How To Declutter Your Wardrobe Of Coats & Jackets Clutter
Today's mission is to declutter your wardrobe of coats and jackets that you don't need and are excess stuff, to get rid of your closet or drawer clutter.
This mission is designed to be done while we're focused on the Entryway & Mudroom Organization Challenge, because that is often where your coat closet is located, which is where often the family's coats and jackets are hung.
Of course, this mission could also apply to one of several other different weeks of the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, all dealing in one degree or another with clothes, including the Organize Master Bedroom Closet Challenge, the Organize Master Bedroom Challenge, or the Outgrown & Seasonal Clothing Storage Challenge.
Instead of trying to get rid of all your clothing clutter at once, and then feeling overwhelmed, or pulling out too many clothes all at once and making a big mess, I've broken this task up for you into a series of missions, some of them focused on the type of clothing item, while others are focused on clearing out the places you store the various types of clothes, such as in drawers in your bedroom, or hanging up or on shelves in your closet for example.
As always, when decluttering any type of clothing, make sure to use these 9 questions to help you with the process, so you can feel good about the choices you make.
What Types Of Clothing Items This Mission Encompasses
During this Declutter 365 mission I want you to evaluate whether to keep or get rid of the following types of clothing items in your coat closet, bedroom closet, or dresser drawers that are considered coats. This list can include:
- Heavy winter coats and overcoats
- Lighter coats and jackets
- Leather jackets and coats
- Fleece
- Jean jackets
- Windbreaker
- Poncho
- Raincoats and slickers
Please note that other cooler weather clothes, that you'd wear inside, are part of a different mission about decluttering sweaters and sweatshirts.
In addition, we have another decluttering mission for gloves, scarves and hats that you may often wear with your coat, when outdoors.
How Many Coats & Jackets Do You Need?
Today's the day that you ask yourself how many coats and jackets you need (and have room for in your closet or drawers), and then keep decluttering until you reach that number.
Since everyone has their own lifestyle, fashion and style sense, and a different amount of space in their closet and drawers to store this type of clothing it's difficult to say with certainty what that number of how many you need is, for you.
Therefore, I find it easier to talk about minimums, and then additional factors to consider to decide if you need or want any number above that minimum.
At a minimum you need enough coats and jackets to keep you warm in the climate you live in, and to be able to have clean items until the next time you do laundry, during the cool weather months.
As discussed in more length in my article about how often to wash various types of laundry, assuming you've just worn the clothes as expected, and not fallen in a mud puddle or otherwise made big mess, you can wash coats and jackets every month to two months of wear (with kids always lean to more frequently since they tend to be messier).
That means you don't need to wash (or dry clean) coats and jackets too frequently, which means on a practical and totally utilitarian level we don't need many coats of jackets, and typically most people on have one heavy winter coat, for example.
However, most people use other considerations to decide they'd like a few more lighter jackets that aren't utilitarian, but based on other wants and preferences. Here are some things to decide for yourself, when determining how many coats or lighter jackets you'll want to keep.
- Consider what weight of jackets or coats you need for various activities, such as going out with friends, hiking outdoors, going to work during the deep winter, etc.;
- Consider what types of coats or jackets are appropriate for each season; and
- Consider fashion and colors, to decide what variety of styles, colors, and fits you need for a wardrobe that fits your fashion and style choices
Keep decluttering to get rid of excess items that you haven't worn in the past year, don't fit your body, you don't like, aren't in fashion, have too many stains or tears to be salvageable, or otherwise will not fit into the space you've got designated for them.
Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!
Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.
The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!
Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.
Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.
In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.
If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!
In addition, here's a round up of all the Declutter 365 missions on the site for decluttering clothes of all kinds.
Top photo courtesy of Hywell Martinez, and second photo in collage courtesy of Collin Anderson
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I would love to hear from you, sharing your thoughts, questions, or ideas about this topic, so leave me a comment below. I try to always respond back!