How to Let Go of Clothes You Don't Wear Anymore

One of my summer jobs in college was working for an elderly woman in her home in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. She was twice widowed and living with decades worth of things, many of it valuable antiques, scholarly writing, important newspaper clippings, children's books. She had sold her home and purchased a condo that was a fraction of the size. She had to downsize, but how do you decide what to let go of when everything feels equally important?

I think about that job often as I build this business. I was just a kid when I worked with her but I'll never forget what I learned about the double-sided coin of letting go of things: the emotional weight of it and the unburdening of it. Nearly every client I work with feels attached to their things. It's part of the reason their closets are so overwhelming. How do you get rid of something you paid good money for, that carries a memory, or might fit again someday?

That's where it pays to have someone there to support and guide the process. I jokingly refer to myself as a closet sherpa but it's really not so far from the truth. I'm not there to do the work for you. I'm there to support you, guide you, and push you through something that ranges from uncomfortable, to emotional, to unburdening, relieving, and joyful depending on the client. There are the nostalgic items, the college sweatshirts, band tees, first Converse, that get moved to a new permanent home in a nostalgia bin. There are the bad memory items that we send off to the thrift store through a haze of sage. And there are the many, many pieces that we once loved but no longer fit us or serve us, that we're worried we'll miss. These are the difficult ones but also the most impactful. Sometimes we tell a story, ring a bell, wish the piece well, and remember that it will find a new life in a new closet.

It feels hard at the start and then it gets easier. All of a sudden there's a bag, or two, or three of things we've shed during the session and your closet feels like a new day, a fresh start. You see things differently. You might even be excited to get dressed again.