How much clothing is too much? Need hoarding help? What’s a healthy balance?

There’s a saying that how you do anything is how you do everything. And when it comes to clothing, hoarding is a lot more common than you might think. While the rest of our homes may be spotless, the closet? Well, that’s another story. It’s easy, of course. We live in a world where fashion is as accessible as fast food. Often, as inexpensive, too.

It’s hard to pass up a great deal on something, and it’s even harder to pass up buying something that makes you look great. Besides, we have image issues in this country that make us feel the need to refresh our wardrobes rather constantly. So, typically, one of two things happen: we either wear something into bits and trash or donate it; or after its rotation has ended, it winds up sitting in deep storage in the closet. It’s in that in between state: something too cool to throw away, but not perfect enough to wear right now. If this happened to just one or two items every once in a while, that’s not really a bad thing. But, of course, for many of us, it’s a routine.

Even the eco-friendly hipster swap culture does little to provide hoarding help; in fact it can make it even worse.  You bring a bag (or several) for swapping, and typically leave with just as much as you brought, inevitably relegating some other article into the hoard pile at the back of the closet. Still, there’s comfort in keeping great clothes. We want to wear one-of-a-kind items again someday. We want to give them to our children. But how many black t-shirts does anyone really need?

You can go the route of adopting the wear-it-in-a-year-or-toss-it philosophy. But that can mean parting with really special items that don’t necessarily deserve to be tossed. You can swap items, which, while it doesn’t always mean less clothing, it does mean spending less money on clothes. You can also try to repurpose or upcycle clothing into something else. And most importantly, you can put the kibosh on new clothing purchases for an extended period of time.

Then, it’s time to reorganize the closet.

Sorting clothing by season, by wearing frequency, and by category, will greatly diminish your clothes hoarding. Hanging on to all those concert t-shirts isn’t necessarily a bad idea. But if you’re not wearing them regularly, why not store them away in the garage? When it’s time to wear them, they’ll be there, just not taking up all that space.

And remember the most important reason you bought the items in the first place: to wear them! Make it a habit at least once a week to wear something not in the regular rotation. Pull out an old skirt, that funky belt, or those amazing shoes and wear them, even if it’s just out to dinner one night. Let the closet be an extension of you–not something you’re hiding in shame.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: katykash

The post Clothes Hoarding Help: It’s Time to Come Out of the Closet appeared first on EcoSalon.

The time has come to take a searching and fearless inventory of your clutter situation. First stop? Naming your addiction.

The first step out of twelve in a recovery program is admitting that you are powerless over your affliction. If you’re one of these types of clutterers, that means your mountain of hoarding has become insurmountable for you and the people who bravely venture into your messy environs.

The step before the first step of real recovery, of course, is hitting rock hard, linoleum bottom. It might be millions of boxes of junk away, but clutter control is just an oosouji away.

Consider yourself a social clutterer? Sorry, there’s no such thing. If you’ve got a problem, you likely fit into one of these categories.

Deep in the Closet
You hide your habit behind french doors, possibly even the dorm room tapestry you’ve been dragging around since college. If one were to peak behind the curtain though, it would reveal a very dire situation, indeed.

The Bargain Basement Hoarder
You’ve never met a bargain you couldn’t resist. Take care. Your post holiday shopping euphoria could be obscuring a very troubling mold problem in your basement, behind all those boxes from Amazon.

The Bulker
There’s nothing wrong with buying in bulk. Most discerning and conscious shoppers do. But remember that you’re not the only one at the co-op with a hankering for organic carob-dipped chestnuts.

The Techie
Your wire and plug collection would make Wall-E swoon.

The Bill Cultivator
Do you think the IRS is out to get you? File right, and it’s very unlikely that you will ever be audited. Go paperless, get a scanner, get thy receipts to a paper mill.

The Wishful Thinker
Your optimism is to be admired, but you will never be young enough to wear stirrup pants ever again.

The Book Hoarder
Your single-handed efforts to keep your local bookshop afloat is appreciated, but the county library could use some love, too.

The Free Table Watchdog
There are many truisms about working in media depicted in shows like Ugly Betty, one of them being all the free junk that gets hurled your way. It all goes to a place called the free table. Every magazine or major website has one, but it is not a blessing. It is a curse.

The Product Fiend
The solution to perfect anything does not come in a bottle, even if it is greenwashed to within an inch of its molecular structure. Liberate yourself: liberate your medicine cabinet!

The Sentimentalist

Little Johnny and Julie have to grow up sometime and hoarding their roughly drawn sketches of cats and rainbows and those essays about George Washington need to find a home in the recycling box. They will still love you in adulthood without them.

The Upcycler
Just as you don’t want to become known as the crazy cat lady for taking in every stray you come across, you also don’t want to become the crazy driftwood one for stockpiling every piece you find. Some things are left better off drifting.

The Jar Collector
Good for you for committing to lead a zero waste year. But if you don’t have an immediate use for that empty jar, fear not the recycling bin. It is still your friend.

Images: Howard.hall, lamont_cranston, the urban mermaid, clark maxwell, Mr. Mio, Uljana Egli, Henry…, noocar, Shira Goldig, AbigailPhotography, eva the weaver, Katherine A, puukibeach

The post 12 Types of Clutter Junkies: Taking the First Step appeared first on EcoSalon.

I hate to admit it, but I’m an instant gratification kind of gal. On the rare occasions that I rouse myself to do something positive, I like to be rewarded with the immediate and obvious results of my efforts.

When I clean, I want to see a sparkling and orderly house that smells, however briefly, of Pine Sol and Lemon Pledge. When I diet, I like to see immediate results – either on my scale or on my thighs. But when I recycle, I see”¦absolutely nothing.

There is, of course, the satisfaction of knowing that I am helping the planet – in an amorphous, down-the-road kind of way. But the fact is I will never really know if the mayonnaise jar I rinse out and recycle today will improve the ozone layer tomorrow. I have nothing concrete to show for my efforts and no definitive proof that I am improving the world even a smidgen. For me, recycling has always been the epitome of a delayed gratification task. Until now.

I have found a wonderful new way to recycle, one that lets me do my part for a greener planet while rewarding me with an immediate payoff – literally. I have begun recycling coins – the heavy and unsanitary loose change that weighs down every purse I own and rattles around in my pockets. I am no longer burdened with those funky nickels and dimes that reproduce like rabbits and clutter up my counters in a depressing, down-market display. Coins are everywhere in my house – collecting dust in shoe boxes, carelessly scattered on top of night tables, and stuffed into plastic takeout food containers. My house is an unlikely cross between Chase Manhattan Bank and an episode of “Hoarders.”

But it turns out that the coins you accumulate in your home are not just unattractive, they are bad for the environment, too. It is estimated that nearly 10 billion dollars’ worth of loose change is sitting idle in American homes right now. And every coin sitting in a jar on your dresser is a coin the U.S government feels the need to replace. Minting money is a drain on resources and energy, so putting your loose change back into circulation is, ultimately, an eco-friendly thing to do.

And now, thanks to the Penny Arcade machine at TD Bank, going green is easy – you just toss your unwanted coins into the machine, and accept paper money in return. If you’re not the most pristine of money hoarders, there’s even a reject tray where your non-coin items will be spit out. When my husband and I brought in our last haul, the machine coughed out a bunch of Canadian nickels, a button, a rusted screw and two Advil tablets. We walked away with over $400 in crisp, clean bills, and it was, by far, my favorite recycling experience to date.

I’d like to be the kind of person who’s enthusiastic about recycling – even without a cash incentive. But the reality is, I have a daughter starting college in 11 months, and most American universities charge $40,000 a year.

It’s time to pull apart the couch cushions and look for more change.

Image: tsmall

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