By Fashion Apothecary Design Co.
The third week in March was ‘official’ ‘Clean Out Your Closet’ Week. We’re a few weeks behind, but its still not too late to breathe new life into your stale closet. Spring is a time for baseball, allergies, and making way for new clothes! It’s time to clear the decks, get rid of the obsolete, and make room for the new. What do you have hiding in your closets that you haven’t used in years? Everyone owns at least one item that hasn’t been touched in years. You will find cleaning out to be an incredibly freeing experience, although not without its small dilemmas and a bit of stress. If you haven’t done it yet, this month make an effort to clear out the clutter– and create some order and breathing room in your closet and your life! Chances are that you may not even be sure where you should start - especially if your closet is overflowing with clothes that you haven’t seen in quite a while. Key is to start with just one closet, don’t try to tackle every closet in you house at once!
Here are some tips to get started…
1. Empty out the entire closet. Now that you have your clothing items pulled from the closet, go through them. Examine each article of clothing. Is it starting to wear? Is the style dated? Are you just plain tired of it? Is it your favorite winter sweater? Begin to sort the clothes into piles. You will want at least three piles:
a. Keep/store
b. Give to a charity
c. Throw away
2. Ask yourself some hard questions as you clean out - be honest as you examine each item. When did you use it last? When will you use it again? What purpose does it serve in your life? Would you miss it, if you got rid of it? One of the main things that you will probably want to take into consideration when deciding if you should get rid of something or keep it is how long ago you wore it and think about when the next time you will really want to wear it again is. Though there are always certain exceptions, such as formal or “dressy” clothing, it is important to be realistic with yourself.
3. There are only three reasons to keep an item - because it is beautiful, useful, or loved. Use this as the yard stick against which you measure each item in your closets — if it doesn’t fit into one of these three categories, then add it to one of the three piles! If you have a very large wardrobe and you really need to cut down on the amount of clothing that you have, the best thing to do is limit yourself to keeping favorites and essentials only. For example, you may need a white shirt. But that does not mean that you need five white t-shirts! Limiting yourself to what you need, as well as what you like the best and wear the most often, is a great way for you to cut down on the amount of clothing that you have, as well as to streamline your ’look’.
4. Now that you’ve sorted your clothes, organize your closet. When you walk in to a closet that has been organized you can see a major difference - it is not only much easier to find the clothes that you are looking for, but it also makes much more room. I have always thought that organizing your closet by colors make it very easy to see what’s going on. This is very easy to do, I usually group by tops, bottoms, and style and then organize by color within each of those categories. It also is a big help to buy a shoe rack or multiple shoe racks if you have a lot of shoes. This way it gets your shoes off of the floor and gives youthe added space to walk in and to store more clothing.
And just remember, while cleaning your closet may not really be your favorite thing to do, the truth is that you will probably feel a whole lot more rejuvenated with a fresh, clean, organized closet.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Some fantastic tips here, I just discovered a new site worth taking a look at. Its an online personal stylist service and is remarkably accurate! I bought the cheaper style guide at £5 and was full of advice. Can anyone tell me whether or not the £15 version is worth it?
Its here at iStylista.com