Taking advantage of the changing season, give the wardrobe a break

After a while of autumn rain, I suddenly realized the change in temperature, so I had to put on the agenda to change the season of the wardrobe.

It took three or four days from packing up the summer clothes and washing them in batches, to stuffing the winter clothes into the closet and sending the clothes that were no longer worn for recycling. Most of that time is spent washing and drying, with less than a day dedicated to tidying up the layout.

Every previous season change inevitably bumps into a move, so this is the first time a serious wardrobe change is made. The following is my experience in organizing the wardrobe this time, as well as reflections on consumption and separation, I hope it will be helpful to you.

Step 1: Say goodbye to the old

“Old clothes” here refers to summer clothes, as well as some clothes that are not intended to be worn again.

In summer, there is a lot of sweat. In order to prevent the accumulation of sweat, it needs to be cleaned before storage. If it is the season of winter and summer at the beginning of the year, it should be noted that sweaters that cannot be dried take longer to be washed and dried by hand, and more time may need to be reserved in advance.

The first step is to take out all the clothes that you don’t plan to wear in winter, and put them into different laundry bags after cleaning your pockets. My classification is mainly based on the washing method: those that can only be machine washed and not dried, and those that can be machine washed and tumbled dry, with separate shades, a total of four baskets. There is also a cardboard box for clothes that are no longer ready to be worn.

Laundry starts with delicate clothes that need to dry overnight at least, and then those that can be dried. I left enough time in between to make sure most of the clothes were dry enough around the same time to be safe in the pantry without worrying about mold.

Next, put all the clothes into the storage box according to the washing method. The teaching at home is “put your delicate clothes on the top layer so that they won’t be easily crushed”, but from what I know about myself, when the weather is hot, you must take the clothes directly from the top layer, so put the ordinary clothes on the top layer. Clothes are always right; in the same way, the top layer of winter clothing storage is also a light sweater.

During this process, instead of putting all the washed clothes in the storage box, I specially left many clothes that I don’t plan to wear again. About my “break up”, will be described in detail in a later section.

And the clothes that are put away to be worn again next year are put into a sealable bag with a small piece of sandalwood soap. When they are taken out and worn again next year, the clothes will naturally be dyed with a good smell! In addition to sandalwood soap, you can also try camphor wood balls, incense sticks, and incense sticks that are cut into small pieces and put in paper bags.

For storage bags, I originally only stored fabrics such as down jackets and quilts, which can be greatly reduced in size, in a sealed vacuum bag for storage (everyone who has tried it knows that this is definitely physical work; wrinkle-prone clothes will also indentation). It wasn’t until this year that an air-dried spider was found in a sweater wrapped in a regular plastic bag that I decided to put whatever clothes into a sealed bag _(:з”∠)_

Step 2: Welcome

Before filling the void in my wardrobe with winter clothes, I did another thing: thinking about whether the layout of the wardrobe needs to be adjusted this year, and if so, how?

I live in a rented room now, and the wardrobe in the room is not adjustable, so there is not much room for me to play freely. But in this limited space, I also want to make the best use of every inch of space as much as possible.

Every year I have grown, which has brought about changes in my aesthetic and my lifestyle. So some placements may have worked for me in the past, but in the new year, I don’t have to give them that much space anymore, and other clothes will fill in. Thinking about the new layout of the wardrobe also strengthened my determination to give up certain clothes.

In my chore article last year, I shared my wardrobe layout (see image below). Some placements still seem to be worth keeping, while others need to be adjusted.

I found that the sorting method used in the left hanging area is very suitable for autumn and winter, because most clothes do not need to be washed frequently, and I want to be able to distinguish between the clothes that have not been worn and the clothes that have been worn, which will directly Decided whether I threw them directly on the bed or on the chair after choosing clothes (…) The drawer for sweaters also used a piece of cardboard to differentiate between “worn” and “unworn” .

Originally used to put sweaters and sweaters, this grid is the most comfortable height for me to take clothes. I discovered last winter that if I kept putting sweaters and hoodies in the same compartment, the boundaries between them would only become less clear and could easily turn into a mess. On the contrary, the home clothes that can only be obtained by stepping feet are not too different from the sweaters that can be worn out, so they are more suitable to be put together.

Originally, I thought that I would often have a gorgeous little skirt (that is, “Sankeng clothes”), but in fact, I rarely have the opportunity to wear it out, so I chose the most commonly worn and seasonable ones and put them at the top. , and accessories together, you really don’t need to go back and forth in the wardrobe when you really need to go out. The empty space in the drawer is naturally reserved for sweaters that are worn more often.

After re-planning, this year’s wardrobe ended up looking like this:

Once you have a plan for the various parts of your closet, the process of putting them in is efficient and orderly. Take out the boxes of winter clothes in the storage room, take them apart, and put them in the closet one by one, and the season change of clothes is 90% complete. Next is ironing the coat, doing some necessary laundry disinfection, and disposing of the old clothes I don’t plan to wear again.

Also: break, abandon, leave

I haven’t read articles related to Duansheli for a long time. I always feel that the central idea of these articles is the same, and I haven’t been able to play any new tricks for a long time, so there is no need to read them. This time, I had a strong desire, and a voice in my heart kept saying “I don’t need so many clothes”, which drove me to prepare a box for collecting unnecessary clothes when sorting out old and new clothes.

After all, my clothes are all bought with real money, and I feel emotional after wearing them, so I can’t stop throwing them away. The same is true this time, even if the inner call is so strong, when I really want to throw them away, I still hesitate.

Therefore, a step-by-step approach was adopted in the end: put the clothes that had to be thrown into the bag first; and put the clothes that were not worn so frequently, liked or liked so much, but were not willing to throw them away. the “pending area”.

The clothes selected in the first round were not too many, but when I threw them into the recycling bin, I suddenly felt relieved. So when I go home and look at the clothes I put in the pending area again, the feeling of letting go is better than the reluctance to let go of the old clothes. Coupled with the fantasy I put on these clothes, “I wouldn’t wear these even if I keep them, but donating them can help many other people who don’t have clothes to wear”, it makes me feel that what I’m doing is real. Necessary, and then reorganized when a lot of decisive.

This time, there were two big bags of clothes that I had tossed away. When I packed them up, I was really surprised.

The original plan was just to pack out the clothes that I don’t wear often and donate them, and put them all together. The way of thinking about choosing clothes changed from “what am I going to throw away” to “what am I going to keep”.

Thinking about it, the most important factor is the change in lifestyle in the past year. Work has reduced the amount of time I have at my disposal, so I started to wonder if it’s worth keeping clothes that consume a lot of my time and energy. At the same time, the need to live on a salary means I can no longer spend as recklessly as I did when I was in school, and the money should be reserved for something more worthwhile.

A large part of the clothes that I have left behind for many years and finally sent to me for recycling this year come from the clothes that I bought in the past to match my favorite people. In terms of how the double attack of love-brain and consumerism eats up my wallet, most of these clothes are not “me” enough and are more to the liking of the other person in the relationship. I used to classify these types of clothes as “clothes with special meaning”, but in those fond memories that I still recall to this day, “what I wore” was never the part that impressed me the most. Once you figure this out, you can throw it away.

In short, after much deliberation in the end, the clothes I have left have these qualities:

Well done. Can not be dried, easy to wrinkle, easy to stick hair, the above three points meet any point, unless you like it, you don’t have to leave it.
Compatible with a variety of styles. I insist on filling most of the wardrobes with basic styles, but I also need some items with unique styles to make the matching look less boring. These clothes can in turn be used as the basis for Sankeng clothes, the so-called “one clothes” wear more.”
nice to wear. On the one hand, it is the right size, and it will not make me physically or psychologically uncomfortable; on the other hand, it is convenient to travel, such as the convenience of going to the toilet, and there are at least two pockets that can hold mobile phones. The specific expression is “I will wear it often”.
Good quality. In addition to being comfortable to the touch, the fabric should also be in line with the shape and style (for example, cashmere short sleeves do not need to be kept); on the basis of fabric clearance, if the shape and tailoring can promote strengths and avoid weaknesses, it is the biggest bonus.

Do not! want! Again! purchase! !

Part of the reason why I was able to give up so many clothes is that the money I spent on clothes this year has more than doubled compared to the previous two years. In order to prevent the situation of “buying clothes constantly causing the wardrobe to overflow” in the future, I also set these three rules for myself:

The first is to limit the storage space for certain types of clothing.

Although I designated a separate drawer for underwear and socks before, I was easily bewitched by the product map, and I accidentally placed an order again, so I had to find another place to put it. The lessons left for me are that “the cheap unit price can be multiplied into a huge sum of money” and “people don’t need 20 pairs of underwear plus 15 pairs of menstrual underwear”. So I filled the space left for these things with other items, discarded the ones that were no longer needed, and finally filled up 75% of the drawer, and warned myself that I could never buy more than the capacity of the drawer in the future.

The same goes for shirts and pants. These two types need to be hung up, which is not as intuitive as putting them in a drawer, so simply use multiple layers of coat hangers and trouser racks for storage. There is a limit to the number of clothes you can hang on each hanger, so I have a good idea of how many I have. Before buying, see if there are any similar ones here. If you really want to buy one, you must throw away an old one – and there are so many styles of shirts and trousers. After reading it, you will find that you don’t need to replace it, so you don’t buy it. desire.

The second rule is that instead of seeing a style or piece and trying it out, only buy the pieces that I think I’m missing.

There are many times when I buy a new piece of clothing not because I really need it, but more because of the atmosphere of that piece of clothing and the temperament of the wearer. like this” fantasy. And in most cases clothes bought for this reason usually don’t fit me that well.

So, buy what I really feel I need. If a single item is missing and I think about it many times in a short period of time—for example, it’s really cold in winter and I need a thicker piece of clothing—it’s definitely necessary to buy it.

If it’s just on and off, it means I might need it, but it’s not too urgent. Then imagine the shape of the dress when thinking about it, and keep refining it: I need a coat → dark horn-buttoned coat → length to the middle of the thigh → hooded… Look for the details that make my heart move from the product page, in my mind Slowly weaving its image in the middle, comparing it in many ways, and constantly reminding myself that “it is better to be short than to waste” until you find the “most suitable” one.

From my past experience, the clothes selected in this way are of better quality and more suitable for me than the “see one and buy it” kind of clothes. And if I still feel that I still need one after so much trial and error, then the chance of it being idle is greatly reduced.

The last thing is to look for other things in my life that bring me joy and not to associate all positive emotions with “buying” . I found that what kept me shopping was the pursuit of the happiness that “spending money” brought me. The happiness from consumables doesn’t last long, so I have to buy more to please myself. In fact, there are too many things in life that can bring good experiences. Equating “happiness” with “purchase” will get nothing but creating a pile of garbage that is not used. And if I include everything else as the nourishment for my happiness, perhaps I no longer need to use consumption to create an illusion of happiness.

Epilogue

I see changing seasons as an opportunity to reorganize my wardrobe. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of tidying up my home. For me, the most interesting part of this process is going back from the current state to the past, thinking about how the whole system has become the current state; My needs, a game against my future self.

With simple planning, cleaning, sorting, and storage, changing seasons is not so scary. But in the end, this is just an opportunity to exchange space for clothes. Daily attention should be paid to keeping the home clean and orderly, so that the limited energy can be better used for more creative things.

At the same time, in addition to organizing the wardrobe, I also took the opportunity to reflect on “what kind of clothes do I need”. I’m not static, so my wardrobe should change with me. Usually too lazy to go to a lot of drastic repairs, changing seasons is a good opportunity.

These are my wardrobe changes for the season. Find a free day and take advantage of the changing seasons to organize your wardrobe!

Step 1: Say goodbye to the old

Step 2: Welcome

Also: break, abandon, leave

Do not! want! Again! purchase! !

Epilogue

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