1) Don’t buy any clothing until THAT DATE. Nothing. Don’t find excuses to buy new clothing (funeral, wedding, interview) and don’t accept clothing as gifts. It’s very important that no new clothing comes into your house until THE DATE.

2) Buy a big roll of stiff, wide duct tape. Real shiny stuff. Then place a large piece of duct tape in the crotch or armpit of every item of clothing in your home. Dig everything out of the hamper, the closet, those plastic bins in the spare bedroom, don’t miss anything.

3) When THE DATE rolls around, go through the house again. Anything that still has duct tape in the crotch or armpit is something that you have not worn since you picked THE DATE. That means you likely never wear it or haven’t worn it in a really long time. Soooo…get rid of it. Donate it, give it to a friend, a relative, have a mini-garage sale, whatever. But this is THE DATE, so take it out of your house and never bring it back in.

For someone like me, who had clothes in every size that I’ve been in my life from 8 to 18, who still had her legwarmers and her 8th grade graduation outfit, this was a huge thing to clean out my closets. But the first time I did this, it was so theraputic to just purge all that stuff (after I got over the initial shock of having to do it, which was tough). I’ve done it several times since, and I’m sad to say that I need to do it again. But each time it gets easier. The first time, I woke up with night sweats starting at about a week before THE DATE. Now I don’t mind doing it at all, just finding the time to do the taping and picking THE DATE is the issue (I just had a baby).