Selling my sister's wardrobe - The decluttering

After our clothes selling plan was hatched, the first step was to do the decluttering work to get the items that we could sell. This was done in two parts. I made some interesting observations between the two sessions, which you'll find out more about below.

I arrived at my sister's house for the first decluttering session with a few items that I knew would come in handy. Various cloth and plastic bags to hold the clothes, sticky notes, and pens to mark our different piles. My sister had taken all her clothes out of her wardrobe and drawers and piled them onto the spare double bed. The whole bed was covered, but compared to pictures I'd seen on the internet of people decluttering their wardrobes, this was not going to be as big a job as some of those!

We set up in each corner of the room labels and bags for selling, donating, mending, and keeping. Anything for the trash went straight into the bin, and there were only a couple of items in the end that were so worn out they had to be thrown away.
My sister and I sat on opposite ends of the bed and started working through the clothes pile. My sister would make a decision, and I would put the item in whatever corner it needed to be in. We talked a lot about clothes, style, sewing, and one particular mess of a dress that had been bought online from a fast fashion website that could not possibly look good on anyone because it was so badly made!
My job was to move the clothes into the different piles depending on where the item was going next. More importantly though, I was there to encourage and support my sister during the first time she was decluttering with intention. It can be difficult to hold space for someone needing to decide what to do about an item, when you're not the one attached to it and have had it in your house for who knows how long. I was tempted to talk more about the negative environmental impacts of fashion, and had to remind myself that what we were doing together was a great step towards my sister learning to shop and live more sustainably. It was a great time for me to practice holding space and supporting someone in learning at their own pace.

The session took about a half day, and once the pile was gone we spent a bit more time hanging items that were heading back into the wardrobe and folding items heading back into drawers. We decluttered about a half dozen bags worth of clothes. One bag was coming home with me to mend items that would then be kept or sold, one bag was heading for donation, and the other bags were all for our market stall! My sister's clothes spaces were still quite full, but were no longer stuffed and couldn't be closed!

The second decluttering session was not originally in our market stall plan. We had procrastinated on booking the stall after the first session and as a result several months had gone by. Dare I say, more like half a year or more! We were talking about getting into action and booking the stall when my sister said that she'd like to do another decluttering session first.
She had noticed some of the items she kept because she loved them or wanted to make the effort to wear, she had just not worn and they were taking up valuable real estate in her house. This in itself is a great reason to consciously choose what clothes stay in your closet - it helps tune you into what you actually wear and love as opposed to what you think you want or should keep.

Procrastination time was over so we held our second session a week or two after our conversation. The pile we started with was smaller than the first, and it became clear to me almost immediately that my sister was not keeping anywhere near as many items as the first time. She made a lot more comments about loving an item but loving others more, so there was no point in keeping it when someone else could enjoy it. We talked more about style, and as much as certain colours and cuts and prints were nice my sister didn't find them as flattering on her as other items she owned.
I was so proud of her for discovering more about her own style and fashion preferences, and for continuing to be committed to disposing of the unwanted clothes sustainably through second hand selling and donating. 

The second session only took a couple of hours. We worked more quickly and now we were gearing up for the stall part of the plan, talking planning and selling strategies helped keep our energy high. The amount of clothes we decluttered was similar to the first session with most bagged for selling this time around.
With the two sessions worth of decluttering together, my sister could now give more wardrobe and drawer space to the clothes she was keeping and really loved and wore often.

Before I headed home, we made a date to meet at my house within the month to do our market preparations and book the stall. Another fun day together was coming soon!