Spring can be a very dangerous time 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 at record percentages due to the tight economy. 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:
Keep
Sell
Donate/Give Away
Throw out
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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. If you would not buy it, don’t keep it.
What to Sell?
Prior to trying to sell your item(s), it is best to research what is the current market price. If generally sell all my better items on ebay. 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. Make sure you put in a reserve price that you are happy with, or start the bidding at a comfortable number.
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. For specific instructions, please check out here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf
Throw Away:Â
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. How do you know if it should be thrown away? When it is now longer good for you or anybody else.
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, it’s 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 to make your life more difficult!Â
Following is a guideline for completing these tasks, but please adjust these suggestions to best suit your needs.
Day 22:Â Â
Figure out what you are going to do with the items you are purging. Do some research in regards to online auctions, local consignment stores, non-profits, or yard sales.
Day 23-25:Â
Let the purging begin!! Empty out the closet entirely and sort through all the items. Once you have cleaned out the closet, only place back what you would like to keep. This is the time to assess the situation for organizing items (bins, shelves, basket, etc.). You can do this all in one day if you have time, but if not, split it up between the three days and tackle as much as you can each day.
Day 26:
Donation day! Or this is the day to list your items on an online auction site, place a price sticker on each item and box them up for a yard sale, or drop off at a consignment shop. Don’t allow your closet clutter to become attic, garage, or basement clutter. Make sure you take care of this today!
Day 27:Â
As a reward for your diligence and hard work, today you can purchase those organizing items for your closet.Â
Day 28:Â
Rest
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Enjoy the journey,
Betsy
By Betsy on 04/1/09 in An Organized Life, Clutter Busting, Columns
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