Sartorial skeletons beware. “Out with the old” is this season’s catchphrase, and fashion’s fascination with everything new and fresh means there’s no room for baggage. When it comes to your wardrobe, it’s time for a clean sweep.

Letting go of a hard-won or nostalgic piece (the style-blog-famous tulle Lanvin for H&M dress you hounded on eBay) can be as difficult as navigating a cobblestone street in Alexander McQueen’s iconic 12-inch armadillo stilettos. Clothes may have memories attached to them, but unless you’ve got an Isabella Blow-worthy biography and couture collection (and enough storage space), some curating-and self-reflection-is in order.

Be critical. If you haven’t worn something in more than a year, put it on and give yourself an honest assessment in an accurate mirror. Consider your body type and lifestyle. How does it fit? How’s the condition? How do you feel in it? Can you alter or rework it? If you hesitate, toss it. Or better yet, donate, sell or swap your cast-offs.

A newly pared-down closet needs a similarly de-cluttered attitude. Discard the stud-heavy, ripped-jeans, embellished army-jacket Balmain look. Throw away the SpongeBob SquarePants silhouette (imagine a box atop toothpick legs). Trash the hardware-laden It Bag. Minimalism is in, as an organizational strategy or a way of dressing. And no one does streamlined better than Phoebe Philo at Celine.

Spare leather envelope clutches and architectural shapes in stark white or camel suggest quiet luxury: No logos or splashy signature prints proclaim who designed your coat, so only those with a comparable sensibility (and checking account) know. You’re probably still waiting for your invitation to join this exclusive club, but Thoreau’s your ticket in: Strip off the unnecessary – the spikes, the chains and any jewelry that’d be confiscated by the TSA – and “simplify, simplify.”

This spring, clear out your closet and your mind, and slough away the clothes and ideas you’ve outgrown. Only when you relinquish what you know can you move forward, because, according to Marie Antoinette’s dressmaker Rose Bertin, “[there] is nothing new except what has been forgotten.”