How To Declutter Your Wardrobe Of Workwear Clutter
Today's mission is to declutter your wardrobe of workwear, such as suits, uniforms and office clothes 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 Organize Primary Bedroom Closet Challenge and/or the Organize Primary Bedroom Challenge, which are two of the 52 Week Organized Home Challenges here on the site. When you do the mission depends on where you keep these types of clothes within your home, the closet or within a drawer in the bedroom.
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 of decluttering clothes up for you into a series of missions. Some of these daily missions are 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 or drawers within 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 closet or dresser drawers that are considered workwear or work clothes.
Depending on what your job is, the clothing you wear for it can be wide-ranging, from formal suits, dressy office wear, business casual, uniforms, casual clothing such as pants and shirts, scrubs, and more.
Some of these items of clothing may be things you can also wear outside of work, such as dresses, or they might be things you only wear at work, and would not be appropriate at any other time, like a uniform with a company logo.
Further, because of safety issues, or very specialized jobs, you may have specific items such as eyewear, shoes or boots, or headwear that you must wear on the job as well.
Today's the day for all of that, if you haven't already dealt with it in another of the specific clothing Declutter 365 missions (many of which I've linked to above as I mentioned specific overlapping types of clothing items that may apply to your workwear situation).
How Much Workwear Do You Need?
When you begin the process of getting rid of work clothes clutter, the first thing you've got to ask yourself, is how much workwear do you actually need?
This is always a complicated question for me to answer, because everyone's situation is unique, and it's even more difficult when discussing this type of clothing, because the type of job you have, and therefore the types of clothes you wear to it, will add even more variables to the mix in determining the final answer.
Therefore, instead of providing you with rigid guidelines about how many of any particular item you need (and which most likely not be the right answer for you anyway), here are the factors you should consider, for yourself, when determining how much workwear you need to keep in your closet or drawers.
- How many outfits/uniforms do you wear within a typical work week
- How often do these clothes need to be washed (or dry cleaned), and what's your normal laundry schedule for doing it
- How much room you've got in your closet or drawers to store your work clothes (and still have room for other types of clothing you also need)
- Consider what types of work clothes you need for various types of occasions or events, such as working in the office, business trips, meetings, travel, etc.;
- Consider what types of work clothes are appropriate for each season; and
- Consider fashion and colors, to decide what variety of styles, colors, and fits your business or workplace's rules or guidelines for appropriate dress
Keep decluttering to get rid of excess items that 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.
Photos From Participants Who've Already Done This Mission
Here are some photos from Declutter 365 participants who've already worked on this mission, and gotten rid of some of their clothing clutter that they wore to work.
I hope as you check out these photos you'll see the positive impact this task had on these readers homes, and will get you motivated to do the mission too!
First, is a photo from a reader, Mary Jo, who said, "After 30+ years in retail, and, body changes (lol), I'm finally ready to edit my closet, and move on toward retirement (soon, but, not yet). I've separated tops, bottoms, dresses, etc. Family and friends have made their picks, now just finishing up, and, almost ready for donation. I did try selling on yard sale groups, but, no interest."
In addition, the photo below is from another reader, Linda, who decluttered her closet, specifically focused on her business attire winter clothing.
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.
Let's Stay Connected!
Subscribe To Decluttering & Organizing Newsletter
Join Declutter 365 Public Facebook Group (500,000+ Members)
Share Your Comments, Tips & Ideas
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!