Last month I alluded to my intended goal of switching out my summer clothes for my fall and winter clothes. Oh, the optimism in that post! I thought it would be easy and quick. But I forgot that I kept too many clothes last spring.

You see, I’ve tried to stick to keeping everything that’s out of season in two big plastic boxes. When I can’t fit everything in them, I have to get rid of a few things until I can. But apparently last spring I fell off the wagon and added a third box, made of cardboard and somewhat smaller, but a third box nonetheless.

I was not happy to discover this, and determined to stop this new habit in its tracks. As you know, I live in a small house. I can’t let my clothes clutter, or any other clutter for that matter, get out of control. So as the great Barney Fife would say, I have to “nip it in the bud!”

Here are the steps I used to get my wardrobe back under control:

1. I pulled all the clean summer clothes out of my drawers and closet, making piles of like items, and leaving empty drawers. (Note that for the last few weeks, I’ve been washing all those summer items in preparation for packing them away, so the drawers were quite full.)
2. I looked at each item and set aside those that I hardly wore or didn’t wear at all since spring (they’re usually found in the bottom of each drawer, where they eventually landed after I kept rejecting them.)
3. Clearly they aren’t my favorites, so I made myself put some of them in the donation pile. (That’s hard for me to do because they’re still in good shape and I was raised to be very frugal.) I kept a few others in hopes that I will wear them next summer.
4. I pulled the two large plastic boxes of fall and winter clothes out of my closet. This is when I was dismayed to find that third box, tucked behind them.
5. I pulled out each item and assigned it to a pile: the pile of tops and sweaters I expect to wear this winter, the pile of slacks I expect to wear this winter, and a small pile of warm nightgowns and pajamas.
6. There were still quite a few pieces of clothing left over. Some are either too small or too big but I like them, and will wear them when they fit, so I kept them. But I eliminated three pairs of slacks from the 90s (the brown, green and navy versions of the same style) that are very well made but quite wide in the thighs and legs, which was the style back then. I wore them once or twice last winter and they fit, but I felt silly in them. I think it’s time I finally move them along. I also gave up several tops that I just don’t wear anymore.
7. I set aside four items that no longer fit. They’re going into my sewing pile. Two are too large and I’m going to try to make them smaller. The other two are 90s full skirts that are tight in the waist, and too full and long; I’m thinking I could use their floral rayon fabric to make summer tops.

Then I put all of my summer clothes piles in the two boxes, and they fit perfectly. So now I don’t have to think about that until next spring. Given how long winter lasts here in the Midwest, spring is a long ways off!