The holidays are full of gift giving, carry ins and family/friend gatherings. Our home will become an up and down mess of food and new fun gadgets. However, we need to keep in mind what we are now using in place of what we were using. This is the time to start the closet flip with your hangers and the time to go through junk drawers. This is the best way to keep up with the items you are no longer using. When I work on my closets I use the technique that many organizers use in this profession which consists of flipping our clothing items hangers with the hook facing you to begin. As you where the items you may replace them in the correct way (hook facing back of closet). This will give you a clear idea of how many items you actually wear. Now I know some of you have dressers as well. This may be a bit more of a process when purging drawers of clothes without hanging them. However if you are just in the spirit of purging then go at it. I use the 3 month rule for my dresser and one month rule on my closet (by season). One month of the hanger method for that season. Same with the dresser drawers, if you know you haven't worn the item in 3 months its usually safe to say you aren't going to wear it. However if you don't really know you could use the hanger method just for purging purposes and get a much clearer picture. That of course depends on current closet size.
Junk drawers are a little bit more fickle unless you are just in purge mode and know exactly what you don't use. For me I stick with the basics. I separate items on what I know I have used and what has just been collected. I know that we sometimes put pieces of other items that may have broken off or been misplaced. When you decide whether it is worth keeping or not you need to make a list of that item and what corresponding action needs to get this item out of your junk drawer - task. Now after you have done some dividing start deciding if you need or if this is just an item moving around in your drawer. This is a real question that needs to be asked with every item you are reluctant to let go of. We allow the memory of the item dictate the worth.
