Cleansing Your Closet: Resell, Consign and Gift

Posted by Jill Chivers in Shop Your Wardrobe Strategies

One of my favourite shop your wardrobe strategies is to cleanse your closet often. I have a large packing bag in my wardrobe that I use to store items I am giving away, and I regularly do a sweep of items that it’s time to let go of and allow someone else to enjoy by selling them or consigning them to a designer resale boutique.

The latest items I let go of fell into two categories:

I wasn’t wearing them because they didn’t fit me beautifully, or they rubbed, pinched or in some other way didn’t feel great when I wore them
They didn’t qualify anymore as items I loved – they were ‘second best’ at best

I have a large wardrobe (it was never my goal with my year-long challenge to whittle my wardrobe down to a small fraction of its size – my goal was to wear more of what I had, and tap into the hidden mileage I knew was hiding in my closet). And in most categories in my wardrobe (such as jackets, jeans, casual pants, blouses, long-sleeve t-shirts), I have quite a few choices. So it makes sense to me that everything I have are items that I love. I won’t find myself naked, or unable to dress myself for a particular occasion, because I don’t have enough items in my wardrobe to fill that particular need or circumstance.

If you are cleansing your closet with reselling, consigning or gifting in mind, consider my top 3 tips:

Make sure all items you are letting go of are truly items you don’t want in your wardrobe anymore. I am not an advocate of the “haven’t worn it in a year? Let it go!” school of wardrobe culling. In fact, I have come up with 36 criteria on which you can explore and assess your wardrobe – you can download this free report 36 Ways to Cull Your Closet for free here.
Make sure all items leaving your closet are in great condition, especially if you are seeking to resell or consign them. Make sure all clothing is clean and pressed, and all shoes are clean and free of scuffs (check heels and soles, too). The owner/manager of the consignment/designer resale store is more likely to take your items if they already look like they should be hanging in the store! And if they don’t take everything and you gift the rest to a charity store, they will value the items coming to them in such a wonderful condition.
Consider leaving space and not filling any wardrobe gaps you initially identify for a time. Allow your wardrobe some space and either experiment with not having certain items, or leaving space for what you want those items to be when you decide to go shopping again. It’s amazing what can happen when you don’t rush to fill a space – all kinds of possibilities that you couldn’t have imagined can pop up.