The Ol’ Switcheroo
Posted by Jen on Dec 30, 2010 in House Stuff | 16 comments
It’s the end of another year. Time to party down on New Year’s Eve, set your resolutions for 2011 and turn all of the hangers in your closet backwards. What, you don’t do that every year like I do? Allow me to share.
I love organization and storage and hate clutter and old stuff lying around. Closets can be the worst culprit for junk, but if you’ve ever tried to sort through your clothes you know how hard it can be to let go. With this trick, you work backwards and let your actions make the decisions for you.
Every January, I turn all of the hangers in my closet backwards, like this. It takes about 60 seconds:
Each time I wear an item, I hang it back up in the normal fashion, which takes zero effort to remember or do. In June, any item that is still hanging backwards has not been worn in 6 months, and I usually donate it to Goodwill unless I can come up with a good reason to save it. I don’t really have a “seasonal” wardrobe – I pretty much wear everything year-round, so if an item goes unworn for 6 months its usually because its out of style, it doesn’t fit, or I just don’t like it.
Then I turn all of my hangers backwards again and count down to January.
When I started this routine several years ago it wiped out about a third of my closet in the first six months! Since then I’ve gotten much better about buying higher quality/less trendy clothes and focusing on buying clothes that I like versus clothes that are cheap. Here are this year’s offending items:
I have an idea for re-purposing the striped sweater at the top into a mason jar cozy that Ray asked me to make him last night. Stay tuned…
UPDATE: Here’s the cozy. It took about 15 minutes to make, and Ray’s been using it to carry his quiches to work.
16 Comments
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Bravo Jen…..what a jolly good idea…and you are SO creative !!! You go girl..!!!!
GENIUS. I did it today.
awesome idea!
such a good idea! think i’m going to do this!
totally going to do this
Great Idea–I’m the world’s worst at getting rid of something due to sentiment—a bad vibe, it is gone.
What a great idea. I’m going to do this in the morning. Thank you!
I love this idea. I think I might make my daughter try this. She’s been hanging on to her clothes way too long. Thanks for posting.
So smart! I’ll have to do that NEXT January, when I’m not pregnant. I’m allowed to be a clothes hoarder during pregnancy!
That is BRILLIANT!!!
Found your post via TheHAppyHousewife.com and I’m so glad I did. THANK YOU!
Just found your post (Via Maestro Classics), ~ What a great idea!
Side-question~ Quiche? In a Mason Jar? Do tell! (I have a real man that eats quiche as well, and this could be interesting!)
Hi, thank you for sharing such a great idea! I like that idea because it is something you don’t necessarily have to see to accomplish. I am always looking for blind friendly organization ideas, and this is an awesome one. Thanks again, & god bless.
That is a great idea
can’t wait to try it!
I am super guilty of buying cheap/on sale items too
Im definitely going to do this and focus on buying higher quality items that’ll stand the test of time!!!
Great idea. I found this on Pinterest. I’m cleaning out closets this weekend and am going to try this.
I love this idea. I think this will help get rid of clothes that I always think. “Maybe I’ll wear it sometime”