Clean Out the Coats

So far this year we have worked on organizing your time and your papers. For the month of March we are going to start focusing on the clothing that is cluttering up your home. It is time to really evaluate what you want to keep, what you want to sell or donate, and what really just needs to be thrown out.March can be a very dangerous place in the malls and online shopping sites. Retailers are in the midst of filling the aisles with spring and summer styles, and are slashing prices of the winter merchandise. Please keep in mind that it is not a good deal if you never wear it!! Stop paying retailers to store their unwanted merchandise in your closets!

This week we are going to focus on cleaning out the clutter in your coat closet. I would like to challenge you to empty out this closet entirely. Make four piles (or have bins) and as your emptying place each item in the following categories:

1. Keep
2. Sell
3. Donate/Give Away
4. Throw out

What to Keep?
The easiest way to initially sort through the coats, boots, shoes are to keep only the items that actually fit your family. Also, I would ask you to consider tossing any coats that you did not wear this season. Only keep coats that you actually plan on wearing in the future.

What to Sell?
Prior to trying to sell your item(s), it is best to research what is the current market price. I sell all my items on eBay. According to “Hoovers”, a D&B Company, eBay now has more than 135 million registered users. I am an eBay consignor so I do this product market research service free for my clients. Once you have an amount of what similar items have sold for in the recent past, you need to decide if you want to sell it or donate it. One thing to keep in mind when selling your item(s) on eBay is that there are no guaranties your item will sell at the price you would like it to, or will sell at all.

What to Donate/Give Away?
There are some wonderful charities that focus on coat donations. Do a quick search on the internet to find a non-profit organization in your area. If you plan on donating your items to a non-profit charity make sure you keep a good record of what was donated and have the charitable organization sign your receipt. See the charitable donation spreadsheet. When you donate to a non-profit organization that is accepted by the federal government as such, you can claim each item for its fair market value. A good rule of thumb to use when trying to come up with a fair market value would be 25% of the retail price.

What to Throw Away?
It’s time to get rid of the solo gloves, broken umbrellas, moth eaten/ripped clothes and any of the other unusable items in your closet.
Time to Clean…
Now that your coat closet is completely empty it is time to give it a good cleaning top to bottom. Before you start loading the closet back with only the items you have in your “Keep” pile, its time to evaluate what areas of your closet were the most cluttered. If it was the shoes that your family tossed in there, place a shoe shelf in the bottom. Perhaps it was the shelf above the coats that was overwhelmed with stuff. Measure the area and place bins or baskets and designate each for a family member. For my family of four, we have four baskets on the shelf. In each basket are our own gloves, hats, and scarves. Before you run right out to your nearest “mart” store to get bins, baskets, etc. make sure that you don’t already have something in your home that would work just fine. Try to design a no-fail system for your family. These organizing missions are not intended to make your life more difficult!
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