This post is written in collaboration with Savers. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

With the changing seasons comes an activity I have a love/hate relationship with….cleaning out my closet. I always take this time to go through each item and decide if I’ll wear it again for the upcoming season or if it’s time to say goodbye. It feels really liberating, but also can be time consuming – hence the love/hate! But it’s great to give your closet a cleaning out with every season to keep things current and figure out what needs replacing.

I have a few guidelines I follow when I do my closet clean out that I thought would be beneficial to share with you! I go through each item and ask myself these few questions to figure out if it’s worth keeping for an additional season or if it’s time to say goodbye. These questions are really helpful in weeding through the good and bad and deciding the outcome of each item!

1. Follow the one-year rule. If you haven’t worn it in a year, do you really think you’ll be wearing it anytime soon? Probably not, so it’s best to part with it if it’s not an item worn regularly. I do this with every change of season. Did I wear it this season? Did I wear it this season last year? No? Then it goes.
2. Does it fit? Sometimes I’ll buy items that I think will fit really great and then when they arrive (this is the downside of online shopping) I’m like meeeeeehhhhhhh. But it’s minor so I hang it up in the closet anyway to be worn at a later date. And then I never wear it, or I wear it and really don’t love how it looks. Sound familiar? If this is an item in your closet, it’s time to part ways.
3. Will you ever wear it again? Following up to 1 and 2, if you didn’t wear it this season and you don’t like how it fits….you’ll probably never wear it again. So off it goes.
4. Do you LOVE it? I have this rule when shop…if I don’t absolutely love it, I don’t buy it. But as we know, we can fall in and out of love. So if you’ve fallen out of love with an item, it’s time to give it a Dear John letter and kiss it goodbye.
5. Do you just not know how to style it? This is why I love Pinterest. There have been many times when I buy a trendy item and then it just sits in my closet because I just hate how it looks every way I style it. But I WANT to make it work. So I’ll browse Pinterest for some inspiration. Ideally I try to find at least 2-3 outfits to inspire me so I’m not repeating #3. If I’m not happy with it, I’ll part ways.
6. Was it expensive? Is it worth trying to sell first? I’ve had a few pieces I spent good money on and never wore, so I would rather try to get some of my money back if I can.

After I have my goodbye pile ready to go, I bag up everything and prepare it for donation. If you’re in Connecticut, Savers just opened 12 Donation Drop Spots in the greater Hartford area!

The Savers family of stores are for-profit, global thrift retailers offering great quality, gently used clothing, accessories and household goods. Our business model of purchasing, reselling and recycling gives communities a smart way to shop and keeps more than 650 million pounds of used goods from landfills each year. We also help more than 120 nonprofit organizations by paying them for donated goods, which supports their vital community programs and services. Our brands comprise Savers (in the U.S), Value Village (in the U.S. and Canada), Unique (in the U.S.), Village des Valeurs (in Quebec) and Savers Australia. All in all, we operate over 330 locations and have 22,000 employees. (source)

I absolutely love this company’s mission which makes me even happier to donate my used items to their cause. They have a variety of locations, and their new Donation Drop Spots make it easy to drop off my bags! Each Drop Spot is open from 9-5pm and supports a different non profit partner. You can find the Connecticut locations below!

Connecticut Commons
282 New Britain Avenue Plainville, CT
Supports: Hartsprings Foundation, Inc.

Windsor Court
1095 Kennedy Road, Windsor CT
Supports: Hartsprings Foundation, Inc.

Waterbury Plaza
152 Chase Avenue Waterbury, CT
Supports: Hartsprings Foundation, Inc.

Stratford Square
411 Barnum Avenue Stratford, CT
Supports: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Connecticut

Turnpike Plaza
2985 Berlin Turnpike Newington, CT
Supports: Hartsprings Foundation, Inc.

North Haven Crossing
410 Universal Drive N North Haven, CT
Supports: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Connecticut

Westgate Plaza
261 east Main Street Westfield, MA
Supports: Hartsprings Foundation, Inc.

Hale Road
169 Hale Road Manchester, CT
Supports: Hartsprings Foundation, Inc.

Slater Street
120 Slater Street Manchester, CT
Supports: Hartsprings Foundation, Inc.

Parkway Plaza
1869 Dixwell Avenue Hamden, CT
Supports: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Connecticut

Chicopee marketplace
591 Memorial Drive Chicopee, MA
Supports: Hartsprings Foundation, Inc.

Holyoke Shopping Center
2217 Northampton Street Holyoke, MA
Supports: Hartsprings Foundation, Inc.

You can check out the Savers website to find a Donation Drop Spot near you!

Hopefully your closet clean out will be productive with these tips and you can take advantage of supporting a non-profit organization by donating at a Savers in your area!

Savers