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The change of season is a perfect excuse to sort out your home (this includes your wardrobe and that spare room clearout that really needs doing) Switch out your fans and replace it with those cosy blankets. Pumpkin and cinnamon flavoured candles appear throughout your home and of course, your summer wardrobe is stashed away for another year. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a wardrobe filled with my clothes from every season all pilled in, alongside Will’s t-shirts. Then the shelves above (and the floor) hold my shoes and to find a certain item is mission impossible at best. So after watching a few episodes of Marie Kondo (all of them in one day), I was ready to take on the mammoth of all tasks and get started with my wardrobe organisation.
In an ideal world, I’d have a lovely grey triple wardrobe, which would allow me to organise my clothes into seasons. However, I currently have a *tiny* built-in wardrobe, so working with the space is necessary. So here are 3 easy steps for decluttering your wardrobe and making the most of the storage you have.
Remove everything from the wardrobe
When I do a proper clear-out, I like to take everything out of the space to be able to look over what there is, this also helps me decide what I’d miss and what I wouldn’t as I can see it all out in front of me. If you’re like me taking it all out and then organising it can take a while sometimes a day or more, so make sure you set aside the time to do it.
When it comes to choosing what to put back into the wardrobe, I tend to ask myself the following questions
- Does it fit?
- When did I last wear it?
- Why are you keeping it?
If it’s been over a year and there isn’t a reason to keep it, I tend to put it to one side. If it doesn’t fit but it may do in the future, e.g. you’re doing a weight loss programme and know you’re likely to lose weight soon, feel free to keep these ideas. However, if you’re unlikely it will ever fit again, get rid of it. Holding on to those clothes can often leave you feeling down about your body too. Finally, if there isn’t a valid reason for keeping items, it’s also worth getting rid of them.
Sell or donate the rest
Once you’ve separated your clothes into a keep pile and a remove one, it’s then time to figure out what to do with the items. I tend to set my items into four piles, keep, sell, bin or donate. When you’ve done step one, step two should be easier as you’ve already got your keep pile. When it comes to the other three piles if you’re looking to donate/sell all of your clothes it makes your job easier as you already have your remove clothes to one side. If you’re looking to sell, bin and donate some items. Then you need to set these into piles further of what you’re looking to sell, what needs to go in the bin and what you’re wanting to donate. Once you’ve done this, it’s on to step 3.
Reorganise
You’d be surprised how good reorganising your wardrobe after a declutter feels. I enjoy doing it as it allows me to see the clothes I’d forgotten about and start wearing them again. If you’re looking to reorganise your clothes by colour, season or type this gives you something to work with. I prefer to go with colours as it allows me to match items easier. Saying that though, half of my wardrobe is black…
Once you’ve done this with all of your clothes it’s time to dispose of those clothes which are no longer worth keeping, remember to recycle these at clothing banks. Then sell the clothes you don’t want, I tend to do this on eBay, although there are alternatives such as Depop. Finally, I take the rest to the charity shop and that’s my good deed for the day done.
I hope you’ve found these tips useful and if you’re looking for any inspiration before tackling your wardrobe, I’d recommend watching Marie Kondo on Netflix.
