Minimalism doesn’t have to be drastic changes. Small changes have big effects with motivation and consistency. One of the places I started was with my clothing. My winter items are always in excess.

I began by sorting through my items including; coats, scarves, hats, gloves, and shoes. My goal is to inspire you with my ‘minimalist process‘ as you begin sorting through your own clothing items. I tried making this process as low-stress as possible.

For a while, I thought I had to go from beginning to end in one go-around. However, after some time and experience, I learned it’s about seeing progress and taking baby steps. The small changes I was making had big effects.

I have some before and after pictures throughout this post to give you a realistic idea of a ‘minimalist process’. I start with 4 piles and a list of questions. 

4 piles to try

Whether I’m minimizing my closet, my coats, or my shoes, I have the same 4 piles to guide me through the process.

Keep – This pile is for the items you absolutely love and are confident in wearing/saving.

Donate – This pile is for items that are in good and wearable condition, but you don’t have a need for (check out the questions below explaining why you wouldn’t keep such items).

Sell – This pile is for items that are also in a good and wearable condition that you would sell. Great places to sell these items are Plato’s Closet, Facebook Market, etc…

Trash – This pile is for items that are stained, ripped, or not in wearable condition. These are great to reuse as towels, crafts, sewing scraps, and more!

These 4 piles are great guidelines to keep you organized and confident while you minimize your items. Some great organizations to donate your items to include: Women’s Shelters, Low-Income Families, Churches, Habitat for Humanity, etc… If you’d like to donate to a specific shelter, call your local non-emergency line and ask where you can donate these items. Oftentimes, these organizations do not allow their address to be public.

5 questions to ask

There are 5 questions I like to ask myself when going through my items. I usually start by taking out all the possible “what if” situations/outfits and putting them in a pile. It sounds daunting, I know. It may even look a little scary. But stick with me, it gets better! I try on or at least pick up each item. Then I ask myself these questions…

Does It Fit Well? – This is asking if it fits now. Not “it could fit, it might fit, what if I lose weight”… does it fit you now?

Do You Feel Good/Is It Comfortable? – Do you feel confident and comfortable in it? If you’re constantly over-aware of how you look or if you’re uncomfortable and tugging at it, then it’s not meant for your keep pile.

Is It Damaged or Stained? – If so, are you going to fix it today? No? Get rid of it.

When Is The Last Time You Wore It? – If it hasn’t been worn in over 6 months to a year (without good reason), it’s probably not worth keeping.

If You Had To Wear It The Rest Of The Day, Would You Be Happy/Comfortable? – As strange as this question is, it gets to the nitty gritty. If you wouldn’t be able to wear it the rest of the day, are you really happy with it?

When I ask myself these questions, I find I have a lot of items for “what if” situations or “memory” purposes. I was actively wearing maybe 1/4 of what I owned. These questions made me confident in the items I was keeping and comfortable in what I was wearing. Not to mention I had way more room! 

the process i tried

For me, this ‘minimizing process’ was with winter items. I had a large number of winter items I didn’t wear.

I started with my coats. My SIXTEEN coats! Who needs 16 coats you ask? Absolutely no one (in my opinion). After going through them, I ended up with 8. Now 8 coats isn’t my end goal. Ideally, I would like to only have 2. However, going from 16 to 8 is a pretty great start!

Next were my shoes. Again, I had a lot of shoes I didn’t wear. I started with 27 pairs of shoes. After this process, I ended with 17. I’m nowhere near my end goal of 5, however, I’m happy with the progress.

For some reason, even though I wear the same 4 pairs of shoes, I have a hard time getting rid of them. I use this example so you understand, it’s not worth the stress! If you start to get frustrated or stressed, just stop and come back to it later. Whether that be later that day or in another month. This is a process, not a race.

Last were my scarves, hats, and gloves. As you guessed, I had a lot that I never wore. I started with 8 scarves, 15 hats, and 6 pairs of gloves. After going through everything, I ended with 4 scarves, 5 hats, and 3 gloves. I would like to have 2 of each item, but again, this is great progress!

my takeaway

It’s important to be honest with yourself while remaining gracious. I found taking away all the “what if” situations, cut my items down to half. These guidelines allowed me to stay on task and remain honest with myself. 

I realized it’s all about progress. The small changes made result in big impacts. You may not get where you would like right away, but it’s still a great change and improvement. I love to take pictures and look back at the progress, it’s refreshing to see and great motivation!

A minimalistic lifestyle is just that, a lifestyle. Once I realized there was no rush, no race to win, and no “one-and-done purges”, I began living a more peaceful lifestyle. Living a minimalistic lifestyle is not always easy, but it’s very rewarding.