Introduction
This post is not suitable for people who requires lots of clothing for any reasons (for work, to get latest fashion and so on). Also for people who have tons of money to spen around. Well…they will never read this one for sure.
Everyone has this problem at least once in their life and there are many solutions out there. Just google “decluttering wardrobe”.
Some people might this “is this really a thing to talk/discuss about?”. In my opinion, it’s important to think about for so many reasons. People buy clothes to wear it. Unfortunately, If you have a pile of clothes and you can’t spend time to maintain it, clothes wear you. From a t-shirt you bought, there are many thing you have to give for this one t-shirt. A place at your wardrobe. A place at your laundry list. A thought to remind you when to wear it. Extra 3 minute for ironing one more shirt.
What’s so special about this post?
This is not an article that guides you what to do. I read so many “do this,do that” article. I do laundry every 2 week,twice a month. My wardrobe is almost empty every 2 weeks. I spend around 2 hours ironing clothes. That’s it. That’s it. No more unnecessity and no chaos. I like to keep things simple and straightforward.
This is how I declutter my wardrobe and tips on how to make things simple.
Last In,First Out
Keeping clean and downsize wardrobe doesn’t mean “anti-buying” clothes. I am not living in a jungle or a cave. I have to look sharp and neat. People treats you better if you look neat and clean. I work at a molecular biotech lab and i usually wear informal. There is no dress code since it’s a research lab. I only wear formal for some occasions and one time, the old janitor greets me nicely because of the formal clothes. What I am trying to say is that people treats and distinguishes people class by clothing.
I categorize my clothes into 4 groups; ones just bought recently (1), still ok (2) and weary ones (3) and clothes to give away (4). When I buy a new cloth,I shifted one cloth and move to next group. I wear number 1 and 2 as office wear and casual wear. For group 3, I wear it while I am staying in and put in the bag to give away for group 4.
The purpose is to keep the ideal number of clothes I need without piling up bunch of clothes.
Some productivity tips for clothing maintenance
- I usually iron shirts and hang them at the wardrobe because folding them takes time.
- For t-shirt, I keep them in several stacks according to my predefined groups.
- Learn to iron quickly and systematically. So,you don’t need to spend like 5 minutes to iron one shirt. Check out this how to iron in 90 seconds.. This is how I iron clothes but it takes like 2 minutes per shirt because I also iron the back of the shirt.
- When you are ironing, concentrate on what you are doing instead of watching TV or other multi-tasks.
- Fold your socks in pair,so you are not gonna have a problem of missing sock.
- It’s good to separate sports wear and do a separate laundry because these clothes are stinky and dirty.
- For jeans, jackets and thick clothes, it is not necessary to wash it quite often. Using too much detergent is also a bad idea since it can wash out the color of the jean. Use more fabric softener and less detergent on these thick multi-layered clothes.
- For bobbles or lint balls, use old razor blade and it works like magic.
- For stinky shoes, put them in zip lock bag and freeze them over night.
- For stain removing, this stain removal from clothes cover intensive cleaning tips for different type of stains.
So, you might be thinking that’s a lot of stuffs to swallow. It’s worth to learn and there is several benefits from knowing these tips and tricks.
Clothing & Traveling
For a frequent traveler, they have their own system of organizing clothes. For a occasional traveler, it is difficult to estimate the type of clothes and the quantity to put in the luggage. There is no simple equation to make it easy. But think of these criteria which will make things easier:
- How many nights are you staying?
- Weather of destination?
- Urban or Rural? (If you are going to a city, you can buy things easily.)
- For minimal packing, think of clothes that can dry quickly and get rid of thick layer clothes.
- Compression bag?
- learn from these masters:
How to Pack 1 Carry-On for a Year Around the World (87 things, 28.1 lbs)
How To Pack For A Business Trip
So, if you still have no idea what to do:
- sort
- select
- stack
- store
As a bonus tip, this is how to fold a shirt in 2 seconds. Cheers and have fun!