3 Reasons to Clean Out Your Closet

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When was the last time you cleaned out your closet? A year ago? Two years ago? Longer? Then, you need to set aside some time this weekend and clear it out. Why? These are three reasons to do it.

1. Conquering Clutter

Your closet is full. Every inch of it is cramped with shirts, pants, dresses, skirts and jackets that you’ve collected throughout your life. Some of these items haven’t seen the light of day in years. Some are looking worse for wear, like your jeans with growing holes at the thighs or your blouses with missing buttons. Some are items that you’ve completely forgotten about since they’ve been pushed to the back corners of your closet, hidden from view.

Essentially, your closet is a disorganized mess, and you need to declutter it. The best way to do that is to clear it out. Once it’s empty, you can sort through the items to see what you should and shouldn’t put back.

These are some signs that you shouldn’t put an item back in your closet:

It doesn’t fit anymore.
It’s uncomfortable to wear.
You haven’t worn it in the past 6 months.
It doesn’t fit your personal style anymore.
It’s in complete disrepair.

Sorting your items into the two categories of “keep” and “toss” is just the first step to creating an organized closet. What you should do next is use a closet organizing app to take photos of the remaining clothes. This will help you take inventory of the items you have and the outfits you can create with them. Whenever you’re standing in your housecoat and bemoaning that you have “nothing” to wear, you can check your app to get inspired with what you have sitting on your hangers.

Finally, you will want to get closet-organizing tools like hooks, bins and baskets. Use these tools to store your clothes without creating any unnecessary clutter. The space should be neat and tidy.

2. Making Extra Money

A simple way to make some extra money is to sell the clothes that you don’t want anymore. You can sell them via popular consignment apps, or you can sell them inperson through local consignment stores.

What could you do with that extra money? If your budget is tight and your savings are low, you could use this extra money to put together an emergency fund. An emergency fund could help you avoid some tricky financial situations in the future. When an urgent expense crops up, you won’t have to panic about how you’re going to pay for it. You can withdraw the savings you need from your emergency fund and move on.

Without an emergency fund, you might not have enough savings to handle urgent expenses. You’ll have to search for an alternative payment option. In this case, you could look into online loans that are accessible in your home state. So, if you live in New Orleans, you could search for online loans in Louisiana and see whether you’re eligible to apply for one. An approved loan could help you pay off the urgent expense quickly.

Selling your clothes can also help you afterward! You could use the profits to replenish your emergency fund or manage your loan repayments.

3. Giving to a Good Cause

If you can’t sell the items, don’t throw them away. As long as the items are in good condition, you can donate them to a good cause. Plenty of organizations accept clothing donations to redistribute to people in need. These are some that you could bring your old clothes to: