Passion for Fashion? Try purging for a purpose.

If you’re a typical (or not so typical) fashonista, you have a closet full of clothes and shoes, but nearly half of your closet is made up of (a) clothes you no longer wear, (b) impulse clothing purchases you’ve never worn or wore once, and (c) “aspirational” items, as in “it wasn’t my size but it was on sale…I’ll fit into it eventually” (and eventually was five years ago).

You can do double-duty by purging unused items and gaining some extra cash for new items to add to your wardrobe. Break your clothing down into two categories:
Gently used/never worn and worn out.

Worn out goes in the “donate” pile (purpose: it makes you feel good and it’s a tax write off).Gently used/never worn goes to a consignment shop—there’s at least one in every city and you can do your research online by reading reviews before picking the right one for you (purpose: cash for your unwanted duds). Don’t forget to evaluate shoes and accessories. That pair of Manolos that sounded like a good idea at a time, but you only wore them out of the house once because they felt like torture-by-footwear. General rule: If you haven’t worn it in a year, it’s time to say goodbye. Bring the gently used/never worn clothing in good condition on hangers to your local consignment shop (you can search EveryBusyWoman.com for consignment stores in your area and read reviews), find out their general rules (some pay for consigned clothing once a month after it is purchased, others pay when a certain dollar amount is reached).

Make a deal with yourself that all “earned” consignment cash will be set aside for a clothing shopping spree at a later date, say six months from now, then sit back and look forward to your new wardrobe.

Kelly Love Johnson is a writer and editor based in Austin, Texas. More at www.kellylovejohnson.com.