Does this look familiar?
What happens to your attitude when you gaze into your closet? Many attitudes are sabotaged by that “I-can’t-find-a-thing-to-wear” moment. Besides, most people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. Why is this? Closets get crammed full for many reasons, but you can stop the clutter by purging out-of-date, ill-fitting items. Increase your confidence today by getting organized because when you look good, you feel good.
Follow these steps to de-clutter:
- Remove everything from your closet
- Examine every item with brutal honesty
- Sort each piece into one of three groups: keep, maybe and pass
When examining each of your items, be sure to ask yourself the following questions:
- Is it age appropriate?
- Is it in good condition? (No pills, rips or stains)
- Does it fit?
- Is it a good color for me?
- Do I wear it often? (Hint: If you have not worn it in a year, let it go.)
- Is it in style? (Hint: styles don’t come back around exactly the same as before.)
- Is it appropriate for my current lifestyle?
Your keep pile will most likely be that 20% that you wear all the time. You only want your favorites in your closet.
Your pass pile should be sorted into groups that are for charity, friends and trash. Why hang onto items that you don’t wear when someone else could be enjoying them?
Your maybe pile will be the hardest challenge but remain steadfast. Be brutal about each piece and revisit the questions above. Don’t keep an item just because it evokes romantic memories of a past date or a time when you were 20 pounds lighter. Let go of those excuses! You are on a totally liberating mission of increasing your daily confidence with a beautifully organized closet.
Like hangers keep clothes from tangling
Before you begin to refill your closet, think about its physical structure first. According to Raleigh’s leading professional organizer, Janice Russell of Minding Your Matters® Organizing, “Make your closet functional by creating a retrieval place rather than a storage space. Storage implies a crowded, unknown space. If your closet is a retrieval place then it is like going to a well-organized store each day.”
Janice offers these organizational tips:
- Use the same kind of hanger for uniformity (wooden, plastic or wire)
- Consider a double-rod system. There are hanging rods which attach to the existing rod, creating additional, flexible space which can be removed or changed when desired.
- Stack items using vertical dividers
- Remove rods not in use. Just because there is a rod doesn’t mean it has to stay there
Analyze what you have kept. Do you notice similar colors, similar patterns (stripes, flowers, geometric) or like-styles? Make note of the good, bad and ugly. Use these notes to shop smart. Congratulations, you are gaining confidence with organization!
