Do you know how much money is in your closet? Don’t start scrambling through your old purses, digging in your jean pockets and robbing your husband’s catchall just yet. I’m talking the best kind of money……unexpected!

I started another closet clean-out for a friend last week. A wonderful, large single-user closet with a window! This closet reminded me a bit of what mine used to be a few years ago (aside from the single user and window). It was filled with a lot of “maybes.” Maybe I’ll go back to work one day. Maybe I’ll get back in pre-baby shape. Maybe that will come back in style. Maybe I will have an occasion to wear that again. And on and on. Life is too short for maybe, especially when it relates to how you look and feel. My answers to the these “maybes’ are simple.

It been 6+ years since you’ve been in the workforce. Not only has style changed, but generally work attire has too. Your last baby was born over 4 years ago and your over 40. Your body is different! Even if it comes back in style, it will be ever so slightly and noticeably different to you, that you’ll still want the latest. If the occasion hasn’t risen in the past few years, it’s probably not going to happen. So it’s time to clean it out.

This closet clean out is a four step process. 1. Pull out all of the maybes and scale down the closet to what you only wear. 2. Replace all the hangers with “huggable” hangers and purchase organizational items (i.e. shoe boxes, shelving, sweater bags, etc.) and organize the closet by season, color and style. 3. Take everything that you no longer wear to thrift shops, resale shops, consignment and charities. (this is the money in your closet part!) 4. Re-stock your closet with the basic must-haves.

Ok, ok. I know. What about the money? Well, this particular friend has never taken clothes to consignment. She usually bags it up and takes it to goodwill. Taking clothes to consignment requires everything be clean, inspected for stains and holes, hanging on hangers, fairly current, loaded in your car and driven all over town. This is where I come in. I am doing all of this for her. I have a “secret” consignment shop in Dallas that will take those 5 year old suits, that gently worn gap t-shirt, and even those old Harold Powell items. (How long have they been closed again?) Depending on what you have to get rid of, this can mean hundreds of dollars. (or a good tax-deduction.)

The fun part is the re-stock your closet! For all the money that I collect for her clothes, I am giving her W by Worth dollars. If we get $200 for her clothes, she has $200 to spend at my W by Worth winter show October 19-25. Sounds like a great deal for both of us. We’ll start with some basic essentials and add a must have or two. And start building her fabulous, scaled down, wearable closet!