Clutter Busting: The Tee Shirt Collection

As part of my campaign to clear out the clutter in small, manageable steps, I tackled my tee shirts. That may not seem like much, but my daily "uniform" is a tee shirt and jeans, so I have a couple dozen of them.

Clutter-busting tee shirts--or anything that you use on a daily basis--like towels or dishes or pens and pencils, is a two-step process. First, you have to get rid of the ones that aren't working for you. Second, you have to fill in any gaps made.

I took a close look at every shirt I owned under a strong light. I put aside any that had a hole, a stain, or that I simply wasn't wearing for one reason or another.

I donated the ones that are in good condition to Goodwill:

The ones with holes or perma-stains become rags. (I tend to wear only 100 percent cotton tees, and they make good, lint-free rags.) I cut off the arms and put the torso part in the rag box:

I use the sleeves as small, soft wipes to clean out my pugs' nose wrinkles. A pug has a deep fold of skin above its almost-nonexistent nose, and it needs regular wiping out:

(If you don't have a pug, you could of course use the entire tee shirt as a rag!)

Next, I filled in the gaps left by the tee shirts that were donated or tossed. I bought some solid vee-necks in black, white, and gray (my go-to choices). I like Gap's "Essential V-Neck" these days, and these were on sale, so Yay:

Then, I pushed myself to buy a few Gap tees with patterns. Usually a solid-tee girl, I felt it was time to dip a toe into the water. These are all in colors I like (and no giant, crazy patterns):

The random silver stars scattered on this blue one look good with my hair:

And two with polka dots. (How could I pass up polka-dot tees?):

And lastly, this one with a solid sleeve. It has a vaguely French flair, which I like.

Here's the trick: Make sure the number of things you toss or donate (tee shirts, coffee mugs, whatever) is bigger than the number of new ones you buy. That way, you will reduce the numbers in your closets or shelves over time. When it comes to clutter busting, that's a good thing.