Sarah's #EpicClosetCleanse
Meet Sarah!
Ultimate entrepreneur and freelancer, Sarah is a marketer and I've known her for about two years now. Well, we finally got around to what we've been referring to as her #epicclosetclenase last week. She was at a point in her life where multiple fresh starts were required - tackling the closet was just one of them and I was happy to be the first point in her life refresh. She greeted me with iced coffee and pastries (yes please and thank you!) and we spent the first few minutes chatting about her style, what she likes, wears, and gravitates towards. And then we were ready to go - so let's see what we were dealing, um, working, with.
The Before Pictures:
Not too bad! We've dealt with worse right?
We started with the top rack of items - we took half out and stacked it on the bed, sorting as we went. We evaluated each piece to see if it was working with her current style, if it fit, or if it could go into the donate, corporate, resale, or swap pile (cleaning out your closet and then doing a swap with friends is great for getting rid of things that don't work for you but that may be perfect for others. It's a great way to get more out of your wardrobe and come home with some awesome new things of your own).
Next up was the second half of the closet. Then we had the corporate clothes. Then we had the skirts. Then we had the tops. So okay, maybe this was a little more than we thought. OH, and then comes the blue bin that was hiding in the kitchen, full of random items.
But wait.... we weren't done! One of her goals is to refresh her whole home, so that means getting rid of bigger, bulky furniture pieces. In no time at all, we cleared the dresser marked out, consolidated what was left into her larger dresser (the one pictured below, it gets messy before it gets clean!), and now (as soon as the top two junk drawers in the old dresser are sorted), that piece is ready for her to move it on to its next life.
Believe it or not, we didn't stop there. I forced (okay, strongly advised) her to tackle the shoe bins, which we did, as well as her scarf bin, which we did. We were able to clear out the entire top bin where she could then store her towels (which were previously in the dresser that is now not long for her apartment).
And you know that as we went, we trashed the wire hangers, removed the plastic dry cleaning bags, and sorted everything on to her slim, black felt hangers in all its color-coordinated, sleeve style, and event style glory. The end result? I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!
The After Pictures:
By the numbers
We were able to:
- Donate over $400 worth of clothes to charity,
- Clean out six HUGE bags of items she no longer needs,
- Donate 9 suits and a variety of pants, skirts, and tops to Dress for Success to pay it forward, and
- Get rid of 150+ items of clothing that she never wore.
“Thank you so much for helping today. It’s so much more empowering psychologically than I ever thought possible. I’ve been in the rut...and it was really daunting to get started, but this was perfect. Extra help is totally worth every penny!”
Sydney Lester is a Richmond, Virginia-based personal stylist who creates wardrobes that reflect your life + style.
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