Happy New Year!! I hope your 2024 is off to a very fresh and blessed start!

Personally, I love spring cleaning. In fact, I think any deep clean – at any time of the year – is welcome. But what I think is SUPER stellar is a closet clean at the start of the New Year.

Sure, there is a LOT going on at the start of the New Year. Between visiting family, entertaining, attending functions and parties, you may feel a bit like… “What?! How am I supposed to get to THAT right now?!” And for that I have - a simple solution!

If you’re a client (or if you’ve been reading this blog for sometime) you’ll remember this article or this one, where we’ve likely culled your closet and gone through the threedifferent categories of closet cleans: 

Keep

Donate

Hibernate

In this New Year’s closet cleanse, the only category we are focusing on (to relieve stress and still get the job done) is… HIBERNATE!

Hibernating your closet is THE simplest way to trim your closet and zoom in on clothes you love.

Unlike a Closet Cleanse, where you’re deciding whether or not to donate certain pieces you feel compelled to hang onto (because it was a gift or a certain size), this Closet Cleanse via Hibernation is a way to focus on what you love without the stress of, “But then it’s gone forever!!!”

Because remember, if you Hibernate anything and – in about two months – you really really miss it, you can dip into the bag that you stored it in and bring it back into your main wardrobe routing (See? You just “found” a piece in your closet that really works for you practically and aesthetically).

So, how DO you do a closet Hibernation? Follow the steps below:

1. Grab a big trash bag, bin or a large suitcase you don’t use often.

2. Go into your closet. Brush over every piece (and by brush I mean brush! Don’t give it more than 5 seconds, your answer should be immediate). You’ll want to hibernate: Anything that doesn’t fit, Anything you haven’t been wearing, and anything you just feel “eh” about. The hardest of these is the “eh” feeling - so don’t worry, it’s not gone forever.

3. Do one SUPER quick sweep, and this time, focus on the ones you feel “eh” about - now that you’re in the groove I GUARANTEE you’ll find a few more. 🤗 

4. Close the bag and put wherever you have into storage.

5. As a quick, finishing touch-up - colorgorize and categorize your clothes (if you haven't already, but just to make things all neat and pretty for the start of the year).

6. In about four months (springtime), open he bag and now, ask yourself, “What did I miss?”If you feel you missed anything, definitely reincorporate it. If you did not, you can feel quite confident that someone from the St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop can probably benefit from it!

7. Relax and enjoy that stress-free feeling since  you have a trimmed down closet, with clothes that you can actually wear and really enjoy!

Hope you have a super refreshing time cleansing your closet!!

Question: What’s your # 1 tip for giving things away?!