To keep or not to keep, that is the question… Alright, who else dreads cleaning out their closet? If you’re like me and love shopping (maybe a little too much), then you probably end up accumulating a lot of clothes and cleaning out / organizing your closet can seem pretty daunting. And I used to be one of you! I used to hate going through my clothes and would just keep pushing it off, meaning I just kept accumulating more clothes 🙂 . But, I came up with my own easy system that I do once every 6 months and it’s made a huge difference! Below I’m listing all of my closet clean out tips:
Step 1: Take Out All Your Clothes
Ok, this may sound crazy, but hear me out.. The first step to successfully cleaning out your closet is to get all of your clothes in one place. Yes, I mean take all of your clothes and lay them out in one room. The point of this is to visually see all the pieces you own so you can take inventory of what you have. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve purchased something only to realize I have an almost identical piece a few months later (and then realize I just wasted money).
Step Two: Separate Them Into Piles
So, once you have all of your clothes in one room, start separating them into piles. Here are the piles I typically make:
- T-Shirts
- Sweaters
- Sweatshirts
- Other Tops
- Jeans
- Shorts
- Rompers / Overalls
- Leggings
- Other Pants
- Skirts
- Casual Dresses
- Special Occasion + Work Clothes
Step Three: Ten Second Rule
Ok, now we have our piles, but we aren’t done separating yet (sorry!). BUT, things should move pretty quick from here. Once I have everything in piles I start going through each item using the ten second rule.
I take each pile of clothes and start going through the items, making two more piles. I look at each item and within ten seconds you should be able to run through the below questions in your head:
- Do still like this item enough to wear it again?
- Have I worn this item in the last year?
- Does this item still fit me?
- Is this item sentimental?
- Do I have something really similar that I wear more often?
If you answer no to any of the above questions (or yes to the last one), put it aside in the ‘No’ pile for now. Go through all of your piles this way to quickly come up with overall ‘Keep’ and ‘Get Rid Of’ piles.
Step Four: Go Back Through the ‘No’ Pile
So the last step is to go back through your ‘Get Rid Of’ pile. I go through each item again quickly and if I think I still want to keep something I try to come up with three different ways to style it in my head. If I can’t think of a few different ways I would wear it, it means I probably won’t really end up wearing it that much.
If an item is sentimental to you for any reason, it’s up to you whether or not you want to keep it. I kept the dress I was wearing when Chris proposed to me even though I shrank it in the wash and it doesn’t fit anymore. It has a nice space in the back of my closet for now, but if we ever move I may re-think keeping it.
Special Occasion / Work Clothes
When going through my nicer clothes, I try to keep as close to my typical method as possible, but I do take a little more time to go through everything. I do end up keeping some of my nicer dresses and work clothes even if I don’t wear them often.
For example, I have a couple really nice blazers that I only wear a few times throughout the year, but I work in an office and do need them at certain times. Even though you may keep a lot of these clothes for reasons like that, still go through them! You may end up realizing something you have a lot of duplicates and can downsize.
Basics
I just wanted to call this out separately because I do treat basics a little different. For example, I have a lot of beige camis because I wear them under sweaters to the office, and I have a lot of v-neck tees because I wear them constantly during the summer. It’s ok to have duplicates if they are closet staples you wear often!
Putting Everything Away
Once I have my ‘keep’ pile I then take time to figure out how I want to put everything back in my closet / drawers. Usually over the 6 months from my last closet clean out I realize I don’t like how something is organized and I want to switch it up. Now is the perfect time to do that!
Ok, this may seem like a lot, but I wanted to share what works for me and hopefully this guide was helpful to someone! Happy Organizing!! 🙂
