 All righty, we are joined today live with Sally. We've got Rita already with us. We've got Kimberly and Molly standing nearby and can't say. Hi guys and welcome to today's Clutter Corner Live. This is Angela Brown coming to you from Ask a House Cleaner. And today we're gonna cover one of my favorite topics in the heat of the summertime, which is how to get rid of your winter coats. Now, one of the reasons that I love doing this in this time of year is because I get very little pushback from just about anybody. And the reason being is when it's 100 degrees outside, I don't have anybody that's like, no, no, no, no, my winter coats. They're like, yes, let's get rid of those coats. And when you stop and you try on the coat, there's something magical about saying, yeah, I don't wanna ever be that hot. So we're gonna go through our closets today and we're gonna get rid of some coats. And I wanna just check in real quick with Rita and Sally and say, hi, how are you guys today? Hey, I'm doing great, Angela, how are you? I'm very good, thanks. Tell us what you're up to and what brings you here today to our Clutter Corner. Yeah, so I am definitely one of those people that will buy clothes and then just leave them in my closet forever and never, and never think about getting rid of them. And when I saw the topic of coats, I thought about the coats I own and I definitely have a lot of like really thick, heavy coats that I haven't worn in years. I've also like changed sizes by this point in my life. And so some coats are too small for me, some of them are too big for me. And I just shove them in the back of the closet and don't think about them. And this is giving me a good opportunity to actually get through that stuff. Awesome, well, I hope that we're able to answer some of your questions today and that we are able to maybe help you just make some decisions about whether to keep some or whether to let them go. So hopefully. I'm Sally, how about you and welcome back. Good, I think you're on mute. I can't hardly hear you. Sorry, hi, how are you? Hi, how are you? Good. For me personally, I don't think I have too many coats, but then again, I don't know how many is too many too. I do have some coats. I have been two places in my Daucesse coat closet and in my closet upstairs. So I have two places and I do have some and I will say it just like what Rita said, I do have some like the sizes don't fit anymore, but it's just like, you just hang on to it one day, maybe I lose weight again, I can fit again. So I do have those. Yeah, so I'll come to the show today and let's see. Why is your advice on things like that and how to get rid of the coats? Well, thank you so much for joining us and today we're actually gonna go through my coat closet. I've got a couple of coat closets actually and I thought I had enough coats and I didn't think I had too many, but I do go through my coats on a regular basis and I say probably every other year is a really good time to do it and just take a look at the coats you have and I ask myself this question, is everything in my life still the same and am I still doing the activities that I was doing when I was wearing the coats before? This rule also applies to coats that are in your closet, hoodies, jackets, rain jackets, rain gear, camping gear, athletic wear, stuff that's in your closets, bathrooms, pajamas. I mean, you can ask yourself this question at any step along the way, is what's happening in my life right now a current representation of whatever this is that I'm working on and today it happens to be coats and it was really revealing to me when I started going through the coats. So I made a couple of videos along the way. I'm just gonna go ahead and add these right now that's gonna shrink us here over to the side and we'll walk through this together and I will show you a little bit about what was happening in my life and just see if it makes any difference as I go. This is my coat closet and like I say, I thought it was organized because I have space for everything. I got some junk up there on the top and today's not the topic of clearing out the junk on the top, so we won't do that today. But what was interesting about this particular scenario and we'll look at this again, as I went into my coat closet, the first thing that I noticed is there are some coats that absolutely I wanna keep. And then there were some coats here in the middle that I was looking at and I said to myself, I'm not really familiar with these coats. Did you ever have coats that just appeared miraculously in your closet and you're like, whoa, where did those come from? So I decided to start taking a look at the coats one by one and when I go through a closet and you can't always do this if it's someone else's closet that you're helping them declutter. But if it's your own closet, one of the things that I recommend is that you take the clothes out or the coats out and that you try them on. Do they still fit you like they once did? And then the next thing is, are they clean? Do they have any stains on them? Do they have any holes in them? Are there anything hiding in the pockets? And then once you try the coats on, how do I feel about this? And oh yeah, I still love this coat. This coat makes me feel really good about myself or it's really comfortable or what have you. And in this particular thing that we're looking at right now there are two coats. And the other coat belongs to my husband. And I don't know at what point of our lives we turned into those couples where you buy like matching coats. I promise that would never happen to me, but we bought these cool jacket shells at Costco and they were like 15 or 20 bucks a piece or something. They were inexpensive, but they're great winter wear for where we live, which is in North Carolina. So what I'm doing right now is I've decided to keep the one that's for me. And I don't know why, like I said, we like to dress alike and it's never intentional. I'll run out to the car and I'll get in the car and I'm like, whoa, we're wearing the same coat. And we have a couple of different kinds of coats because they're cool, but I don't know why we always seem to end up choosing the same types of coats. So I'm pulling this coat out of the closet when I realized suddenly there's another coat just like it. So here's a Pat and an Angela version of this same coat. So I'm checking the coats for myself. I still want to keep my version of it. And then I'm going to check the coat for him, but I don't have permission to get rid of his coats. So if I'm going to get rid of one of my coats I'm only getting rid of mine. And so, yes, I've decided to keep this one, but I'm going to double check the coat that he has. And I'm going to see if by chance it's stained or if the zipper is broken or if there's just anything that I need to kind of double check. And then I can either choose to have it mended. I can choose to take it to the dry cleaner and have it cleaned. I can, if it's washable in the washing machine I can choose to wash it. I'm just kind of checking it out to make sure that it still fits our lifestyle. And these are really good lightweight kind of like rain jackets or hiking jackets. And so I think I'm going to keep them after trying them on. And so then these will just go back inside the closet. Now my approach is I'm pulling out the easiest coats first. And if you're pulling out a closet and you're doing something like this my suggestion is that you start with the easiest coats first. So I pulled out the ones that we like because these are the ones that we wear together. These are coats that I'm most familiar with. So I started with the easiest ones first. Now one of the things that you're seeing here is I just swapped out the coat hanger. I took it off one coat hanger and then I found a nicer coat hanger in my closet. So I just upgraded my coat to a nicer coat hanger. This is a heavy durable coat hanger that's gonna support my coat. So I'm happy with these two coats. I'm gonna put these back at the back of the closet and I'm going to put them all the way at the far right. By doing that, that frees up the rest of the space inside the closet. And one of the things that I wanna highlight here is instead of pulling out all of the coats or the jackets at once and making a great big pile on my table, if I get called away, if the phone rings, if someone shows up at my door, this happens a lot when we start decluttering. You end up having this big pile that you never get around to finishing. But if you're making decision one coat at a time and you're only pulling out one coat at a time, if I get interrupted right now I can drop what I'm doing and I only have one coat to put away. Does that sort of make sense? What I'm looking at here in this particular, well, this is a coat I've never seen before. I don't know where this came from. I'm having a hard time figuring out who it belongs to, where it came from, what it is. And so I'm gonna set this one aside because maybe it belongs to my husband. I tried it on and it didn't fit me but we don't live in an area where we would ever have a coat that's this heavy and this has a big hood on it and it has all of its buttons. It has all of its snaps. It looks like it's in fairly new condition and it looks like an expensive, really nice, durable coat. I just don't know to whom it belongs and I don't know why it's in my closet. There's this really weird thing that happened to me a couple of years ago. I opened the closet and I found this really awesome coat and it was not mine and I tried it on and it fit perfectly. So I was like, oh my goodness. I don't know whose coat this is. So I started asking everybody. I started asking employees and independent contractors and siblings, people that had been over to my house. I'm like, hey, is this your coat? And no one ever claimed it. So I found this awesome coat that fit me perfectly. It was like a lightweight jacket. It was like one of those puffed jackets that had like lightweight sleeves. And then I wore it for like two years every day during the wintertime. So if it belongs to any of you, I have your coat. All right, I've got some comments over here. He likes to wear your polo tops as well. Yes, that's so funny. A few weeks ago, we were out and about and I went to take a selfie of us and I realized that we were both also dressed alike. We both had twin polos on. We just turned into that couple where we like think alike. All right, so I am going through my closet and here's another Costco coat. I love these Costco coats and we've stopped buying them. We put a limit on them, I guess a couple of years ago because we said like, hey, we have enough. I know we've got three or four of them. Look, it just makes me delighted to wear that. I just love that, yay. And so I'm going to keep this. And so it's okay to keep a coat. If you take a coat out and you're like, I'm not wearing it right now because obviously it's July or August. We don't wear them right now in the summertime but I know I'm going to wear this fall. And I'm looking at the last couple of years and my lifestyle changed a little bit over the last couple of years because of COVID and so I didn't really go out and about during COVID and so it's not really fair to say, oh, let me get rid of all my winter coats because I didn't use them the last two years. I may not use them this year but what I did and what changed for me and what's one of the big determining factors. Check this out. I've got a coat here at this brand new. It's never been worn. This was a coat that a client gave me and so oftentimes they have, what do you call them, like ad specialties where they've got their logo on them and they're like, hey, here, have a coat on us. This is a really, really nice coat. And as I try it on, one of the things that's interesting about this is it's way too warm for where I live. I would never wear a coat like this for where I live but as I'm putting it on, I'm trying to think who do I know that's the size. This is a brand new coat and a very expensive coat. It's fully lined. It's got little pockets all up and down the sleeves. It's got one of those little Velcro things that makes the hands fit tight. So if you were snow shoveling or something, you're not gonna get snow inside your sleeve. So what I decided to do instead of just donating these or getting rid of these, I decided that I was gonna try to give them away first. And so the cool thing is I'm making a video right now. So I can send a link to my video to a friend or a relative and I can say, hey, I've got a couple of coats here. This is what they look like and they just saw me with the coats. I can even just click out that snippet or say go to whatever the minute number is. Is this a coat that you would like? And if it is, I'll drop it in a box to you can have it for free. It's a brand new coat that has a tag on it. So there might be somebody that would be able to use it. I'm just gonna fold it up and set it aside so that we can access this at a later time. All right, so I'm looking over here at the questions while I'm still going through my closet, trying winter gear on in the summer can help. It makes those somewhat itchy items extra irritating and easier to decide upon. That is so true. That is so true. And one of the reasons that I like to do this at this time of year is because it clears out space. And if you have a full closet and you're headed into the fall and the winter, what you've created space, what you've done is you've created a new norm and you're able, wow, that's a huge coat. Check this out. This is a coat I got from the airlines and I have no idea how I have such a big coat because that never did fit me but that's just a huge, huge coat. And so again, I'm checking all the pockets and maybe this belonged to my husband. I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna set this aside and let him decide if he wants this. If he doesn't, I know a couple of people that might be able to use this that live in cold weather. And so who do you know that you could just give it away to? And then if not, who do you know? Cause I'm in North Carolina. Nobody in North Carolina is probably gonna wear this coat. But it might be good for someone in a different area. And so who do you know that you can give the coats away to? And then also there are lots of coat drives where they'll ship them across the country to Boston and New York and New Hampshire and Rhode Island and all those really fun cold cities in the winter time. So we can make sure that people get some coats. Sveta says, hi everyone. Angela, thank you so much for your videos. Yay, thank you so much for watching. I'm super glad that you're here. And someone says, dancing in a huge coat hilarious. I know, I'm having fun. This is not a stressful project. This is actually a lot of fun because you get to make decisions about stuff that once served you and then stuff that no longer serves you. So here's a fun jacket. I don't know if it's mine. I don't know if it's my husband's. I wanna try the coats on and I wanna make a decision. Does this still fit me for this point of my life? That is not my coat. Those arms are just drowning me out. There's a giant that lives in my house. So as I make decisions here, I'm deciding do I wanna hang on to this? And this looks like one of those shell jackets that we bought from Costco. And it's plain black. It doesn't have any designs or anything on it. And so I'm looking for, there should be one for me as well if we bought twin coats. I'm not seeing the twin. I'm just seeing that coat that looks like it belongs to my husband. So without any other decisions, I'm gonna put this one back in the closet and I'm gonna say yes to this. But the coats that I'm not sure of, I'm pulling out and I'm setting aside on the sofa. And then I'm gonna ask him to make a decision on those. Now I had a job with the airlines for about 15 years and so they gave me a lot of hoodies and coats and things like that is they never gave me a watch or anything, but they gave me gifts that were like, hey, here's a hoodie. And I love these hoodies because I wear them a lot when I go running and they've been really fun for me. I'm now checking the zippers. I'll check the pockets to make sure that these all fit. And all during the winter time, like instead of a bathrobe or something, you can find me running around my house in like jeans or a big hoodie like this. I just love the hoodies and I might even fall asleep in them. They're great for watching TV and stuff, just kind of a great big oversized hoodie. And this one stinks. I may have gone running and then somebody just hung that up in the closet. So we're gonna pull that out and we're gonna wash that. And this is another good time to decide. Here's another one of those airline coats. This one is a medium. It's got a tag on it as well. So we're gonna go ahead and make a decision that again, it's really too warm for where we live. And I no longer have that job at the airline. So I don't need to be out and about wearing a big, heavy coat even if it were really cold outside. Deb says she also keeps an extra in the camper. You never know. I think in a camper that's probably a really good bet to have an extra coat in the camper. And it's possible that you might even have some coats in your car. So we'll take a look in the car before we're done here and we'll just see are there any coats lying around and kind of what that looks like for us. But I'm checking the pockets. I'm checking every area of the coat because I don't wanna donate a coat that's ripped or torn or that has stains on it that would end up in a garbage bin or something. I wanna make sure that the stuff that we're donating is quality stuff and that it's worthy of donating. So if you have stuff that's ripped or torn or just you've had it for 20 years or something, this is a really good time to take a look at that. Rita, how old is your oldest coat? Thinking back, I would have to say probably middle school. I probably have a coat from like eighth grade and I'm 24 now. So it's been like a decade, probably. And so we have a coat that's that old? Well, back then I bought a lot of oversized coats and oversized jackets. There was just like a style, I guess. And so I had this one and also like my family used to travel a lot more and we used to live up in like New York and stuff. And so when we travel, we would like bring these giant coats with us. But it was really the only time we were wearing them. But it's just this huge puffy coat. Again, picture it in my head. It's like a purple puffy coat with fur around the hood. And I- Oh, fun. Yeah, it's a fun coat, but I've never worn it in North Carolina, which is where I am now. So... So you've never worn it and that's what, 10 years? Yeah, outside of traveling to really cold climates now. And I haven't even traveled somewhere that cold in years. But yet you still have it. Do you think that you'll ever travel again and ever wear that coat or are you at a new place in your life where you might would like a different or a more modern or a more updated version of your coat? Yeah, I mean, now that we've talked about this topic, I'm definitely going to go home and probably donate some coats. I also like moved out and I have a new house but a lot of my old coats are still on my parents' house. And so I have coats in like all these different places and I don't wanna burden them with having those coats in their closet that no one is touching. So I definitely am probably gonna get rid of them. And my style has changed a lot too. I don't have any of your coats in my closet, do I? No. Is there one coat from you? I still don't know who it's from. I'm asking everybody. I'm like, hey, is this your coat? Yeah, I don't recognize it. Like I said, I ended up with a coat that I'd never seen. And I think this coat that I'm looking at right here is a great big trench coat and I think it belongs to my husband. I know that when we first got married, we traveled a lot in the winter times. I would go do training and stuff all over the world. And so I'd be in like Prague or Budapest or Hungary or something at different times of the year. And in the winter time, it is better cold. And I discovered during COVID and this is one of the reasons I'm actually going through my closets today. I discovered Zoom and I know that now I have a choice. I don't have to go to Hungary in the dead of the winter. So yay, why would I do that if I can go in July or August and not go in the dead of the winter, which means I don't need great big trench coats. So I have a big trench coat and it's been a few years since I've actually worn it. And this one wasn't mine. This one belonged to my husband and I don't know that he's worn his either. And so while we have these really nice trench coats that are, I don't know if they're made of wool or whatever they are, they're just really nice but we're not wearing them. And so I would say it's probably safe. I'm gonna get rid of mine but it's probably safe to put mine aside and let my husband make a decision about his because those could go to an area where people use those in the winter time either for business or what have you. What I'm looking at here is a suede jacket. This is a jacket I've never seen before. I'm noticing right now it's still new with tags. My husband doesn't wear suede. I don't wear suede. I've never seen this jacket. I don't know where it came from. I'm gonna try it on and see if it fits me. Maybe someone is delivering jackets to my closet as gifts. I don't know. This is not for me. It's actually too big for me. And so I'm really perplexed at where this jacket came from because like I say, it's suede. I've never in 20 years known my husband to wear a suede jacket. So if this is his surprise, so I'm gonna pull this aside and I'm gonna let him make a decision on it because unless one of the those of you that are watching claim it, I don't know whose coat this is. Question, do you guys have coats in your closet? And you don't know where they came from, right? Today's the day to have that conversation. And Nal Saur R says, my husband has chosen to keep a few coats but we've gone a couple of seasons since and he has yet to wear them. But he gets irritated when I bring up rethinking his decisions. And that's a really, really good point because I'm trying on this jacket here and you'll see this one is also new with tags and the sleeves were rolled up. It's like somebody tried this on and it didn't fit so they rolled up the sleeves. That's way too big for me. Whose coat is this? And it's brand new with tags. So again, there is a new coat that I've never seen and it's extra, extra large. So this wasn't a gift. And if somebody did gift this to me, you got the wrong size. So I'm gonna pull this out as well and I'm gonna let him make a decision on it because this is a leather coat. And as long as I've known my husband, I've never known him to wear a leather coat either. So there's a suede and a leather coat new with tags in my coat closet that I've never seen before. I don't know how they got there and I don't need to keep them. They don't belong to me. I don't know who they belong to but they don't belong to me. So we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna make a decision today. And like any laser are brought up, to get rid of somebody else's stuff, it's better if they are in on the conversation and just say, hey, we can always put them back in the closet but just make a decision. Take a look at this and see is this something that you want to keep? Is this yours? Did you buy this? Is this not belong to you? Does this belong to someone else? Is this a gift for someone? Tell me more. What's going on here? And it's not because there's judgment. This is a leather coat that I worn. I've worn this for 15 or 20 years. This just lasts forever. It still looks fantastic. I love this coat and I haven't worn it in a couple of years but I'm gonna decide today to keep this coat just because I do have a history with this coat. I'm very nostalgic about it. Like I said, it's been around the world with me at numerous times. I'm checking all the buttons. I'm checking the pockets. Everything is in still top notch. All the stitching is okay. It might last forever. So it's the only leather coat that I have. I'm gonna hang on to it for a little bit longer. So one of the good things that we can do is if you stumble on something that you love that you're not ready to let go of today, there's no rush. And one of the things that you notice at the beginning when we started today the coats were all in one closet. And so it's not like they're strewn about like they're in the bedroom over hanging over chairs or in places where they shouldn't be. There was actually a place for all the coats. And so as I'm trying on all the coats and I'm making decisions about them, I could still keep them. I could still keep every one of them today and there's no harm, no foul because there's actually room to store these coats. It's just the process of going through them. I can probably get rid of, I don't know, five, six, eight, 10 coats. And the question is how many coats can you get rid of? If you have coats in your closet, this was a long trench coat that I wore around the world numerous times for many years. And there is stuff in the pockets. There's a lipstick with dark red lipstick. Should I put it on? Should I put it on? No, it's old. Let's not do that. It's old. Gross. And if you find a piece of gum or something like unchewed gum, your pocket don't need it either, or a piece of candy, it's really old. Don't do it. Don't do it. I know y'all have done it. You've opened a drawer and you find a piece of gum and you're like, I wonder if this is still any good? So you eat it, although it's probably like five years old. Don't do it. No, don't do it. So I love this coat. This is like one of those really big New England coats. But I'm probably gonna get rid of it because I don't wear it. I probably will never wear it again. And now that I've discovered I can do Zoom in the wintertime instead of going to Hungary or Prague. In the wintertime, I probably won't. So I'm gonna get rid of this coat today and let it go on its way and someone else can use it. So the question is, what are you doing in your life right now that's a little bit different that changes the necessity for you having some of the things that you had in the past? Sally, let me toss that one over to you. What's changed in your life that might be changing some of the reasons why you have either the coats you have or the hoodies you have? The oldest coat I think I still have in my closet maybe about 20 years old. I mean, that old. I used to live in upstate New York. So back then I bought quite a few coats to use. I mean, for the winter, there's a lot colder than North Carolina. And when I moved out here, I always keep it just in case they would have heavy snow, but they're never really cold enough. So over the years, I do donated some, but I still do have some in the closet. And I have this mindset, like, oh, it's a good piece. It's a, I mean, it looked good. So I maybe keep it for my kids. I have that mindset. Like I just like difficult to give it away. The good one, you see, I always feel like I can keep it for someone else to use it in the family. So how long will you hang on to them or will you make a decision about getting rid of those at a later time? I think the best, I think after talking today, maybe I go back and ask my kids whether they want it because in my mindset, it's good piece, but for them, maybe it's not. So yeah, I will go home and ask them whether they still like it, whether they wear it. If not, yeah, I will donate it away. Because like, I live in North Carolina now, is the weather is never cold enough. And then on top of that, we tend to wear layering a lot more than one thick piece of, I mean, a coat outside. So it's not necessary in a way. Then probably in the closet space. Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up because I found myself layering. We've done a lot of outdoor projects during the winter time, like if we're cleaning a customer's house, for example, and then they're like, oh, no, we're sick. You can't come today. One of the things that we offer is we say, hey, well, listen, if you're sick, there's an issue, you may end up going to the hospital. And so if you have to go to the hospital, would you like me to stay in instead of cleaning? I can shovel your walk, I can clear off your deck, I can clear off your porch, so that if you have to make an emergency exit, then you're getting out to safety. And if somebody has to come in and check on you, they're not tripping over ice or snow or what have you. So a lot of times during the winter time, we'll just grab a snow shovel and we'll just, we'll work outside for the day. And so during those times, it would be easy to say, oh, yes, I need one of those big winter coats, right? But what I find is once I start working, then I get too hot. I'm like, I'm so hot inside this big coat that I start taking off the coat. And then I freeze because I only had the coat. So in order to prevent that, I started like wearing those multiple layers, like you mentioned. And so for me, I usually dress with like two pair of thermal underwear pants and two of those long sleeve, like wick away athletic shirts that I put underneath my blue shirt. And so that way I'm still kind of like in my uniform, but I've got like layers on underneath it. And then in the event that I get really warm, I can put like a hoodie or a jacket on and then another jacket or another coat. And then as I start warming up, take off one jacket, take off the next jacket, take off the hoodie, take off one of the layers of, and I've actually done this where I've gone into the restroom and I've taken off like one of the layers of thermal underwear and one of the bottom layers, like the pants, just cause it was so hot. And then that way I'm still dressed for the weather and I'm still, you know, we talk about personal protective gear. I'm still dressed for being outside, but it was in layers, not just one coat that now I'm at a disadvantage because I'm too hot to wear it. And it's too cold to not have another layer on. Does that make sense? Yeah, that is true. And so in North Carolina, and this is, we have really mild weather here. I saw the saddest thing this last year. It started snowing one day and there was like this really light dusting of snow. I mean, it was so light that it was gonna be gone in a minute. And I heard some talking out my window and I look out the window and there was this family of four kids and the parents, they got like their winter coats on and I think they had read his coat on cause it was like one of the puffy coats with the big fur around the top. And they had like gloves on and they had like these toboggans and they came to the intersection where we live. And the kids are like, well, maybe there's snow down that way. And they were like looking for snow. And I was like, oh, that is so sad. Cause like the snow is gonna be gone in a minute, right? It's like this light dusting. And in North Carolina, we have snow and everyone runs to the windows and they're like, ah, snow. And then within a second or two, it's gone. And it's not like other areas where there's snow for five and six months out of the year. I mean, it's just, we don't live in a place like that. So somebody here says, thank you for your videos. Do you have a video on how to declutter in preparation for moving? That's probably another topic for another time. And we have lots of opportunities here on Clutter Corner Live to talk about different issues like that. So I wanna come back to that and do a whole show on stuff that you would declutter in the process of moving. I really wanna focus today on winter coats and jackets because again, this is a really great time of the year to do this. Like I said, I don't get any pushback. If you're just joining us right now and you missed the first part during the summertime when at the 100 degrees outside, it's really easy for people to let go of coats they're not wearing or coats they didn't wear last year. And we can usually say, did you wear this last year? And they're like, no, no, I didn't. Is it okay if we let it go on its way? I will leave links in the notes below about places that you can donate your winter coats. I know that every year there are coat drives where there are homeless people. There are people that are going through transitions where they might be moving from a place like North Carolina to a place like Boston and just the moving costs alone are prohibitive and they don't have $100 for a new parka. And then there are people like myself who have a whole bunch of coats that we're not wearing that we're not using that we'll probably never wear again. And if we're like Sally, she's got a coat in her closet that's been there for 20 years. I love the fact that she's admitting that and that she showed up today because today might be the day that she makes a decision about whether or not to let that go, right? Does she need to hang on to it for another 20 years? Sally, what's the answer? What do you think? Yeah, no, I try to get rid of the problem is when you have the space, you just sit there and you don't look at it and you forget about it. You feel like it's fine, they can sit there. But you're talking to you, yeah, sometimes we had to open up this closet and really look at them. What is, we still need, what that I don't need anymore and what I can donate away, what I still can wear. I actually do like how you do the whole coat closet, try to piece by piece to see what I still can wear, what I have to donate, you know? I never look at a closet, that's why. You just close it, the third, forget about it. Well, you know, it's interesting, there are often different places in our houses that we store coats and it's easy to have a coat closet, but what happens if you have like multiple areas where there are coats? Now, this is a little mudroom and I have these little reflective vests that I wear when I go running at 4.30 or 5 o'clock in the morning so that I don't get hit by cars. And so this is not a coat, it's not technically a jacket, but I'm gonna make a decision about it today because I'm in this area. And so it's easy to try it on and now this is the one that my husband wears when he goes running and he's much bigger than I am. And so I'm trying it on now, I'm checking to make sure that all the reflective stuff is still intact. Sometimes after you wash it hundreds of times like the reflective stuff peels off. So it's a little bigger than my comfort zone, but I can tell that it's still in great shape. The buttons or the snaps are all still there. Mine had Velcro on it, the Velcro's all still in working order. And so then it's not a matter of do I wanna keep it, it's just, is this the right product for us at this point in our lives? And we're still using them. And so yes, I'm gonna keep the reflective vests and we just throw them in the washing machine. And so there's no, I don't need to put them away for winter or whatever because we wear them year round. They actually go on top of our winter gear. Here's another hoodie that I do wear when I go running. And so I'm imagining myself running right now. Is it still as comfortable as I remember? I know we had a comment here by trying it on, you can determine whether or not it's scratchy or maybe you don't like it as well as you used to. I still like this as much as I ever did. And so I've got a couple hoodies here. I'm a big fan of hoodies in the winter time because I just like the layers like Sally said. It prevents me from wearing a bigger coat but then I can switch gears really quickly and still stay in my cleaning uniform. Even if I'm out and about then I can like cover up my cleaning uniform. I got tissue in the pocket. What? But then I can hide my cleaning uniform. And if I go into a store then no one knows it's me. It's my disguise. Ta-da. All right, so I think I'm gonna keep these hoodies. I really like hoodies. Do you guys have hoodies that you wanna get rid of or do you guys like hoodies? Rita, you're smiling. Tell me about your hoodies. Do you have hoodies? Yeah, so I graduated college two years ago but in college every single club, every single organization they all make their own custom merch, their own hoodies. They'll have like the club name on them or like your university name and college merchandise in general is huge. And I have so many hoodies that all say like South Carolina or Carolina or like all these different little things that are just variations of the same name. And I definitely have too many of them. But I do use them when I go running sometimes or I go to the gym. I just use it as a cover up over my clothes. But I definitely think I wanna get rid of some of them just because I gravitate towards my favorites. And so I always gravitate towards those same couple of favorites that are comfier. And then another pile of them will get untouched and last at the bottom of the drawer because I just don't reach for them, so. So a lot of times, and that's interesting that you bring that up, a lot of times there is customer merch where it's got the logo on it and they give you their merch. A lot of times if we're doing client projects and we're on site with a customer and they give us like they've given us a hoodie or they've given us a coat or they've given us something that has their logo on it, we will wear it out of like, hey, we're on site today with this client and we're wearing their logo, we blend in with them. And so it's not that they're asking us to, especially for independent contractors, they can't ask us to. But if they give it to us as a gift, it's like, cool. If you show up and you wear their like, hey, I'm supporting you and your cause. This particular one also has a logo on it. And so I'm gonna keep these. There's one coat here and I'm looking at the sizes. This one is extra large. Whose coat is this? And this looks like, and this was interesting as I went through this because this looks like it matches one of the coats in the other closet that I thought was like one of those twin coats like the husband wife coat, except they're both my husband's size. So now the mystery is where are my coats? Because my coats are missing and there are two husband size coats. So I'm back in this closet and I decided since I was gonna do the thing with the vest, let's go ahead and make a decision about the vests today. So this is another one of those vests that I already have one that I just tried on a couple of minutes ago and it's lighter weight than this one. And if I'm running, I want less weight. So I'm gonna donate this one. I don't need to have lots and lots of reflector vests because I can only wear one at a time. And this one is really heavy and it's not breathable. So it's cute and it's still effective. It still has like reflective stuff on it. Maybe there's somebody that works outside in construction that could use this or maybe there's another runner that would like to have this. But I'm gonna add this to my donation pile because I already have one. And like I said, I only need one because I only wear one reflective vest at a time. And I don't know why they last forever. So it's not heavy duty wear and tear or anything. You just wear it when you're running and then you throw it in the washing machine. So the reflective vests I've had have had for years and they do last like 15 or 20 years. They last forever. And so the one I have is gonna last for a long time. And if I ever need another one, I can always go out and buy another one. But right now I'm gonna get rid of two of the three that I have and I'm gonna keep the one that I have. And we're gonna save the big orange one there for my husband because I know he's gonna use that. Let's run out to the car and let's see if we have any in the car because I'm afraid I do. I got them on the back seat. How many of you guys have coats in your car that are just sitting there? Ah, here's the missing coat. I just tried on the husband's coat. Now this is my coat. So my coat is in the car. That's what happened. There you go. Yes, and it's so hot outside. It really is about 100 degrees outside. And here I am standing in the driveway trying on coats. Like what on earth? My neighbors are like, Angela has lost her mind. Check it out. She's trying coats on in the winter in the middle of the summertime. Sunflower shine says I have such a hard time getting rid of jackets and coats. I live in the panhandle of Texas and the weather is crazy. It's medium. You guys buy coats at Costco. Drop a note in the comments. If you guys buy coats at Costco, I have a feeling that we probably have some Costco folks that buy Costco coats. Okay. Yep, I'm checking all the pockets. So now here are the two missing coats that max the two missing coats for my husband, right? That we saved for him. One was in the mudroom and one was in the closet. Both of mine are inside my car. And I probably carted them out. They're not knowing that the other one was in my car. And this is actually my husband's coat. So I've got three coats here and I'm looking at it. It's got like food or something on it. That's gonna have to go through the washing machine. Now's a good time to wash the coats because it's July. We're not gonna be wearing them anytime soon. You don't wanna be washing them in the dead of the winter time because you might need them again in a minute. But in July, nobody's gonna be wearing these. So I can take these all inside. Look how huge that is. Yep, I'm gonna take all these inside. I'm gonna wash these. I'm gonna check the pockets right now to make sure there are no holes in the pockets. Make sure there's nothing in the pockets that can't go through the washing machine. And again, I'm double checking to make sure when I tried those on, I'm double checking for size. Do these still fit us? And are they ripped or torn or is there anything that I need to know? And so we're good. I'm gonna take these inside and wash them and then we're done with our coat area. So today what we looked at is we looked at our coats. We looked at some jackets. We looked at some hoodies and some reflective gear. And I've made a couple of decisions about what I'm gonna get rid of. And inside the closet itself, I have these coats that I'm keeping. Those are the twin coats, the husband and wife versions of the coats. Who knew we would become that couple? And then these are the ones that we are giving away. I've got some coat hangers there. We'll talk about those in another time. These are the coats that are gonna be for my husband to decide between. And these coats here are the ones that the park is and the reflective vests that I've decided I have permission to toss and get rid of. So that's about six coats that I have right there. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six coats that I'm gonna get rid of along with a couple of reflective vests. And so that's my commitment for today. And those are my personal closets. So I went through my coat closet and I went through, I have a coat rack as well that didn't have any coats on it. I just reserved the coat rack for guests. And then when the guests aren't looking, I'm guessing I take them and I hide them inside the closet. And then later after they're gone and they forget they brought it, I wear it. I think it's mine. Who knows, right? Apparently I've ended up with somebody's coats in my closet and I don't know who's they are. So if those two coats, the suede and the leercote are yours, please let me know. If those parkas are yours, let me know. And if you're the person that donated, I'm gonna say you donated it. That one shell coat, the puffy coat with the sleeves that I've been wearing for two years. If that actually belongs to you, I'm just gonna say thank you at this point because you don't want it back. I've been wearing it like every day for two years during the winter time. So thank you very much. All right, do we have any questions before we let you guys get back to your day? No one is this thorough and we'll always give the manual and then some. Oh, thank you so much. That's so nice of you to say. I have helped a lot of people over the years go through their stuff. And a lot of times it comes down to having a conversation about it, walking yourself through, why do I still have this? Am I still doing this at this time of my life? Do I still need this? If I could get rid of a coat today, how many could I get rid of? When I opened the closets today, I honestly didn't think I'd get rid of anything because we've gone through them a lot over the last, you know, every couple of years we go through all the coat closets. This is considered a special project if you're a house cleaner and you upsell services to someone. When you upsell the service, it's helpful to have them nearby so that they can try on their own coats. But you can walk them through and ask them questions. Is it safe to assume that you're not gonna go to Prague anymore in the dead of the winter? Right now I say it's safe. I'm not, I don't wanna do that. I can zoom a call in and then I can go visit whomever I gotta go visit in June or July, right? I'm gonna say that's safe to assume. Yeah, I can get rid of the long trench coats. I did not wear them during COVID. It's been like two years. I don't see myself. I don't have any Prague dates in the middle of the wintertime this year. I don't think I'm going this year either. I think it's safe to assume I can get rid of that coat. Rita, how about you? Is it safe to assume you can get rid of some of yours? Yeah, definitely. And one other thing I wanted to bring up that's pretty popular among my friends right now is reselling their old clothes. There's tons of websites online like Poshmark and Depop and even like Facebook Marketplace which is really user-friendly where they'll just like list their coats or shirts or anything in general that are still in condition and be able to resell them even just for $5 or $10 but if you're selling a lot of items that money adds up. That's a really great point. Are you gonna sell yours or are you gonna donate it? And I'm thinking of the puff coat with the fur around it that you haven't worn in many years. Yeah, well that one might be a little too old to resell in my opinion but I've definitely thought about it. I know even around here at least there are a lot of local thrift stores where you can kind of just bring a bundle of clothes and they'll take a look at it and offer you a certain amount of money for it. So I'm kind of thinking about doing that with a lot of my old clothes and coats just pop by the store see what they're willing to give me and since I probably was gonna donate them anyway I might as well take the cash for them so. Got it. Do either of you have experience doing like eBay or selling stuff with some of the different online stores? I know there's one that's called like... I forget the name of it I'll leave links in the show notes but it's like one of these online marketplaces where you list your goods and then people buy them from you and they're used but they're like gently used or they still have a lot of life in them or something like that. Do either of you have experience with that? I haven't sold but I have bought used items before and I've generally always had a good experience. You can usually leave reviews on the seller themselves and so when you go to buy from someone you can kind of look at those reviews and make sure like this is a legit person they've sold to people before they're having been issues so there are safeguards in place for that stuff. I have given a lot of stuff away. Early, early when eBay first came out and I say when it first came out it was like 20 years ago or something I remember somebody telling me about eBay and I got so excited. I was like, oh, this is so cool. This is like a new revolution have an online auction or something and I know that over the last several years I've become just too busy and so maybe the intention at one point was I was gonna sell stuff on eBay and now I'm just like, hey, let's just get rid of it if somebody wants it, it's theirs and one of the things that I've had really great success with especially with a lot of the people that we've worked with over the years is taking a picture of it and then going outside and putting it next to your mailbox and taking a picture of like away from the house a picture of the mailbox number and the house and the item sitting in the driveway so that you can put an ad or a notice like, hey, this is free on like nextdoor.com and so when people drive by they're like, oh, I'm looking for that house and they see the corner of the house they see the mailbox number and the thing sitting in the driveway one of the things that we found most helpful if you're gonna do that and this is if you're giving it away for free we always use the phrase first come first serve and so that means don't call me don't text me back don't ask if it's still available any of those things drive by we just gave you the address drive by if you want it pick it up and take it with you if you drive by and you see this house in this mailbox and there's nothing there, it's gone, right? And I think the longest we've ever had anybody put something out there and wait was 26 minutes but like, boom, it's gone. So if I know it's very cool if you're up for just getting rid of stuff putting it at the end of your driveway has been enormously successful for us and I hope I'm not feeding a frenzy of people who just collect weird stuff but I know that we've done it with everything from like cardboard boxes that people wanted to use for moving to empty milk cases we've done it with all kinds of things like envelopes and adding machines old adding machines who knew that somebody would come pick that up we've done it with dishwashers and washing machines and school desks and you know those little toy cars where like it's got like a little motor in it and toddlers drive them and it's like their first little car or whatever and eventually they grow out of the car we've gotten rid of all kinds of things like that just by putting them on the curb and either a sign that says free or just snapping a picture of it and adding it to nextdoor.com So that's also an option. All right, do we have any other questions here before we let you guys get back to your day? I've loved spending time with you guys today this is so much fun. Someone says you may wanna donate to the homes that is so true and as long as they're taking donations that's a really great endeavor because in the wintertime especially they don't carry winter coats and blankets and stuff with them all during the year but when it starts getting cold outside it gets really cold and so donating to the homeless thank you for bringing that up that's a lovely idea and yes. Here's a note it says I'm a former vintage dealer but I've had little to no love with modern stuff as far as consigning things need to be unique desirable in fashion or of a big name designer that's really, really good information that's good to know. I know that a lot of the stuff that we've consigned over the years has been like antique furniture and stuff like that where they will always take that from us. I don't know why but they've always taken our antique furniture but this is really interesting no luck with modern stuff and it might just because there's a lot of modern stuff I don't know. Does anybody have experience with consigning modern stuff that would like to add a comment or two? I wanna honor that if that's the case. When you donate to Midwill but then you sell it at high prices. You know what that's interesting yeah you can donate it and I love the fact that they will take donations and they're gonna try to resell it at a higher price in order that they can make a profit to stay in business and I know some people don't like selling stuff or donating stuff using Goodwill because they say that Goodwill is not a non-profit organization and that they make money from it. I've heard rumors about people that don't feel crazy about donating stuff with Goodwill. I like to look at it like this if they're accepting stuff and I have stuff to give it's gonna help somebody somewhere and I don't want it anymore and so it's keeping them in business and that keeps another avenue of donation possibilities open to me and all of the people that I work with and so we still donate to Goodwill in spite of the fact that whatever their antics are whatever their code of ethics is I don't know and I'm not here to judge them but they are an outlet that regularly accepts donations from us and so we regularly go on Saturday inside the hoarding world if you're not a member of Hoarding World come join us it's a Facebook group that we have and every week on Saturday is like our big donation day so if you've been donating and collecting stuff throughout the week we love to take before and after pictures like hey here's the bedroom that I'm working on this week and then here's the after bedroom picture and these are the things that I donated and then we like to take a picture of us at the station where you're dropping this stuff off or if it's like at one of those great big trailers or a drop box where you're not going inside and like oh I just got rid of something and I have room to buy new stuff or like don't go inside stay outside at the trailer and donate the stuff and then leave because the goal for that was to try to get rid of the excess stuff that you're not using but on Saturdays we like to do a lot of before and after pictures so if you are decluttering your closets and this week you're working on coats take pictures, take pictures of the coats that you donate and post them inside our Facebook group on Saturday and I don't have a link maybe I can look up a link and leave a link I will leave a link in the show notes to the Hoarding World Facebook group if you're not already a member because that's a really great group that we do talk during the week and we high five each other and we support each other and we do do before and after pictures on Saturdays after we've made our donations so if you need an accountability partner come on over and join us and this is kind of a wrap for today Rita and Sally thank you for joining us live on camera for those of the rest of you that want to join us live on camera we always add a link in case you want to jump up here and show us the stuff that you're working on you can also leave links in the notes below about topics that you want to cover next time because we're going to be here Thursday next week same time, same place Rita, do you have anything that you want to close out with us for today? No, just that when I get home I'm going to take a look at my coat closet Awesome please report back to us and let us know how that works out for you Yep I will and Sally, how about you? Do you have any words of wisdom? Yeah, same thing go back, try out the closet one by one how you do and then donate some some and clear out the closet there I'm very curious to know you said you were going to talk to your kids about whether or not they want those coats from 20 years ago I'm really curious to hear the end of that I know that you've been fantastic about going through some of your stuff you got rid of some nail polish a couple of weeks ago and you've also been hanging right there in there with us can I hold you accountable to your 20 year old coats? Oh yeah yes I'll post after I donated I'll post it in the holding wall so you can look at it Okay, because I think I heard you say that it's like 20 years old and you haven't worn it in years is that did I hear that right? Yes, it's true so is it safe to assume that you may not ever wear it again? Oh, definitely I don't think so I'm gonna move again and then like I said, it's just layering and it's a fit warm coat so now I would donate it I'll ask my kids first then let's see what they say and then oh, get rid of it, yeah Okay, okay so I'm gonna follow up with you on that for me today I'm getting rid of six to 10 coats and I will let you guys know what my husband decides on the coats that I pulled out for him and again, I'm not getting rid of any of his coats without his permission because I don't wanna create sadness if he had emotional attachments to any of those coats, right? I don't wanna get rid of his stuff without him knowing it I wanna include him in the process and I don't want him to feel any pressure or that I'm judging him if he decides to keep them and so it is possible that in the empty closet that we created that only has five or six hanging coats in there it is possible that all of the coats that I pulled out and I set aside for him go back inside that closet and I'm okay with that I just wanna throw that out there I'm okay if that is the decision but I know for me the coats that I personally am authorized to get rid of are coats that either came into my life as a gift that someone gave to me or it was a coat that belonged to me at one point that I said I'm done with this coat I'm not using this for that purpose of my life anymore and so now I'm gonna let that go and that's five or six coats that I know of today and two reflective vests so I'm gonna give myself a high five this is awesome Sally I'm really excited that you joined us today and I'm gonna hold you accountable to your 20 year old coat and Rita I'm gonna challenge you on that did you say it was a purple puffy coat with fur? Yes, yeah If it's been that old it's possible that the fur either needs to be dry cleaned or just sent on its way and so I'm gonna encourage you as well to make a decision about that if you decide to keep it that's still a decision but I want you to have a conversation with yourself right now in the middle of July when it's hot outside and decide if you are going to keep it or if you're gonna let it go and then report back to us and give us a thumbs up or a thumbs down or let us know I'll let you know next week Okay, awesome All right, you guys that's it for today thank you so much for joining us and we'll meet here again same time same place next week Bye, thank you Thank you