Productive rainy-day activity: Tidy up your closet
(NC) One way to spend a rainy day is to binge-watch your favourite show. This can be fun, but if you are looking for something a little more productive, why not tidy up your closet?
Here are some easy tips:
- Depending on how big your closet is, plan on spending from four to six hours sorting and organizing it.
- Set up an area in your room for different piles for items you will sort, donate, keep or store.
- Pull out your clothes, accessories and shoes from your closet and drawers and place in one pile.
- Spending about 20 seconds per item, set aside the clothes, accessories and shoes you wear most. Some of these may end up in the keep area and some in the store area, depending on the season and your storage space. You may need to repeat this. As you repeat the process, ask if you have worn the item in the last few weeks or even months. If you haven’t and it isn’t sentimental, it should go in the donate pile.
- You may have clothes, shoes or accessories that are meaningful to you, but you haven’t worn in a while. If you have the space, place these items in the store pile. If you don’t, choose whether to keep or donate.
- You may need to try on some of your clothes to make sure they still fit. If something hasn’t fit in a while, it’s probably time to part with the item.
- You should now be left with a donate pile. Keep in mind that your objective is to tidy up your closet, so this pile should be a fair size. Donating can be free and convenient. Charities such as Diabetes Canada will pick up your clothing for free.
- Now place your keep pile back in your closet or drawers. You may want to take the opportunity to do some sorting before you do. There are different ways to organize. One way is separating by type – shirts, pants, dresses or suits, for example. Other ways include by season or colour. Anything returning to drawers should be placed so that they can be easily seen.
- Shoes and accessories should also be placed for easy access and viewing. Sort by how often you wear them with the most worn easiest to see and grab.
- Your stored clothes can be placed in a box, preferably plastic, in your closet, or in another area. Don’t forget to reassess these stored items as the season changes or on the next rainy day.
For the donated items you have, consider scheduling a free home pickup. Learn more at declutter.diabetes.ca. Or, you can donate to one of the 2,000 donation bins across Ontario.