How to Avoid Organizing Your Clothes

Although shelter magazines often picture sparse modernist bedrooms that sport carefully-edited wardrobes organized by color (which is usually limited to a Spartan selection of black and beige), most of us can’t accomplish such a feat of personal style control. I myself need a wider variety of clothing to accommodate various moods, occasions and outdoor temperatures. A tiny wardrobe is also a higher-stakes wardrobe – if one piece gets ripped or stained, you’re out a seventh of your wardrobe and might not have a clean shirt to wear on Sunday.

Although I am not sold on the idea of ruthlessly minimizing the amount of clothing one owns, I acknowledge the havoc that too much clothing can wreak on a bedroom. Alternatively, I’ve worked out a way of controlling my closet based on the idea that if you circulate your clothing regularly and store it in only one closet, you know what you own. If you know what you own and it is all in one place, you don’t need to organize it. Organizing is what you do with clutter. Here’s the theory and how I practice it:

1. Clothing circulation: I read that most women wear only 20 percent of their clothing 80 percent of the time. That means that most of the time, 80 percent of the clothing in many women’s closets is clutter. Reducing clutter is not necessarily synonymous with minimalism. If you actually circulate your clothing and wear all of it regularly, it ceases to be clutter. If you never ever wear an article of clothing, it’s definitely clutter, and you should banish it.

2. Frequency of laundry: For some people, it is totally efficient to own a small amount of clothing and launder it frequently. Laundry takes time, though. I work 50 hours a week and go to classes both before and after work, so it suits my lifestyle better to do laundry less frequently because some weeks, I literally don’t have time to do a load of laundry. Usually at some point, once every two to three weeks, I take an evening to do several loads of laundry at once. I could never manage with one week’s-worth of clothing. If your lifestyle permits devoting more of your weekly time to folding laundry, then you could try a system like the one described next:

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Michele W.

9:01AM PST on Jan 3, 2012

Thank you

send a green star

Elizabeth A.

9:31AM PDT on Mar 23, 2011

To avoid organizing I guess we must have just the "necessary"(this varies from person to person)plus a bit extra and that`s it.Not that easy but well...I`m getting there!

6:55AM PST on Feb 25, 2011

feng shuiing some points for the animals ...

Paulina M.

1:05PM PST on Jan 14, 2011

somehow I am not convinced that system but the glory of holding the clothes in a few places is it just more convenient ,and a few times a year, cleans up in cabinets and forward what we do not litter

Jennifer P.

6:48PM PST on Jan 1, 2011

It's hard for me to do that because i have a shelf closet and very few hangers at the bottom. But i find that if you just simply fold all of your clothes when you put them back onto the shelf, then problem solved. I also organize columns according to t-shirt, long sleeved, pants, shorts and sweater :D

Priscilla G.

3:52PM PST on Dec 26, 2010

I have a disorganised system for my clothes, I rotate between the season putting away winter clothes in summer and visa-versa this works well for me and I use different clothes with each season so I don't get bored with my clothes, some of which I have had for many years and are favouites.

Amanda K.

2:32PM PST on Dec 21, 2010

thanks!

April G.

6:13AM PST on Dec 8, 2010

i'm all for non-organization!!!! i'd get bored wearing the same thing all the time, & clothing lasts longer if it's laundered less frequently. i still have shirts i wear occasionally that i bought when i was in high school (when i caught the thrift store bug), & they're still holding up because i circulate through my closet.

jane r.

7:44AM PST on Dec 7, 2010

Thanks

Cassandra O.

3:27PM PST on Dec 6, 2010

Another great idea is hold a clothes swap with your friends everyone brings something and you trade.