How To Declutter Your Wardrobe Of Gloves, Hats & Scarves Clutter
Today's mission is to declutter your wardrobe of gloves, hats, scarves and other cold weather accessories 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 these types of winter gear and accessories are located, because family members and guests take them off as soon as they come inside from the cold.
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 cold weather accessories. This list can include:
- Gloves or mittens
- Scarves (we got rid of fashion scarves, and other accessories here)
- Winter hats (we dealt with decluttering other types of hats here)
- Earmuffs or winter headbands or wraps, for covering ears
You can also get rid of any other excess or unneeded items of clothing or gear for other weather events as well, such as umbrellas, as well.
Remember that yesterday's mission was to declutter excess coats and jackets, and we've also had missions for decluttering shoes and boots, some of which may also have been used for specific types of weather conditions.
How Many Pairs Of Gloves, Scarves & Hats Do You Need?
Today's the day that you ask yourself how many of these cold weather accessories 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 of this winter gear to keep each member of your household 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 these types of items about once a month (perhaps more frequently for kids, if they're very active outside).
That means you don't need to wash this stuff too frequently, which means on a practical and totally utilitarian level we don't need many of these items per person. Perhaps one set for each family member, with a few extra back ups that anyone in the household could use if they somehow lost or misplaced their own gloves, scarves or winter hats.
However, most people use other considerations, that aren't utiliatarian, to decide they'd like a few more of these items. Here are some things to decide for yourself, when determining how many of these items you'll want to keep.
- How prone are people in your household to losing these smaller items (kids, for example, may be likely to lose mittens or hats easily and frequently)
- Consider how cold it gets in your area, to determine if various weights or varieties of these items are necessary or helpful; 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, no longer have a match or pair, or otherwise will not fit into the space you've got designated for them.
Use This Mission As An Opportunity To Also Confirm You Have Enough For The Upcoming Cold Weather
Because most people need two gloves, for example, and gloves are easily lost or misplaced, it's easy to understand why during this mission you may realize instead of getting rid of winter accessories, you need to get more for people in your household.
That's perfectly OK! If you realize now, before it gets too cold, that your child, for example, needs a new pair of gloves, it's easy to get it onto the shopping list and pick them up soon, without stress or undue inconvenience.
If, on the other hand, you didn't take a quick mental inventory of everyone's winter gear now, on the first really cold day of the season you might have to scramble to find something for your child to wear, so they don't get too cold while standing by the bus stop.
Therefore, use this mission as an opportunity to make sure everyone has what they need to keep warm during the upcoming winter, to save yourself some stress and extra effort later.
Photos From Readers Who've Already Done This Mission
This is typically a pretty quick mission to accomplish, but it will really improve your whole family's day to day life in the cold weather, once you've done it.
Here are some photos from readers, below, who've already done this mission to show you what they accomplished, and also to get you motivated to tackle this task for yourself today.
The top photo within the above collage was sent in by a Declutter 365 participant, Linda, who said, "Got rid of gloves with no mates and those items we never wear."
The bottom photo of the collage was sent in by another reader, Emma, who said, "This is one of 20 scarves I got rid of :)."
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.
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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!