Your Guide to the Perfect Closet Clean Out
I'm officially almost at the end of my no-buy month, so I thought it would be the perfect time to do a bit of spring cleaning. I tend to keep my closet pretty seasonal, and Spring can be a tricky time to start bringing clothing back into the mix. For me the most important thing is to think about the months ahead, and the pieces I know are tried and true. My go-to pieces are usually cotton shirts, skirts, and a few dresses. Since I'm limited on storage I always box up my summer clothing once the season ends. In all honesty, unboxing is like a shopping trip in itself. I love "rediscovering" tops or blouses that I had completed forgotten about.
Before adding anything back into my closet I always do a solid clean out of the items already hanging. Typically, I sort things into three categories, one keep, two donate, and three sell. As a general rule of thumb if you're ever on the fence about whether or not you want to keep something ask yourself, "have I worn this in the last 6 months?" If the answer is no, it's likely that you won't wear it anytime soon. Purging your closet can be difficult, my advice, approach it with a glass of wine and a strong will to clean things up!
If I've decided that the item is something I'm going to sell, I add it to my thredUP pile. If you aren't familiar with thredUP you can read more about it here. The company is more or less a website that sends you a large garment bag to fill that you send in after your cleanout. The one thing that drew me to the company, aside from the suggestion from Emily at Dear Serendipity, was that any items that don't meet their level of standards are donated to a charity of your choice, pretty awesome right?
Once you've gone through your existing wardrobe, it's time to get down to organizing. I have a few tried and true rules when it comes to keeping things looking spiffy, which you can find below:
TOSS YOUR DRY CLEANER HANGERS: These are not meant to last, and become more of a hassle the longer they linger around your closet. Invest in streamline hangers, the velvet material keeps garnets from slipping and keeps things looking tidy.
GET RID OF TISSUE OR TRASH: If you have tags, tissue or trash sardined into the nooks and crannies of your closet now is the time to toss it.
ORGANIZE LIKE CLOTHING: Group together and organize your clothing in categories. Think jeans and pant, skirts and blouses, and coats and jackets.
ORGANIZE BY COLOR: This is more of a personal preference but, I find that when my clothing is arranged by color and style it makes searching for things that much easier.
INVEST IN HANGING ORGANIZERS: If your goal is to maximize your storage then investing in hanging organizers is a must. Target and the Container store carry a wide variety of prints and styles to hold everything under the sun. I like to store tennis shoes and flats in these. Double-rods are also a great way to store skirts or short hemmed items.
FOLD SWEATERS: Do not hang your sweaters! This can cause your sweater to become misshapen and can stretch out the shoulders. If you storing wool remember to keep in a garment bag or with cedar balls.
