for a weekend and I boxed everything up that was a) in the attic, b)in the basement, c) in the hall closet and d) in the guestroom closet and put them in the garage. Two months went by and I took them all to Goodwill. It took her SIX months to notice any amiss. There was minor ranting and raving but she got over it. No long lasting marital harm!

Hmmmm I am not sure I'd ever go that far. If something is Bob's possession I would not make decisions about it. If it's a joint possession then I would, but not if it's his personal property. So this staging process is to help him with the weaning.

I admit I would be extremely furious if Bob took it on himself to get rid of something that was my personal possession

So even though I've gone through my clothes closet many times in the past when the BBBS came on their trips, I made myself get even more serious this time. I still had some gorgeous wool skirts that I adore, and a few sweaters. But I have not worn them literally in 10 years I think. I think they're beautiful but I just don't have any need to wear them. So I am going to take photos of them and send them out into the universe. Someone else might wear them every week and be simply ecstatic that they have such a lovely item.

I am hoarding them which isn't good! They should be worn So that is my self-encouragement-talking to get me to let them go.

So I'm feeling good about the music room, which is where my clothes closet is. I made a good dent in the clothes there even though like I said I've pruned several times before.

The other rooms will be harder, but I will get at least one thing from each room!

Jilly, I liked your ideas of the shoe holders for folded clothes and I am taking seriously your mention of the 80-20- rule. That might help a great deal! The boat is a 44 ft. sailboat, a pilothouse (meaning you can steer inside if the weather is bad),ketch (two masts). We live in Florida and hope to go up the eastcoast maybe this summer. I have a two pound Alphasmart keyboard so I can keep writing.