Cleaning Out Your Clothes Closets
by Rachel Paxton

Description: Tips for keeping your clothes closet clean and organized.

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Keeping your wardrobe up to date is easy if you start by sorting through all your unwanted clothing and donate it to charities.

I'm always looking for people to give my daughter's outgrown clothes to. Every 2 months or so my daughter and I sort through her clothes and make one pile for charities, and another pile for the consignment store.

I've found to keep your child's wardrobe up to date (and your own for that matter), you have to regularly go through and weed out the outgrown and unwanted clothes. If you don't you just end up with closets and bags, and often even piles of unwanted clothing that will never be worn again. After awhile it just gets to the point where you don't know where to start. Making cleaning out your clothes closet a regular routine will save you a lot of time and energy later down the road and even help you to keep your wardrobe up to date. It takes us an hour at the most to go though our clothes and sort them out. When you do this regularly you'll find you don't need as many pieces of clothing you maybe thought you did, and you actually wear and enjoy the clothing you do have. My winter and summer clothing both fit into half of our small closet, and I no longer find my family's outgrown and unwanted clothing stored all around the house.

So what can you do with unwanted clothes? The easiest thing to do is donate them to charities. Good Will, Salvation Army, women's shelters, and other charities are always looking for donations, and they will often come right to your front door to pick up your unwanted clothing for you.

If your clothing is still in really good condition and you want to take the time, you can consign your in-season clothing and make a few extra dollars. Check your local Yellow Pages for consignment store listings.

I saw a great idea on TV that I thought would be fun to try sometime. A group of women got together in someone's home and brought their unwanted clothing to share with each other. Someone took the time to organize the clothing and display it attractively, and then the women got together and took home their pick of clothing. They could take whatever they liked as long as they had contributed some of their own clothing. It was neat how the event was organized. The women had make-shift dressing rooms where they could try on clothing and refreshments were served while the women visited with one another. It looked like a lot of fun and a great way to update your wardrobe. This can also be done with children's clothing and toys.

The next time you look into your family's closets and see even one article of clothing that hasn't been worn in the past 6 months, maybe it's time to sort through them and pass some of the clothing along. The more organized your closets are, the more easily you and your family will be able to find the clothing you truly love to wear.

Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of What's for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For more recipes, organizing tips, home decorating, crafts, holiday hints, and more, visit Creative Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com.

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