Quick Tips for Decluttering Your Closet
One popular January New Year’s resolution is to declutter and get organized and heeding the now legendary advice of Marie Kondo of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and her accompanying book Spark Joy, many people like to start in their closets and clothing. Here are some of my favorite tips for simplifying clothes so that not only is your closet neat and tidy, but everything fits and makes you feel great.
- Catch up on laundry! It’s hard to purge your closet when a bunch of it is in a hamper or in the washing machine. My big problem isn’t doing the laundry, it’s putting it away, so I need to catch up on the stacks on clean clothes hanging out on my dresser.
- Gather up all your clothing and pile it up on a bed or clean floor so you can see everything all at once. Grab it all. It’s scary when you see how much you have, but it’s hard to decide what to keep when you don’t know what you have.
- Discard anything you don’t absolutely love, that you don’t wear or that doesn’t fit. Pull out anything that has stains, holes or rips or that needs to be altered in any way. If you haven’t worn it in a year or two, take it out. I’ve got a pile of clothes set aside that I’ve been holding onto because they’re “nice,” but I didn’t wear them a single time last year, or if I did, I didn’t feel great about myself in them. Out they go.
- Bag up the discards and put them by the door to drop off for charity. Get rid of them this week. I have a tendency to let those discards pile up until they’re overwhelming. Bag up anything that needs to be altered or repaired and make plans to take it to the tailor or fix it yourself in the next week. I have two pairs of pants set aside — one that needs to be hemmed and one with a stain. It’s now on my to-do list to get to those in the next week.
- For the clothes left in your closet, turn all the hangers around backward (so the open part faces you). As you wear items, turn the hangers back the right way. In just a few weeks, you’ll be able to tell at a glance what clothes you wear and which ones you don’t (so a second purge may be in order!) I just did this again last week with the intention of donating anything that hasn’t been worn by the end of the season.
- Arrange the clothes by category — pants, shirts, skirts, dresses, etc. If you want, you can divide them further by sleeve length and color.
After just one or two purges, your closet will be more streamlined, and this process will be easier each time you do it. Getting dressed in the morning will be a lot simpler!
