How to Let Go of Clothes

Lately, I've been on a kick of getting rid of stuff. I'm not sure if its the whole, "Out with the old, it's a new year," thing or what. Anyway, I decided to do a major closet purge. I did a little bit of research, but then I just made up my own rules about what would stay and what would go.

Rule #1 - If I haven't worn it in a year, it goes. Now this can be a problem for me, but probably not in the way that one might think. Most people have not worn a lot of their clothes, and then they forget about those clothes they haven't worn and so they don't wear them, and then they keep forgetting, and the cycle continues. My problem is almost the opposite.

Let me explain with a short story about myself. When I was in the 9th or 10th grade, I had an old computer in my room. It didn't have the internet, but I could type and play solitaire. Around this time I decided to see how long I could go without wearing the same shirt (at this point, I wore t-shirts everyday). I would literally us an excel spreadsheet to record what I wore every single day, to see my progress. Yes, I know this is crazy and unnecessary, but its the truth, just ask my best friend, Maegan... 

All that to ensure that all of my shirts got equal attention.

Nowadays, I don't quite record it the same way, but I do have a specific clothes system. I organize my clothes based on type of clothing (i.e. sweaters, button up shirts, cardigans, etc.). Once I have cleaned a load of laundry, I put each item on the right side of their respective sections. In this way, I can literally see which pieces I have been neglecting. So, in short, I always make sure and wear all my clothes. 

Anyway, even with my system, I was able to discard some pieces of clothing, but only about 5! BUT, this rule did help me get rid of many of my scarves.

Rule #2 - If its damaged or ripped, it goes. Several weeks ago, I spent some time repairing about 3 shirts, so the obvious ones that would have been discarded avoided their fate. But I did find several shirts and a pair of pants which had stains that I just couldn't get out. I also had a few with small holes, which were probably from getting snagged throughout the years.

Even though sometimes I still wear clothing with a small stain, I decided to discard these to avoid feeling self-conscious when I want to wear them. I also included shirts that had uncontrollable pilling going on. All-in-all, I gathered about 10 shirts, and 1 pair of pants with holes, rips, stains, or pilling.

Rule #3 - If it's not modest, it goes. When I was younger I didn't care about how lock-cut my shirts were, or how short my dresses were. But now I do. So essentially I discarded any normal clothing that I would be embarrassed to wear to church. This got rid of about 5 party shirts and 5 dresses. I kept some of my party shirts for the beach or a date night. 

Rule #4 - If its so uncomfortable that I dread wearing it, it goes. I have this one shirt that looks great on me, it fits my personality, and it has all of the colors that look great on me. Even through all the good qualities, I avoid wearing it because it has this weird elastic thing in the sleeve that annoys me all day! I was keeping the shirt because it looks so great. But its not comfortable and I hate wearing it. 

In this rule, I included clothes that were to tight, shirts that were itchy, and button up work shirts that don't stay tucked in because they're too short. This helped me get rid of maybe 15 or 20 shirts and maybe 2 pairs of pants.

Rule #5 - If the only reason to keep something is for sentimental value, it goes. "Oh, I bought this for high school homecoming court." and "Wow! I bought this shirt for my trip to Greece" and "Gosh, this is what I bought to wear our wedding shower!" are all bad excuses to keep something. If these are your only reason to keep a piece of clothing, get rid of it! There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as a wedding dress.

Rule #6 - If something is not your style anymore, it goes. I remember in college, my wardrobe was essentially thermal shirts. Although thermals are great, its not really my style anymore. Its one thing if I was going to class every day, but these days I don't need 15 thermals! It just doesn't fit my lifestyle anymore. I need professional clothing, dresses for church, cute clothes for date night, and PJs! 

As rule #1 states, if you haven't worn it in year, it goes, but because I'm obsessive, I was wearing everything. Rule #6 really helped me with getting rid of stuff that should have been gone from rule #1. Basically, if its something I should have not worn in the past year, it goes. hahahaha

I got rid of 3 huge bags of clothes and am still left with plenty of things to wear! I have been working to sell my stuff because most of it is still in great condition! So far I have made $52.22! Not bad! I also decided to reorganize my closet to try and kick the obsessiveness noted in rule #1. I'm not sure if I like it or not though.

Using Spreadsheets to Calculate

Let me just say, there are MILLIONS of formulas you can use in Excel Spreadsheet. Ok... not millions.... but there are a lot. This post is going to discuss just a few ways common to calculate using a spreadsheet. So, lets get started!

First off, when you're using formulas in spreadsheets, you will have to either type the formula, or click on the formula button. I don't really want to get into the specific details of each formula and how they work, but if you have a question about a specific one, leave a comment below, and i will try to help.

Adding using a Spreadsheet. Lets just go ahead and throw in all of the basic math functions.... so addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. When you're wanting a specific cell to contain the complete formula solution, click on THAT CELL. Once the specific cell is selected either click the formula button (at the top), or type "=" and then the formula. 

I realize this is sort of confusing, but just bear with me. Take a look at this screenshot. Lets say you are planning a trip and you are trying to estimate exactly how much money you will need. You have typed your categories, and your amounts, and now you just need the total. So you would click into the blank cell, type "=SUM(" and then click and drag all the cells that you wish to add. Once you press enter, the sum of the cells will automatically appear. 

NOW for the beauty of calculating in spreadsheets. Lets say you realize halfway through your planning that your hotel will be $18 more than what you had originally thought. All you have to do is change the Hotel amount NOT the Total amount. The spreadsheet will automatically update based on what you type. As with most spreadsheet applications, there is more work at the beginning, but the result is that you have to do very minimal after the beginning.

Lets go on using the same example.... You decide to add 2 more nights to your trip. When you are doing calculations in spreadsheets, you do not have always use numbers that are in a cell. In this situation, instead of paying for 1 night at the hotel, you will be paying for 3 nights at the hotel. So you can simply click on the blank cell, type "=", select the hotel price, then type "*3". In this example you would do the same thing for food and fun (most likely...) and fuel would be the same as just staying for 1 night.

Right before you are leaving for your trip, you are doing some last minute research and you find out that food cost is quite a bit more than what you're used to. You decide to update your spreadsheet. When you change amounts in one cell, all other cells that are linked to that cell update as well! The box highlighted in yellow is the one you changed; the boxes highlighted in green are the ones that automatically updated. Pretty neat, eh?

These types of calculations are very helpful to me when I am planning vacations, reviewing our household budget, keeping up with amount paid on bills, and making general calculations that may or may not need to be updated as time goes on. 

Counting Using a Spreadsheet. "One. Ah-Ah. Two. Ah-Ah. Three. Ah-Ah-Ah." Ok, so counting isn't really that hard, right. But depending on the size of your spreadsheet, it could get difficult to keep your eyes on track and easy to get confused by all of the gridlines.

This is where the count function comes in. In a cell, you can type "=COUNTA(" then click and drag on cells on which you want it to count a text presence. In the screenshot below you can see how the bottom cells count the number of Xs in each column. This creates an easy viewing for many situations. In this example, I wanted to keep a live count on Predators games we would be attending.

There are SO many different calculations you can. As to not bore you in this post, I am going to stop here. If you have a question about a calculation I mentioned, or another calculation that I didn't mention, please feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for sticking with me throughout this series. This was experimental to test viewership on "an informational topic." Now back to our regularly scheduled program. :)

Other Spreadsheet Posts
Tips & Tricks | List | Schedule | Organize | Calculate