time to swap into spring!

With the hours of daylight increasing and the first daffodils and cherry blossoms popping up - spring is on its way! Along with the slightly warmer weather and sunshine comes the traditional push for spring cleaning (woo!) and this year I'm jumping on the bandwagon! My resolution to de-stress my life rolls nicely into wanting to clean up and de-clutter the house and this year I signed up for a clothing swap to get that extra motivation to get started! Yay! I've participated in loads of swaps in the past and it always so lovely to go through the closets and get rid of unwanted items. I haven't been to a swap in quite some time (unlike when I lived in Kamloops and we had one at least twice a year), so I managed to get quite the haul of donations. Since I'm going to a clothing swap at The Makehouse (link) (and not just a friend's living room) I decided to be extra kind with my swap items and labeled each one with measurements and sorted them by size in each bag! Check out the pile:

I am always surprised with how much I can get rid of, but they do say you only wear 20% of your wardrobe 80% of the time so I guess this is mostly that other 80% I rarely break out.  Since I'm still on my "happy up my life" kick, I really wanted to critically analyse what pieces I wanted to keep and came up with a list of questions I'd ask if I was unsure if I wanted to donate an item or not. Here goes:

1) Does it fit?

2) How well does it fit? 

3) Have you worn the item in the last 6 months or so?

4) What quality is the piece in?

5) Does it make you feel awesome?

and

6) Would you buy this item again?

If you answered negatively for 1+ of those questions it's time to get rid of it and move on! I was found the "would you buy this again" question particularly motivating since I felt like I should be giving certain articles of clothing a second chance in my closet but quickly realized "Kate - you don't even really like this "insert clothing item" - so you may as well donate it!" Ah! So liberating! Plus my 4 bags of unwanted and ill-fitting clothes might be just perfect in a new home! I need to make sure I go through my closet more often and continue to be critical if I decide to bring anything new into wardrobe.  Only things that will increase my awesomeness allowed please! How is your closet doing? Are you in need of a little spring clothing swap yourself?