Organize Your Clothes Closet
By Jodi Granok
Does your clothes closet stress you out? Does it resemble a black hole, a time capsule, a dumping ground, or all of the above? If you are ready to revamp your closet and respect your clothes, this article is dedicated to you!
Here are the five steps you need to regain control of your closet:
1) Take everything out - in order to see what you truly have, EVERYTHING must go! Put all of your closet items either on a bed, a table, or on the floor. If your floor isn't clean, put down an old sheet first.
2) Group like items together - Make piles of like items, such as shoes, short-sleeve shirts, pants, skirts, etc. You need to get an accurate accounting of how many of each item you have in order to move on to step 3.
3) Make a decision on each item:
- Keep - Clothes that you keep are the ones you are currently wearing that are your current size. If you don't like it for any reason (too tight, unflattering shape, hate the design, color clashes with your skin tone), let it go!
- Sell - Take your clothes to a resale shop, or have a rummage sale!
- Donate - If you aren't wearing it right now - think of those less fortunate than you who could. Itemize what you donate (3 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, etc.) and keep the charity's receipt with your tax folder for a nice deduction next year!
- Save it - Use a bin that has a sealed lid and group either by season or by size. Make sure to label the top and side of the bin with the contents.
- Toss - If it is torn, stained, threadbare, bleached, or faded, pitch it!
- Goes in another room - To maintain your focus as you organize, avoid leaving the closet area until you are completely finished. As you find things that belong somewhere else, keep them in one pile until you are all finished organizing - THEN return those items to their proper homes.
4) Store it where you use it - The items in the closet should be things you use in that space. That means that your clothing should live in your bedroom closet, as opposed to having some in every closet of your home. If the closet has shelves, put the things you use the most frequently within your reach, and store occasional use items on the higher shelves.
5) Stay within your boundary zone! - Every organized space needs routine maintenance to remain organized. Once each item has a designated "home" where it "lives", the space housing the item is its boundary zone. When that home is full, the only way to bring in more like items is to let some existing items go, by way of resell, donation or trash.
© Organizing Magic, LLC - 2010. All Rights Reserved. (return to the article archive)
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