If you want to get ruthless in #decluttering your #closet, set a maximum number of hangers or limits on how many of which category of garment you will keep, says Simple Lionheart Life. You can track garment usage to ensure that only your favorites stay in rotation by turning the hangers in your closet around; after you wear an item, put it back hanging the right way. Any garments still hanging backward at the end of the season can likely be #donated. Or for a more immediate #purge, imagine yourself wearing each item of clothing or outfit when you run into an old friend or acquaintance — would you look and feel your best at that moment?
Tag: donating clothing
Keep an ‘Outbox’ in Your Closet
One shortcut to a #clutter-free and more #organized #closet is to place an empty box or bin in it, says Apartment Therapy. That way, when you’re trying things on and discover a #garment that you haven’t worn in more than a year or just don’t like, it can go directly into the box. It won’t be long before that “outbox” is full and ready to #donate to to a charitable organization such as ClothingDonations.org. “I had a container I wasn’t using, so it cost me nothing, and it took me about five seconds to add it to the space,” says author Olivia Muenter. “After a month, I had a full box and an emptier closet.”
Start Decluttering With a Single Closet
Don’t make #decluttering into an insurmountable task — start with just one #closet. Pull everything out and sort it into #keep, #trash and #donate piles. Clothing you enjoy wearing regularly are easy keepers, while items that are too damaged, stained or stretched-out can go directly in the trash. What goes in the #donate bag is a little more nuanced: Maybe an item doesn’t fit, never worked as part of your personal style, or was part of a too-small “goal” outfit that now only inspires anxiety, CNET says. Send those #garments to ClothingDonations.org immediately, set a new goal and reward yourself with a new outfit when you achieve it.
How to Use an ‘Extra’ Hour
Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 7, when most U.S. households turn their clocks back one hour. That means people will be able to take adavantage of an “extra” hour to do whatever they see fit.
In actuality, the hour isn’t “extra” at all, having been borrowed from the clock earlier in the year to provide more daylight in the warmer months. You may feel like like going to bed earlier for a few days, but plan now to make the most of that extra time.
Dreamed up by a New Zealand entomologist and an English golf aficionado who wanted longer daylight hours for their pursuits, DST has long been championed as a way to conserve energy. Its first widespread use came during World War I as a strategy to conserve coal.
Most of the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and France never completely abandoned the practice, although it remains unpopular among dairy farmers. DST has become so popular among retailers and the general public, in fact, that four U.S. states have advanced proposals to make it permanent.
So what will you do with that “extra” hour? The first, most obvious option is to sleep though it in order to adjust to the new schedule faster. If you wake up early instead, you can use the hour to do some of the household winterizing chores you’ve been putting off.
Alternatively, you can take that extra hour and use it to #organize, #decutter and #clean a single spot in your home — a drawer, desktop, shelf, closet or room — and benefit from a newly streamlined space throughout the winter.
If you really want to thrive through the darkest months, consider making this a practice every week. Take one hour — any hour in the week — and use it to organize. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish if you set aside the time and make #organizing a part of your routine.
If you find any articles of #clothing, small appliances or other household items that have some life left in them, bag or box them and take one of your extra minutes to contact ClothingDonations.org for a #contactless #donation pickup.
Time is the most precious commodity we have. Take advantage of your “extra” hour this week, no matter how you choose to spend it.
Honoring Your Heroes on Memorial Day
This Memorial Day promises to be a jubilant one. With a surge in vaccinations against COVID-19 — especially among the aging members of the veteran population — towns can again honor the memory of the more than 1.3 million people who have given their lives for the nation since 1775.
The Organizing Blog urges readers to get out and commemorate these heroes while observing proper social distancing to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. Many parades are back after skipping 2020 due to the pandemic, and outdoor activities remain relatively low-risk, especially for the vaccinated.
The unofficial start of summer, Memorial Day is a great time to have a cookout, go to the beach, or shop the garage sales. But you can make time to #honor those who died in service to their country before, during or after engaging in the #summer fun.
Reader’s Digest suggests decorating for the event, visiting a cemetery to place a flag and flowers on a grave, or watching a war movie. You can also observe a moment of silence privately during the National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. on May 31.
This Memorial Day, we should also give special remembrance to nearly 600,000 citizens who have lost their lives to a dreaded disease in the last 18 months. (That’s more lives lost than in all of World War II.) And let’s also remember the heroic health care workers and volunteers who are on the front lines of the war on COVID.
While Memorial Day is designed to honor the deceased, you can support living veterans by writing letters to active-duty troops overseas or dropping off treats at the local veterans home. And if there are any veterans among your family and friends, this would be a great time to pay them a visit, take them to lunch or give them a call.
The Organizing Blog feels duty-bound (pun intended) to remind readers that it makes helping veterans easy. We pick up your donations of unwanted, lightly used clothing and household goods and resell them to fund veteran housing, health care, events and initiatives. Gather your donations and visit ClothingDonations.org to schedule a free, contactless #donation pickup.
This year, let’s honor the memory of those we’ve lost in a way that feels reverent and genuine. But let’s not forget that there are heroes still walking among us.