The Marie Kondo way of organising may go in and out of fashion, but there is something fundamentally lovely about the idea of leaning into your intuition when you’re cleaning. This piece is from a favourite designer, it fits, and it should go with everything,  but…  does it feel right? Does it, to use the much-maligned phrase, spark joy? Your heart, often, will tell you before you know.  

It can be tempting, in the middle of a cleaning frenzy, to equate a sense of achievement with the size of the pile of clothing in the ‘to donate’ pile. But in the way the Australian system works, only 15 per cent of donated clothing is able to be resold—the rest is redirected to local landfill, or resold internationally (to also likely end up in landfill). Rather than immediately cull a piece, use this opportunity as a time to survey how it can work with your wardrobe in unexpected ways.

…But don’t go overboard

Find out which proportion of your wardrobe you actually wear, and determine why you love the pieces you’re left with. Each garment or accessory may have different reasons behind it: that alpaca jumper is gorgeously soft, you bought that linen dress on holiday in Basque country, those heels make you feel all-powerful. Store those reflections away, so that you can remember what makes you attach to certain clothes—whether that’s certain fabrics, certain memories that are attached to them, or the feeling you get when you wear them.