Bonus Episode: The Spring Closet Clean Out Cheat Sheet

0:01Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of Let's Get Dressed. It's your host, Liv Perez. Today we are talking all things spring closet reset. If you followed me for a while, you know this is maybe my favorite subject. I am such a big fan of cleaning out your closet. I'm a big believer that a tidy closet is a tidy mind and spring is my favorite time to do this. They don't call it spring cleaning for nothing. So I wanted to walk you through my best tips and tricks on how to do this. We've covered this on the podcast a few times before, but I wanted to give you guys a little mini episode today as a refresher in case you are looking to clean out your closet and you need a little bit of help.

0:43Last summer, I did one of the biggest closet clean outs of my life. I think I got rid of half of my closet and I learned a lot from that experience. It really did teach me that less is more. It taught me a lot about the right things to invest in. It taught me about how to actually organize my closet and have things laid out. So I feel like I'm a pro at this point. And overall, I really learned that the key to cleaning out your closet is really just editing. It's not about throwing everything out. It's not about buying a bunch of new things that you think are trendy and cool you need to wear in the moment.

1:15It's about editing it down to the things that feel really like you and where you walk into your closet and you feel good every day. So today's episode is really about that. It's about how to approach your closet with a lot of intention, organize based on what you need, and let go of what is no longer serving us. And today's bonus episode is brought to you guys by Depop, which honestly is one of the biggest tools in this entire clean out process. And we'll get into that in a little bit. So let's go all the way to the beginning of what it actually feels like to enter the process of cleaning out your closet.

1:45Last summer when I really wanted to clean mine out, I was feeling very stuck. Like I would walk into my closet and feel like the things I was looking at didn't really feel like me anymore. I don't know if you guys have felt this way before, but it felt like my closet hadn't caught up to like who I was as a person. I felt like I had a lot of things from not college, but maybe like fresh out of college life, like working an office job. I felt like I had a lot of things. Obviously, my work is in fashion. So a lot of things that I'd gotten over the years that I had maybe an emotional connection to.

2:16But I also felt like I hadn't really invested in a lot of things that felt like me and the person that I wanted to show up as every day. I felt like I really didn't have a defined sense of style. My 20s were a lot about feeling like I was on trend or feeling like I was keeping up with fashion. And I think a lot of people can relate to that in their 20s. I think your 20s are really about trying new things and figuring out the shapes, silhouettes, colorways, prints, patterns, all the things that work for you. For a while, I was looking back on my 20s and was like, oh my God, I can't look at the pictures of what I wore.

2:50Someone hide them. Put them in a box. Put them under the bed. I never want to see them. And I feel like that's a really bad way to be. I've learned to practice a lot of grace around my former sense of style and what I would wear out in the world because we love that girl. But I also feel like I wouldn't feel as confident in my style now if I didn't go through all those trials and tribulations of getting dressed. So I've learned to really love those former eras of myself who were very different people than who I was today. I had eras in New York where I wore a lot of color, like nonstop color. I wore sneakers all the time and I was a sneakerhead and loved street style, I really feel like I've tried all the things and that has helped me narrow down to who I am now.

3:30So we're practicing loving those former eras. That being said, I think as you're entering this era of wanting to clean out your closet, I think it's important to take a step back and create a vision for what your style actually is. Now, one of the things I want to really get the point across is this conversation around personal style, right? Like even I talk about it and ask questions about it on this podcast all the time. What is, how did you find your personal style? What is your personal style? We talk about that a lot. I want to emphasize that I think personal style is a lifelong pursuit. I don't think there's a period at the end of it.

4:04I think we are finding our personal style forever. But I do think as you're cleaning your closet, it's helpful to take a snapshot of what your personal style is in this moment. So I used Pinterest, which I loved for this. It was really helpful. I made a board of aesthetics and outfits and moods and feelings that I really liked. Pinterest is a slippery slope. Let's just put that out there. Like there was an era when I was in college and like copying Pinterest and realizing like, oh, I do not like look like the people on the Pinterest board. My body is not the same. My height's not the same. I don't look the same.

4:36I don't wear clothes the same. And so remember as you're going through Pinterest that it's really about the feeling and it's about the shape, silhouettes and colors that you're gravitating towards. It's not going to be exactly what you are wearing in your day to day. So I put together a Pinterest board, and that was really, really helpful to one, understand the things that I wanted to achieve and the aesthetics that I liked. But it was also the biggest tool that I brought into the day that I cleaned my closet. It was incredibly helpful that anytime I was, you know, wishy-washy about a piece, I was able to reference my mood board and say, does this fit in that?

5:10So take an hour next weekend, whatever it is, and put it together. It doesn't just have to be on Pinterest, by the way. It could be wherever you get your style inspiration, Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr, whatever. You can put together a visual mood board of things that will be most helpful for you. It'll be one of the best tools in your toolkit as you begin to clean out your closet. Another thing that I really loved that I did while I was cleaning my closet was I put together a hero rack in my closet as I was cleaning out every single piece. And my hero rack was my go-to pieces. So the pieces that I'm wearing every single day that I absolutely love and feel like they're just like my go-to tried and true pieces.

5:47They went on my hero rack that was in the closet the whole day I was doing my closet clean out. So anytime that I was trying something on and I couldn't really decide if I liked it or not, if I was going to wear it, I would reference my Pinterest board. And then I would also reference the hero rack and say, okay, does this piece feel aligned with what I want to achieve in my personal style. And if it didn't, it went in the resale pile. I really recommend these tools as you're going in to clean out your closet. I feel like, again, a lot of people are like, I don't have time for that. It feels so overwhelming.

6:16Where do I begin? And having these two kind of pieces of infrastructure to support you through it was so helpful. I highly recommend it. It just made the day go by so much smoother. And it helped with a lot of my like analysis paralysis as I was looking at pieces and I was like, do I want to keep this or not? One more pro tip for the things that do go back in your closet, make sure you're putting them back there like in really great condition. Like I wipe down all of my cabinets. I make sure that if it's buttoned down, I button all the buttons. I make sure that things go back in really nicely.

6:44It makes a really big difference as you're starting to get dressed again to feel like you have like a clean, organized space that feels like you. Okay, so here's what you're going to do the day that you're ready to clean out your closet. For starters, make it fun. There's a reason why that scene in the Sex and the City movie is so popular and where Carrie invites all of her girlfriends over and they're popping champagne and they have those like cute boards of like keep, toss. Obviously, you know, it's not gonna be like that, but I have invited friends over before and I've said, hey, if there's like anything you like from the pile, take it or I buy them dinner or something like that and I make it a fun thing.

7:17I think setting the mood really helps alleviate a lot of like the potential stress around it. Play some music, order food, invite friends over, make it a thing. That's number one. after you do all that and you're there the day of the first thing that I do is maybe the most controversial and people hate to hear this but I promise you guys it will change the way you clean out your closet you're going to take everything out everything like out of the drawers out of the cabinets and you can put it on the couch bed table wherever you need to put it on the floor whatever some say don't do that but use the space that you have but you're going to take everything out now if you have a big closet or maybe you don't have a full day to do this you just want to do a little bit and you are afraid of like taking everything out of your closet and being overwhelmed and then all of a sudden you need your closet the next day and you can't access it, go section by section.

8:05You can start with your jackets and then come back another day and go to pants. But you're going to take everything out and try every piece on. This is why I say you need to set aside a couple hours. It is a time investment, but I think one of the biggest indicators of whether you are going to keep something or give a new home is making sure it still fits, making sure there are no holes, no stains, any of that. And you need to try it on to be able to do that. I also found that as I was trying things on, there were pieces that I just couldn't style with everything I had in my closet. I had a friend come over and he would say to me, he's also a stylist, and he would say, what are you pairing that with?

8:42And I didn't really have an answer for it. And he was like, when was the last time you wore it? How do you envision it? And I also didn't have an answer for it. So it might be something that fits and doesn't have stains or holes or anything like that. But if you can't visualize yourself putting it on, you're usually never going to wear it. I also have another rule, which is that if you haven't worn it in a year, you're most likely good to give it a new home. I think the exception to that is like vintage, really, you know, keepsakes, heirlooms, like things like that, that you have kept for special occasions and mean a lot to you.

9:13Those can stay. But if you have a top in your closet and you haven't reached for it through all four seasons, you're probably not going to reach for it again. So I always say, make sure that you're using the things in your closet. So you're going to create three piles, keep, toss, tailor. And as you're trying things on one by one, those will go into the three different piles. Obviously, if you're keeping, that goes in the keep. If you're toss, I don't like that word. We're not tossing things. Obviously, we can donate, we can rehome, we can to friends. So the rehome holder and then tailor. Those are the things that like, you know, maybe you bought a new pair of pants and they don't fit just right.

9:49Or maybe there's a hole that needs to be tailored. Those things go in the pile. I actually find that pile to be so much bigger at the end of the day than you ever expect, because there are a lot of things in our closet that, you know, we get and we wear and we don't realize like they need a little bit of a hem or they need a cinch in the waist. And so that's why I say trying things on is crucial to really getting to what you love and, you know, if you're going to wear it or not. I found that there are pieces that like I haven't gotten that little tailoring done and I never wear them. And once I tailor them, I'm like, oh, what took me so long?

10:18Why was I so lazy? So make those three piles and try everything on. Obviously, this is way more emotional than it sounds, right? Like saying toss it, it's easy, but clothes are really emotional things and they're very tied to people that we have been in our past, like our past selves. And so I think having friends around is really important for this because there have been numerous times where I've tried something on and said, but this is from this era and this era. And my friend has been like, you don't need that. It doesn't even look good on you. So I think having a support system to move you through those uncomfortable pieces is really important.

10:50But also I found that there are a lot of pieces in this try on where I was like, oh, it's a great black pair of pants. I'm going to keep them. Why wouldn't I keep them? But my friend would be like, but they're not the right pair. They don't fit you right. They're not the pair that you need with everything else in your closet. So that's another a good sift too. Just because you have a black pair of pants doesn't mean you need to check that box. It should be the pair that fits you really, really well and is like the perfect pair for you, your body, and what's in your closet. Now, a lot of you ask me what to do with the clothes that you're going to rehome.

11:20And there are so many great places that you can use to give your clothes a second life. I really recommend Depop for this because one, you have that one-on-one interaction with other people in the world who love fashion. I've loved that part of it. I love meeting new people around the world and messaging and kind of having that rapport. But two, you really get to have control over what you're selling. There are no seller fees on Depop as well. So I think you're really getting the best deal for the clothes that you've loved and want to give a new home to. It's incredibly easy to use. All you do is like take a picture, list the item.

11:53That's it. It's so, so, so easy and user-friendly. So I really recommend for the pieces that you are no longer using to list them on Depop. I have found that it's like the easiest and I also love finding new things on there too. I have found staple pieces for my wardrobe. I've found special pieces. Actually, one of my favorite Depop finds was one that I got recently. I got this unbelievable black, like velvet sparkly dress. It's like on a bias cut. It's so, so, so beautiful. I can't wait to wear it all summer. But I found pieces like that, that I'm investing into my wardrobe and will wear all the time down to pieces like this jacket that I'm wearing in today's episode.

12:30I wear it with my jeans and sandals all the time and it feels like such a great core piece in my wardrobe. Okay, but before we go and buy new things, because that's really easy to do after you clean your closet, I would take a beat. So one of the most important things that I learned after cleaning out my closet was to make a list of everything that you either got rid of or need to be replaced or you feel like there's a gap in your wardrobe. Like I think, for example, when I was cleaning out my closet, I noticed that I didn't have great brown flats and I had great brown belts and brown sweaters, but I didn't have shoes to kind of tie it all together.

13:03So that immediately went on my list to fill in my closet. However, I didn't immediately go buy it. I took a second to live with the clothes that I had in my closet after doing such a big purge, I think you're going to be surprised at what you wear. Like I was so surprised at the pieces and the outfit combinations that I was wearing. I started wearing pieces that I hadn't worn in a few months and was really excited to restyle. So I really recommend after you clean your closet out and listed your pieces on Depop to give them a new home that you live with what you have for a little bit before you fill it back in.

13:37It will also help you realize more and more the things that you need to make getting ready every day feel easier. I can truly say after I did this clean out, I felt like a different person. I really think that going into your closet and making sure it feels like a reflection of you and not just like collecting all these past mementos that you're not wearing or reaching for can change your life. Like having those things weigh you down in your closet, at least for me, I could feel it every day as I was getting dressed. I wasn't feeling excited. I wasn't feeling inspired. And so being able to go through and just find those pieces that feel like me again, really, really, and truly changed my personal style.

14:14I can say ever since then, I love how I get dressed every day. I feel really excited about it. I feel good about it. I feel like I'm wearing things that feel more aligned with who I am. And I feel like now my closet has actually caught up with me. So if you're feeling stuck this spring and you are itching for a little spring cleaning and you want to revamp your wardrobe a little bit, I highly recommend doing this process. It really, again, changed the way that I get dressed. And it's less about buying new things. I know spring is totally that time where we feel like we need to shop and buy new things and it feels exciting and we are like ready to like get dressed and be out in the world after a cold winter.

14:49But I will say before you do all of that, edit your wardrobe first. And I say edit because it sometimes doesn't mean getting rid of a bunch of things. It also doesn't mean buying a bunch of new things. It really just means spending some time in your closet and going through it with intention and making sure that it's a reflection of you. After my clean out, I was so intentional about what I brought in. I barely was shopping. every piece I like looked at with a fine tooth comb. I was like, is this going to go with these pants? And how many times am I going to wear this? And do I actually need this top?

15:20I have a million button downs. Do I need more button downs? I'm a way more intentional shopper now. If you do end up doing a spring clean out, definitely follow all these tips. But also, I really recommend using Depop. It is one of my favorite platforms to find incredible clothes from around the world in a more sustainable way, but to also list some things in my closet that I think need a new home and I want to pass on to other fashion lovers in the world. You can download the app really easy and list an item to start selling. Again, it is one of the easiest platforms out there and it's such a great way to make a little bit of money back on your closet.

15:50Thank you so much to Depop for making today's episode possible. And if you guys do spring clean, DM me. I'm here to help. If you are stuck on an item and are not sure if you want to keep it, you can always DM me. I'm so here to help. Happy spring cleaning.

16:08Thank you.