Last week we worked on cleaning out the coat closet. A lot of the same principles apply when cleaning out your children’s closets. The first step is to empty out the contents of the closet. While emptying place each item into the four categories
Keep
Sell
Donate/Give Away
Throw out
What to Keep?
This is pretty simple for children’s closets.
- Does it fit or will it fit soon?
- Will he/she wear it?
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. 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?
Because I have been very blessed by hand-me-downs for my children, I try to pass things right along when at all possible. Make sure that your good deed is not cluttering up someone else’s closet. Ask if your items are needed first. 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:
Throw away overly used and damaged shoes and clothing.
Now that your child(ren)’s 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 the closet were the most cluttered. If it was the shoes that your child tossed in there, place a shoe shelf in the bottom. Perhaps it was the shelf above the clothes that was overwhelmed with stuff. Measure the area and place bins or baskets. 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.
Following is a guideline for completing these tasks, but please adjust these suggestions to best suit your needs.
Day 29:
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.
Days 30-32:
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 33:
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 34:
As a reward for your diligence and hard work, today you can purchase those organizing items for your closet.
Day 35:
Rest
Tip for keeping things neat and tidy:
Don’t wait for a purging event; rather keep a bag inside your child’s closet for items that he/she outgrows.
Enjoy the journey,
Betsy
By Betsy on 04/11/09 in An Organized Life, Clutter Busting, Columns
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