I Tried the “Out-in-the-Open” Rule and Decluttered My Clothes in Under an Hour
One thing about me: I have way too many clothes. When I moved to NYC from California, I pared down quite a bit, but they started accumulating again almost immediately. For various reasons, the stacks turned into piles, and before I knew it, my closet and dresser were overflowing. Suffice it to say, I was in desperate need of a decluttering.
However, every time I tried to go through my clothes, I found myself hanging on to things I felt I might wear one day, that had a semblance of sentimental value, or were potentially sellable. The piles remained (and grew), and so did the problem — and that’s when the “out-in-the-open” rule stepped in and changed everything.
What’s the “Out-in-the-Open” Rule?
Coined by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, who run the Minimalists, the “out-in-the-open” rule is all about hidden clutter. Whether you store it in your drawers, cabinets, credenzas, or like me, in your closet and dresser, the rule asks you to dump everything out in one area so you can see everything you have. Once you can see the sheer amount of clutter all at once, it helps you decide what you need, and, more importantly, what you don’t.
In theory, you can use the method to collect things from all around the home — different closets, cupboards, and storage shelves — into one area to take stock of what you want to keep and get rid of. For me, I wanted to start small with just a few of my overstuffed dresser drawers so I could do it by clothing category. Here’s how it worked.
How the “Out-in-the-Open” Rule Helped Me Declutter My Clothes
What sold me on this decluttering method was seeing the 10 little black tanks and tees I had all next to each other. One I hadn’t worn in years, one no longer fit me, one had a hole in the armpit, and another simply wasn’t my style anymore. Typically, my clothes are dispersed in different drawers and the dirty laundry pile, and I seldom get to see all of them together. Did I need that many black tees that looked almost identical? The answer was no.
Next, I looked at a handful of dress shirts and long-sleeved shirts that I hadn’t worn in years that were taking up precious drawer space in my tiny apartment. At this point I was making my way through the piles, and was considering each article of clothing and whether it was worth the space it was taking up, or if it’d be better off being worn by someone else who would love it.
In under an hour, I created piles of items that needed to be repaired, things I could get rid of, keepers, and some “maybe” clothes that I wasn’t quite sure about. I was determined to let them sit in a box for a week or so and see if I missed them. (Spoiler alert: For the most part, I didn’t.)
Final Thoughts on the “Out-in-the-Open” Rule
In what felt like no time at all, I took on a daunting task and a growing collection of clothes that I’d been putting off for months (or, ahem, years), and had a much clearer picture of what I wanted to do with them. The “out-in-the-open” rule has to be one of the simplest decluttering methods I’ve ever heard of — no numbers to remember, no specific goals, and no time limits.
By simply seeing everything laid out next to each other, as opposed to hiding in a drawer or closet, it felt more apparent that I needed to get rid of a portion of my collection — and unfolded next to each other, it became easier to see what no longer served me. (Admittedly, as I was going through everything, I also thought about all the new clothes I could fit in the open space in my dresser, but that’s a problem for another time.)
I’ll definitely use this decluttering rule again in the future and can see it working on clutter all around my apartment, from kitchen gadgets to crafting supplies to books. Being able to see the outright amount of belongings I had felt overwhelming, but in a way that motivated me to purge and be intentional about what I wanted to keep.
The “out-in-the-open” rule is just one decluttering method created by the Minimalists you might want to try, in addition to the “20/20” rule, the “90/90” rule, and the “10/10” exercise. Are you sensing a theme here? Before you know it, you’ll be hauling a bag of clothes to your local donation drop-off — or, better yet, making easy money off of it!
