A graphic of a woman sitting on the floor in despair in front of a very untidy wardrobe with a pile of half worn clothes on the floor behind her

Episode 132 – What to do with half worn clothes

In today’s episode we are talking about half worn clothes - something the two of us disagree on! This is a question we get asked a lot, so we thought it was time to address the issue (despite our conflicting views!)

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Transcript of this podcast episode

Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The declutter your podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your hosts professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen, and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:34  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 132 of the Declutter Hub Podcast.

Lesley  0:39  
I'm Ingrid. And I'm Lesley.

Ingrid  0:41  
If you have clutter and want this sorted out, this is the show for you. Now, in today's episode, can you hear me laughing? Alright. Boys, can you hear me loving? In today's episode, Lesley and I are talking about what to do with half worn clothes. Now, I'm a little bit afraid, Lesley already, because you and I are not going to disagree on this. We've had this this kind of did this is the kind of ongoing disagreement between us, isn't it? And I'm afraid you're gonna get really feisty with me when we record it. I'm like, All right. All right, I might have to cave in at the end.

Lesley  1:26  
You make me feel terrible. No Ingrid is if I'm going to kind of demand and whereas if it's an actual competition, as if it's a competition. I mean, anybody who's a member knows that we have had this debate many, many times already, haven't we, Ingrid? And I'm not going to tell you who normally wins. But that's all I'm saying. So we're just gonna laugh our way through this podcast, aren't we? So it's such an important let's set the scene. Okay. So you are getting ready for bed at night. You have had your clothes on for the day. And you so I mean, some people do put the clothes away straightaway at night, but most people don't I think on put them on the side or put them on a chair or something. And then a lot of people will do like a morning reset and put those things away. Yeah, some people might put them on the hanger. Now some people might put them away at night. I don't I kind of leave them and I do my reset in the morning. But I will do my morning reset regardless of whether I've had those clothes on before make an assessment. Are they ready to be washed and put in the laundry? Or are they ready to go back in the wardrobe where they truly belong? And this is where the debate is because Ingrid's our lovely professional organiser here puts her over a Bannister Ingrid Yeah, speak for yourself. Tell all

Ingrid  2:54  
yes. So when I get ready for bed in the evening, I put the clothes that I don't want to wear any more than next day immediately my laundry baskets and a pair of trousers or a jumper or a jacket or summer jacket I would hang up a pair of trousers or jumper a top that I think oh, I can wherever that another time. I put over my Bannister because I might when the next day or two days after. So that's where I put it. So Lesley and I are actually aligned about a lot of things in the decluttering and organising world. But when I told Lesley I put my clothes over a barrister A while back, she nearly honestly like dropped to the floor and what what do you mean? You put them over to pasture? And the whole thing kind of started from there. And we debates on quite a regular basis. And we recently got a question I believe in a Facebook group about have more to close. And you could all the members God kind of oh, here we go. So I think it was about time we do a podcast about this because we first of all, love the baiting this situation. But I think it's actually something that a lot of people struggle with. And it keeps coming up on a very regular basis, doesn't it? Listen to either in the Facebook group on comments that we read on our Instagram page? Or you know, it just keeps coming up? What happens with these half worn clothes? So I think it was about time 132 episodes in that we actually talked about something that we don't agree about. You see

Lesley  4:36  
bad and so where I'm coming from is how can you do you know we are big advocates? Aren't we Ingrid of doing the daily resets? Yes. So in our daily reset, we tidy things away. We set our house back to the way that we would want it ideally in my world how can you do a reset without putting your clothes away and leave them over a Bannister?

Ingrid  4:59  
You Oh and I think it's just because my mum didn't as well she she put her tarp over the bannister in the evening when I was growing up, but I think I must have just, it must have just stuck. Stuck. I don't know. It's just, it's the same I, I just don't have a lot of spare space in my house and it just seemed like the logical place to put stuff. And my daughter puts it some little column from Little bits in her in her bedroom. So there's my son, my husband hangs, I mean, something over the benefit for me is

Lesley  5:34  
Oh, hang on, hang on this. This gets worse. Right. So are you telling me now that you've actually got multiple places in your in your home where you have on one? Close? So you've got one son's got one, y'all might put it somewhere different. So I've just got this vision of of this mound of clothes everywhere in your now let me first say no judgement here guys, because we're all here because we have clutter But ideally, Ingrid should be practising what she preaches. That's the point I'm making, not judging any of our listeners for having a chaired robe. A flawed robe a Bannister drove a back of the back of the DOJ robe, but I am within my rights to judge my dear friend Ingrid, by having a Bannister drobe.

Ingrid  6:23  
Well, I don't want to have one pile with stuff with everybody's clothes on because then you can never find anything. Again. This just two or three pairs of trousers. We're talking here. Let's see, we're not talking about this gigantic mound of stuff. It's just that I kind of I want to wear my jeans one day and then my black trousers one day and then I've got some nice other trousers that I want the other. But I'm not just going to I don't have like 26 pairs of clothes there.

Lesley  6:51  
Here's a hint. Here's a hint, put them back in your wardrobe and then you will find them.

Ingrid  6:59  
I knew you know what listeners I knew this was the podcast. I was actually going to be slaughtered by Lesley because I know how passionate she is about it. But then Excuse me, excuse me. You put them on the floor when you take them off. You don't even hang them out. I mean, that would not happen in my world. How can you leave close overnight that they're on the floor where your sleep next to where you're sleeping, there's like this lump of ghosts. That will never happen in my house. Not stuff would be left on the floor. I to hang it neatly over a barrister because I don't have a chair and I don't want a chair in my bedroom. So I used to miniature we don't have a very big house. So I know that place for chairs and things like that, which is I think a good thing because I think a chair is a dangerous place. But that's a whole other conversation. I think I'm sure we're gonna get back to at some point in this podcast. But no, just random piles of clothes on the floor. No, no, no. So explain yourself.

Lesley  8:03  
Okay, okay. Yeah. So she's trying to out me now she's fighting back. This is what's happening. You're fighting back? Yeah, well, I'm telling you, I'm tired at night, I don't want to. And some of those things might go in the wash the next day. If it is something special, I will hang it up. So if it was a nice dress or something, I would hang it up. I wouldn't just throw it on the floor. But you know, you take your trousers off and you take you think things that aren't, that's fine for them to just go on the floor. No one's looking at anyone's look. And he's only what I had on that day. The point is Ingrid, we have to deal with the clothes that we are taking off so that they don't mount up into a drobe of some kinds. Yeah. And that's where my nervousness is. Right. Okay, so let's start fighting because we need to teach people things don't wait. So we vehemently disagree that much. We know why do people have an issue with putting things back in their wardrobe?

Ingrid  9:00  
I think that there could be several reasons. I think the thing is that it I think, first of all, there's a couple of things you have to take into consideration. I think it really depends on the kind of job you have, you know, if you've got an office job, where you might wear a suit jacket and a trouser and it needs to maybe go to the dry cleaners because it's maybe fancy things you don't want to kind of put it in a rush to the dry cleaners. You want to wear that several times. But of course, if you've got a job like my if I go to work with clients and I and I'm stuck in my head with cupboards and dust and things that talk needs to go in the laundry, because it's been dirty, it's been you know, it's been in dust and everything. So I think things have changed a lot. I think people's jobs have changed a lot as far as I think it really depends on what you do what the clothes are. Now, I think of course in the past, and I'm talking a bit longer than now we've got all kinds of fancy washing machines and things But in the past, people had to hand wash a lot of stuff, or had all this kind of long winded kind of ways to get clothes to wash or you would wear stuff longer, because it was just much more of a hassle to get them all clean and dried. But now nowadays, a lot of people go back to why are we washing so much all the time. So quickly, it's really bad for the environment to over wash clothes, it's not good for close to new washing. So oh, there's there's a lot of things going on even considered before you go put it into the into your wardrobe. And on top of that, allegedly, a lot of wardrobes are bursting at the seams. So it's not easy to put stuff back in.

Lesley  10:43  
Right. But that's a whole nother debate that's veering into a whole nother debate. So you know, if your wardrobes got too many too many things in it. Of course, that's a decluttering issue rather than a kind of resetting issue, which is what we're talking about here. Here, we're talking about putting things back after you've worn after you've worn them. I agree that that so our jobs when we are working, you know, every day we go to a new client, we're not going to wear the same jeans that got dusty and T shirt that we wore yesterday, every day, we're going to come home, we're going to put that in the washing, we're gonna put something new on the following day. If you're a decorator, for example, or I'm thinking maybe a builder on a bill, you know you your clothes will get dirty, but you may not replace them every day, because there might not be worth it, you might be quite happy to put the set the same clothes on for a second or third or fourth day. So that's kind of different. So those kinds of clothes, I completely agree with you. You're not going to go and put your decorators or your gardening clothes next to your dress that you're going to go out with on a Saturday night. That much I agree with you on that Ingrid. Yeah, but that to me would need a sort of separate place. But for me, the question is, if it's good enough to go back on your body, yeah. So it's clean enough to go back on your body for a second day or third day or fourth day? Why is it not good enough to go back in your wardrobe?

Ingrid  12:02  
I think what for me because I wear a lot of belts on my trousers. So I think because I as you know, I do not have a very big wardrobe. And of course when the when the trousers come from either the washer, the ironing, they're nice and kind of slim, but as soon as you put a belt around it, it kind of gets really bulky around the waist. And because I don't have a really big wardrobe, then I have to start squeezing stuff in. So it's mainly two or three pairs of trousers that go over the bannister while the rest because I'm always kind of hot and sweaty and kind of running around. So the tops I normally only wear once because I wear things quite close to my armpits. So after one day that needs to go into the wash. So it's not necessarily and a jacket I will hang up because I've got to kind of bit sturdier hangers for that. So then I've got to kind of place but I think it's mainly due to the bells that I don't put them back while now I think about it because of course I'm taking your your comments on board. Let's see, but I think it's because of the belts. I think that's why

Lesley  13:06  
see now you've taken me into another whole debate which is why don't you just take the belt out of your trousers when you're done with it on the day. Do you leave your belts in trousers? Because surely that's going to miss shape the trousers isn't that?

Ingrid  13:18  
Yeah, leave them in. If I'm going to wear them tomorrow I'm not going to take my belt out of my trousers hang the belt to decide that put the belt back on the same day.

Lesley  13:26  
I I'm I'm really doubting your ability to be a professional organiser. I really am in good shape now leaving the belts and the trousers and too lazy to take them out and pull them away. She's put she's throwing her clothes over bannisters. What's going on, I need to come and take action at your house, I need to come and have a look and assess what's going on. And whether you're actually a valid professional organiser, like you say you are, I hope you're not telling your clients. We'll just leave it there. We'll just leave now. I've got so many more things I need to say. It's interesting, because if you're not on your own, and so I know out there the listeners will be I agree with Ingrid, I agree with Len somebody I'll be like I agree with Lesley. And so the country the world then is going to be completely split on what people do. And but the most important thing, and the reason why we're having this debate is that it's important. So the difference and I will concede that I know that Ingrid is putting those things there for a couple of days with the knowledge that she's going to wear them again, and that she's going to put them back home. The danger with this is that those two days become five days and those two items become five items or 10 items. And then all of a sudden this builds and builds and builds until you've got a completely overwhelming amount of clothes which then becomes what we commonly know as a Floyd robe, a chair wardrobe or a new declutter hub thing, or Ingrid Johnson thing called a Bannister drove. And so that's the problem. So what Ingrid is doing is not inherently wrong, of course it's not and life gets in the way. And we all have our little quirks and things that we do and things that we've always done. things that we've learned along the way, I put my clothes on the floor at night, because I can't be bothered. Ingrid can't be bothered to take a belter of a trousers, the world is not going to end because of that. But the kinds of things that we're talking about, and this buildup of clothing is what causes problems in the long term because it becomes overwhelming. Do we agree on that? Ingrid? Yeah, for

Ingrid  15:33  
sure. For sure. And you're right, indeed, exactly what you're saying less you because at my weekly reset, you know, if I think oh, that black trousers been difficult, then uh, probably as some people think, oh, I need to wear it now. So it can then get another one or two, where's that can go into wash or Oh, that that that trouser now can indeed return. It's not like I never return any have worn clothes, it there will be an old thing going back. But because I clock it, I keep an eye on it. It's something that because I don't want to have a chair drove with 24 items of clothing where people have to dig through stuff the whole time. And I think the problem is that people then keep wearing the same kinds of stuff. And the danger with a chair drobe is that Then something clean gets put on top of it. And then it gets buried under something else. And then people don't know any more if it's clean, or if it's dirty, and then you get into a whole cycle of then having to wash stuff again, and it goes out of control. And I think that's what we're why we're talking about this because that's what we don't want to happen.

Lesley  16:44  
Yeah, it's really important to make sure that you've got a line of sight of of what's laundry, what needs to be washed. And what's good enough to wear a second time or indeed what's good enough to go back in the wardrobe. And so I'm of the mind, of course that things are fine to go back in the wardrobe, even if you've worn them a few times. In fact, as you said before, environmentally, I would wear things many, many times. So if I was wearing a dress to go out on a weekend or something, I might wear that dress, I might never wash it, you know, I might wear it 10 or 15 times and it might never get washed just me depending on the style of the dress. And as you say how close is the arms and all those kinds of things. So some things don't need wash it and they can just go back in the wardrobe because they're not dirty, because they're not, you know, they're not in places that mean that you've got to wash them more regularly. So it just sort of depends on it depends on the item. But I think it's that control that's important. And that knowledge and that constant resetting that you see you know, so you're keeping a second eye on that on a on a weekend or whatever. So you're saying oh, you know, these things can go back or I'm going to definitely wear that this week. And of course, it's also very dependent on how many items of clothing you've got. And so if you've only got four or five pairs of trousers, for example, that you're alternating with regularity, then you are invariably going to come to those trousers more regularly than if you've got 30 or 40 pairs of trousers. And so that makes a difference as well. But the main message here is number one that I won the debate. That's the first message.

Ingrid  18:18  
Remar Lesley dream on the listeners. We would love we would love to hear your comments on this podcast. So on your podcast player, you can leave comments, or you can on our website on Declutter. health.com, you can listen to the podcast, you can leave comments, please tell me I'm not alone. And that there's people that are on my side too.

Lesley  18:38  
This many, many people on your site and other I know we'd really like whenever we put it out there for debate. It's you know, when we do it in our membership in the q&a, and so on. So yeah, come and join our q&a. This is the kind of fun stuff that we talk about. You know, we get questions in some some poor person says what what would you do with half one closing grid Lesley? 45 minutes later, Ingrid and I are having a fight. Fight? That's not true. But no. So our q&a is our we go deep on things. Don't we do deep dives on topics. And so it's it's not just how do you declutter your kitchen. It's very specific things like this that we talk about with regularity. And they are equally they're just as much fun as this one is now to be faring with 95% of the things that we talk about in our q&a is we're completely aligned on our way. But there's just an odd thing where we have a little debate, and this is one of them, isn't it?

Ingrid  19:36  
Yeah. So if you would like to know more about the q&a, that Lesley and I do, come and check out our membership on members dot declutter hub.com And you can be at our live q&a too. And we do them every two weeks and the last just about over an hour an hour and 15 minutes. And our our members can can submit questions to us and we answer the questions and we love it, don't we listen, we love Get some one of our favourite parts of the of the membership that we do

Lesley  20:04  
definitely is. So I know that I said the real learning and the key message from this podcast was the fact that I had one. But I but that is not the key message. The key message is that we need to keep control of the clothes that we take off at the end of the day. And we need to have a line of sight as to what's happening to them. Are they going in the laundry? Can they be put away? Are you intending to wear them again in a couple of days, and don't let those clothes build up to a completely unmanageable amount?

Ingrid  20:32  
Yeah, and I think it's interesting what you're saying about kind of rewiring stuff, I think it's really important that clothes get aired as well. So if you want to see a lot is that people do put stuff back on the hanger. But if you can just let it air out for a little while before you email it, put it back, that really helps as well with keeping the clothes stay fresh for longer. And I think at one point we all got so you know, obsessed with washing and washing and washing all the time. You know, clothes don't need to be washed after everywhere. I mean, of course socks and underwear do but a trouser, you know you can wear multiple times before you throw it away in the wash. And I think a lot of people have teenagers probably now go, Yeah, tell that to my teenager, who put something off for half an hour and then put it in laundry basket and goes right. It's dirty now. And it's like, Okay, have you done the the? Have you looked at it? You know, have you done a test how it looked? And have you actually done a smell test? If it does not smell? It smells fine. You can put it on your body? That's not a problem. Yeah, we're

Lesley  21:42  
not doing any we're not doing any sniff tests on any teenagers close. I can do the room. Yeah. Basically basic rule in our house. But anyway, yeah, yeah.

Ingrid  21:51  
So yes, Lesley, you're right. We are definitely not doing sniff tests on teenage boys or girls clothing, because that's not a good thing to do. Anyway, listeners, we hope you've enjoyed this podcast and that we've made you laugh with our shenanigans. And you need to tell us who has won. Is it Lesley? Or is it me. But on the other hand, actually, maybe there shouldn't be a winner. But maybe we have brightened up your day with our crazy debate about have worn clothes, and that you're going to take action and maybe by listening to us talking about chair drops or floor drops and better stir drops. It has made you think yourself like hmm, what do we do here at my house? And do we actually chuck everything away? After we've worn it for like half a day? Can we make because if you're always struggling with laundry, maybe the first thing to do is now look at those habits and go how does it work? You're at my house. Am I am I my own worst enemy by putting everything in the wash after I've worn in like 10 minutes and do our sconces constant struggle with with folding and with ironing. So we hope that is helpful and it's giving you a little giggle. So thanks so much for listening. And we appreciate you we love you being here every week with us. So if you've enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to share it with other people. You can find the sharing buttons on the show notes page on our websites. And of course if you want to have more handy tips and advice from your Leslie, don't forget to join our Facebook group to declutter hub community with listening Ingrid we would love to see you there. And if you think to yourself, you know what I've got wardrobes full of clothes i It's about time I'm going to tackle this. Come and check out our membership via members dot declutter help.com We can take you through all the rooms in your house and help you get decluttered and organised. Now if you don't want to miss the next podcast, do subscribe to the clutter help podcast and it will pop into your notifications each Friday. So thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you next time.

Outro  24:02  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the clutter hub podcast. Check out declutterhub.com for more inspiration, and don't forget to tune in next week.

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Episode 397 – 10 tips you need to teach your kids to tidy

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Episode 392 – The clutter advice I’d give my 30-year-old self

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Andrea says:

11 April 2021 at 8:32 PM

That was funny and interesting.
I’m totally with Ingrid. I don’t want to always put everything back into the wardrobe.
But having the stuff distributed everywhere (as you don't want one big pile) looks messy.
To solve this issue/dilemma I have designed a dedicated "inbetweendrobe".
The shallow tilted compartments ensure everything can be found at first glance but it's a designated space making the room look tidy at all times.
Please check it out on my website, etsy shop or instagram, where this and variations of it (a small one to put in a wardrobe) will be available again soon.
Thanks,
Andrea
Vertical Wardrobes

Reply
Dody says:

9 April 2021 at 8:31 PM

I’m with Ingrid – I don't like to put half worn clothes back in my wardrobe as I don't like mixing unwashed clothes with washed clothes. I air mine on a hanger, then fold them on a shelf until I wear them again – and I don't have many clothes 'on the go' at any one time.

Reply
1. Lesley Spellman says:
  
  10 April 2021 at 8:31 PM
  
  Glad you enjoyed it, Dody! Thanks for sharing your process with us x
  
  Reply

Episode 132 – What to do with half worn clothes

Episode 397 – 10 tips you need to teach your kids to tidy

Episode 396 – Why Resilience and Decluttering go hand in hand with Lucy Wooldridge

Episode 397 – 10 tips you need to teach your kids to tidy

Episode 396 – Why Resilience and Decluttering go hand in hand with Lucy Wooldridge

Episode 393 – How a Clutter-Free Home Strengthens Relationships – A Valentine’s special

Episode 392 – The clutter advice I’d give my 30-year-old self

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