This is something we all dread, let’s face it! Last fall, my closet reached an all time level of being cluttered and “overstuffed”. It was to the point where I didn’t even want to go in there. When I did, I immediately got stressed out. And to make matters worse, I had NO IDEA what I even had. So, I contacted “Closets to the Max”. I had reached the point where professional help was necessary. If your budget allows, it’s great to hire professional help. If not, grab a friend with a good fashion sense to help you out! You need another set of eyes to help you realize that the dress you bought 7 years ago just isn’t cute anymore lol!
This is going to take you a while, so set aside some time! Here are the steps that we went through.
- Take EVERYTHING out of your closet a section at a time and lay it on your bed. Look at each piece and ask yourself the following questions: “Do I wear this?” “Do I even LIKE this?” “Is this current?”
- Make 3 piles the keep pile, the get rid of pile, and the maybe pile. If you haven’t worn it in a year or so, you are probably never going to. So GET RID OF IT!!! It is just cluttering up your space. Go through your entire closet with the same system.
- In the keep pile, ask yourself do I know HOW to wear this? If not, look online pinterest, Instagram, etc to get some styling ideas. Snap a screenshot just so you don’t forget
- Do the same thing with shoes, jewelry, scarves, hats, etc. Shoe styles change from season to season, so if you have had them 5 plus years, they probably need to go!
- If you are like me and have multiples of similar things, keep the best few. For instance if you have like 10 black sleeveless tops (like I did) just keep the best 2 or 3 and donate the rest!
- Don’t keep clothing in hopes that you “might lose weight and fit into again one day.” As my favorites Clinton and Stacy used to say “dress for the body you have, not the body you WISH you had.”
- Go back through the “Maybe” pile and reevaluate. Only keep it if you KNOW you will wear it and it has a purpose in your closet.
- As you are putting the “yes” pile back into your closet, organize them into sections. Tops together, pants together, outerwear together, cardigans together, long dresses, short dresses,etc.
- If you are cramped for space, take the clothes out of your closet that are not in season and store them. I store my off season clothes in storage bags from Walmart and just put them at the bottom of my closet.
I also organize my accessories as they can clutter up your closet pretty quickly! I have a couple of fixtures I use for jewelry organization. You can also hang a skinny curtain rod and hang your jewelry on S hooks.
Donate the items you aren’t keeping as you can get a pretty good write off. Or have a closet sale and invite your friends to shop. You can also sell it on FB or IG! Here was my “get rid of pile”. I know, I’m embarrassed.
It’s a lot of work, but having a nice,organized closet is SUCH an amazing feeling! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments? What is the current state of your closet??
Good luck!
-Emily
