Part of keeping your closet organized is that pile of clothes that are waiting to be repaired. A button pops off, you don’t know if you have a matching button, you might not even know how to sew a button. After the pile grows you start to get overwhelmed and the pile is the reminder on your floor as your failure to take care of your things. Every time you walk in the room you feel guilt about not taking care of it. And let’s face it, piles aren’t pretty.
This is where you can just bite the bullet. If the clothes are beyond your knowledge to repair, you can give them to a seamstress and pay them to fix it. I would only do this if you plan on wearing the garment again. If not, you can sell it or toss it. Make sure you add a note of what needs to be repaired and mark down the price appropriately.
I found a seamstress on my local Facebook Marketplace listings. I have moved since, but she was this adorable 75-year-old lady who was outstanding at sewing. She was still making custom wedding dresses for people. And she was cheap! I had her fix all my clothes that I couldn’t do myself for about $50. And she took all the clothes I didn’t want to keep for clothing scraps.
But you can easily just fix most of this stuff yourself. I have a system where, when I get a new item of clothing that has extra buttons or extra beading and thread, I keep it in a small box. I staple the price tag to the little baggie with the button and write what clothing item it belongs to on the tag. For example, on an Express tag I wrote, Drew cut wine dress pants. Most of these extras come in a mini zip bag attached to the tags. You can use that bag.
I keep the box of buttons with my sewing materials. Remember, we always want to keep like with like so we can find it later. Then, when I pop a button, I can go in the box and find the extra instead of having random buttons that don’t quite match the rest.
Your clothes will last longer and look more streamlined this way. You don’t have to get rid of them or let them shame you from a corner of your room. Trust me, you will be happy you still have that item to wear, and that you have one less thing to do on your to do list.
If you don’t know how to repair clothes, have no fear. I did not sew a hem on my pants until I was 23-years-old and I learned to sew a button at 34-years-old! Better late than never!
I had that pile in my room haunting me for three years and after watching a short video on YouTube, I fixed 10 items of clothing in about an hour. I felt like I had a whole new wardrobe for free!
There is a great tutorial here. However, I use another needle as a spacer and put it on top of the button but under the thread instead of using a matchstick as a spacer (which I think is too much room for the button to move around).
A warning on this, don’t wait three years like I did. You don’t want something so easy haunting your to-do list and your space, and the clothes might not be in style if you wait too long.
Clothing repair includes:
- removing stains
- sewing closed rips and holes
- glueing soles back on shoes or re-soling shoes at a shop
- re-attaching buttons, clasps, snaps and zippers
- hemming skirts, dresses, and pants
- tailoring ill-fitting clothes if they are classic and you still like them
If you purge an item from your closet or sell it, make sure to include the extra buttons that go with it.
When you keep your clothes in good shape, they’ll look better and last longer. This will keep your closet looking great, and you’ll end up spending less on clothing overall.