Extreme Organizing - Clothing (Tops)

Extreme Cleaning (Tops)

I have always enjoyed organizing and cleaning ever since I was a little girl. Being the only child I was constantly given stuff and it seemed as if I could never get rid of it. Organizing really helps me to relieve stress and I really started to enjoy cleaning once I got my own apartment. Over the years I realized that while cleaning room by room works, organizing room by room does not work. When I would get a pile of stuff that I needed to sort through and organize I would sort them by category.

♥ Side Story ♥  My little family of three lives in a one bedroom apartment (and let me tell you there is no room for extra stuff). Especially after the baby came in August, 2016. Being raised in Japan, I have always been amazed with Japanese people and how they could live in such tiny apartments and make it work! My one cousin in Japan had two little kids and they had one room, kitchen, and a bathroom. It was such a tiny house and if they could make it work how can I not make mine work? I understood Japanese people used Futon (their floor mattresses and blankets they would bring out at night and put them away in the morning) which clears up a lot of room, but it still seemed like it was impossible. So even though it seemed like the solution is to just get a bigger place I decided to organize and have as little as possible.

First I went through my clothes. Again I would organize by category within clothes, so start with tops.

TOPS.... I still had clothes from middle school... Yes, Middle school! How crazy is that?
I had gym clothes and pants that amazingly enough still fit me until I had my baby.
I don't know why I held on to them for so long since they are out of style now. It was time to let them go.

I have always organized my clothes by color. Red, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, Grey, and White. (I am a winter so I don't own any clothing that are Fall colors like yellow and orange). Which I think is a good idea and it makes it easier when I am picking out my outfit. I separated all of my clothes into categories (For example: tops, pants, skirts, dresses, & etc..) and separated within the categories again (For tops: Sweaters, long sleeves, short sleeves, and etc...).

I pulled out all of my red tops out. This included sweaters, jackets, T-shirts, blouses, and camisoles. I would look at each item of clothing and went by this check list to see if I should keep the item or not.

1. Do I Love it?
2. Would I buy this if I saw it in the store right now?
3. Does it fit me? 
4. Have I worn this in the past year? 
5. Do I have more than one of these? (Like having multiple black t-shirts) 
6. Is this item damaged in any way?

After going by the above check list, I went through each item and separated them by KEEP, SELL, DONATE, and TRASH.

• KEEP)) Jackets, blouses, and nice tops were put on hangers and t-shirts were folded into the drawer. 
• SELL)) If they were name brand clothing, looked brand new, or never worn I would take them to consignment shop. (Plato's Closet or yard sales are options too!)
• DONATE)) I know a family that does not have much. The family has several teen girls so if I come across clothes that they might like I would give the items to them. 
• TRASH)) If the clothing had stains or holes on them I would throw them away. 

After doing this I got rid of four bags full of just tops! Plus when you organize you feel like a load had been taken off of you! I feel happier and refreshed! Although I cleared out a bunch of tops I still feel like I have too many tops, but since I want to go through everything in the apartment I put the hanging clothing (tops) on backwards so next year I know if I wore the item or not. If it stays backwards then I am going to toss it.

This is my tops after I went through each item. I color organized and sorted them in category!

P.S. This is all my summer and winter clothing. Try not to store clothing in storage or in bins because you forget what you have and could end up buying more similar clothing.

This is the result! I either donated or gave away the tops that were on these hangers!

Do you have any organizing tips that really works?
Next on my blog I will be going through bottoms!

♥ Hannah