Conquering the closet
Imagine opening your closet.
Reaching in and finding exactly what you’re looking for.
Putting new outfits together because you can actually see what you have.
Not buying yet another white blouse because you can see the four you already own.
All good things! But how to get there?
What you will need:
A very honest friend who will tell you the dress you thought made you look breezy actually makes you look frumpy. (It’s ok if you don’t have one of those friends. You can tell yourself the truth.)
Some hours to focus
Tissue paper or plastic bags
Either 3 large trash bags or 3 medium boxes
Two or three wicker baskets
shelf dividers if you have shelves
Matching hangers
A mirror
Happy music
A glass of wine or a mimosa–or something stronger if you have to use a shovel to do the clearing out
First steps:
Designate one box (or trash bag) as throw away, one as donation, and one as maybe
Remove all of your “I wear this all the time” items. These are the items you know you need to keep.
Put those items in a stack, somewhere in your bedroom.
Take everything else out of your closet and stack it all together. All. Of. It.
(yes. I know. Truly scary.)
Stand at your closet and take some time to think. What should go where? Do you want to hang your jeans or fold them on shelves? Where will dresses hang best? How much room do you need for purses and shoes?
Once you’ve done an outline of where each category should go,
put the items you first removed–those “I wear this all the time items”–back into the closet.
Hang the clothes by like items–pants go together, dresses, tops, etc.
Then, arrange each of those groups by color–all the blue tops together, the jeans together, etc.
If you have shelves, arrange your dividers. Fold and fill the shelves between the dividers. (Usually t-shirts, sweaters, and jeans do well on shelves.)
Use the tissue paper (or trash bags) to stuff the purses you’re keeping and line them up together
Style your shoes, facing forward . Stuff your boots so they stand up.
Label your wicker baskets and fill them with scarves, belts, tennis shoes, etc. Those can go on shelves if you have room or on the floor, under clothes.
Step back and admire what you’ve done!!!
Maybe pour another glass of wine.
Time to tackle the pile on your bed.
The sweater with frayed sleeves?
Trash.
The low-rise jeans you haven’t been able to button in two years?
Donation.
Ignore the voices in your head that say:
I might wear it one day.
It just needs to be altered and it will be great.
When I lose weight, it will fit.
But I wore this to my daughter’s wedding.
It’s perfectly good.
I bought it on sale.
But it still has the tags!
Ask yourself if that item is worth adding to the beautiful order that is now your closet–because the more you put back, the less ordered it will be.
Try on the items you really are unsure about and get your friend’s opinion.
Is it absolutely worthy or just ok?
Just ok goes to donation!
What about those maybe’s?
Try putting that box away somewhere. Return to it in a few months to see if you’ve really missed anything in there.
Good luck, fellow decluttered closet seekers!
Let me know how it goes . . . .