When your closet is packed to the brim, it can be very overwhelming for you to dig in and reorganise. However, just like your home, your closet needs a good spring clean once in a while to downsize it. Especially now that we’re in the holiday season nearing a brand new year, you really should look into examining what you need and don’t need. Here are a few tips to help you:
1. Take your time
You’d easily feel swamped by the crazy amount of clothes you have, so tackle one part at a time. For instance, start with your closet today and continue with your dresser another day. If you have one day to de-clutter, then devote the entire day to spring cleaning as you may want to finish it while you’re still in the mood. To begin, empty the drawer or closet and begin sorting your clothes into three categories – what to keep, what to toss and what to give away. Better yet, prepare some boxes or clean garbage bags so that you wouldn’t have to rummage through the mess.
2. What to keep
This is probably the easiest step and we’re sure that it’s no trouble for you to pick out your favourite pieces. When we say favourite pieces, we mean the stuff that you’ve been wearing consistently and not stuff you’ve been hoarding in your closet because they used to be your favourite five years ago. Besides that, you might want to keep the basics such as tank tops, skater skirts, spaghetti strap tops, pants and shorts as you can pair these items with other clothing easily.
3. What to toss
Get a large garbage bag and start looking for items that are damaged, torn or stained beyond repair. If you’re an expert with the sewing machine, you may be able to turn your old wardrobe items into new clothes or accessories. However, you have to be very realistic about this and if you don’t have the time to do such a thing, throw these items out. Keep two to three pairs of pants and shirts that can get stained and dirty, if you’re into hobbies that are hard on clothes such as painting or carpentry. Besides that, toss away your shrunken clothes because they would only be sitting in your closet. If the colour of the item is faded and blotchy, get rid of those too.
4. What to give away
First and foremost, you should only give away clothes that are in good condition. We’re sure that the charities or relatives and friends who are accepting your goodwill would not appreciate horrible-looking and nasty clothes. If you’ve never worn that piece of clothing item in the past six months, it’s high time to let someone else cherish it. Also, do not keep clothes in your closet just because you’re so determined to lose the 20 pounds you put on a year before. Additionally, give away clothes that you haven’t got anything else to style with and are out of fashion.
5. How to reorganize
Once you’re done with sorting your clothes out, what should you do? First of all, get hangers that are suitable for your clothes. For more delicate fabrics, use padded hangers and for button-down shirts, opt for plastic hangers instead. If you have a lot of suit jackets and blazers, get wooden hangers as they’re sturdier and would help to retain the shape of your garments. Now, there are two ways you can go about this. You can either arrange your clothes according to colour, or arrange them according to the type of clothing. For instance, you can group all your tank tops, short-sleeved shirts, long-sleeved shirts, pants, skirts and so on. If not, you can arrange them in a colour gradient starting with white, yellow, orange, red, purple, brown and so on.
