Quick & Easy Plan to Declutter Your Closet

Is your clothes closet full and busting at the seams? Do you have too many clothes but nothing to wear? This is a common problem; I hear this daily when working with my clients. Clothing can be overwhelming; we often don’t know how or where to start. I wanted to break it down into a few easy steps to help get you started today! ⠀⠀

Schedule yourself a few uninterrupted hours

Turn off your phone, and take the kids and pets out of the room (out of the house is even better if you can!) Grab some water, a donation box, and a few black trash bags. Clear off and make your bed and turn on your favorite playlist.

Remove all items from the closet⠀⠀⠀

Take everything out and put it on your bed. This will be overwhelming, but it will help you to see everything you have all at one time and will ensure you get this project done in one day so you will be able to sleep in your bed at night. Now that the closet is empty, wipe down the walls and shelves and vacuum the floor. You want to start with a fresh clean space.

Sort items into categories and take items that you want to keep but not store in your closet out of the room. ⠀

Start going through the pile on your bed. Group like items together, dresses, shirts, pants, jackets, etc.… If you have items in your closet that do not belong there, remove them and take them to the proper place in the house- things like wrapping paper, kid’s items, luggage, and so on.

Take each item in your hand and ask yourself. Do I love this? Do I like wearing it? Does it make me feel great when I wear it? Does it fit into my current lifestyle? If you can answer yes to these questions, it's a keeper. ⠀⠀

Work in categories, start with pants and go through each one, pull out your absolute favorites first, and move them to the side. For items that don't meet these criteria, it's time to figure out why- maybe they are the wrong color, not flattering, too small, too big, too trendy, out of date, doesn't go with the rest of the wardrobe. Your clothes can teach you a lot about yourself - try to learn from these items that you are not keeping and avoid purchasing items like these in the future. Determine which pieces are a definite NO and move them to your donation box. Work on each category of clothing separately and once you are done you should have a pile of YES and a donation box of NO and on your bed will be the maybe items or the undecided pieces. The undecided pieces will be tricky so you will set those aside for a few minutes.

Hang up the YES pieces.

This is a great time to switch to matching hangers in your closet if you don’t have them already. Matching hangers help your clothes to be spaced more evenly and can even add more space to your closet. Once you get your YES pieces hung, step back, and admire your space, you should see a closet filled with only your favorite pieces. Every item should fit and be an option to wear. Gone should be the too-tight or aspirational clothing! This really is something to celebrate! Add back in any other items that are definite YES pieces like bags or shoes. If you have a shelf, use some cute bins to store out-of-season items up and out of the way- things like bathing suits or sweaters.

Address the MAYBE items!

At this point, you should feel very happy and satisfied with your progress! But, you still have that pile of maybes on your bed. What to do with them? I ascribe to the saying, if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no! So maybe, you take that approach too and add those maybe items to your donation box. There could be a reason that these are a maybe, maybe you love it but aren’t sure if it still fits, well try it on and then decide. Maybe, it needs mending- do you love it enough to drive it somewhere to have sewn or do you have the time to repair it yourself? It no, let it go. Maybe you wanted to keep it to see if you’ll wear it next season- if you have room in your closet, hang it up and try to challenge yourself to wear it. I think that maybe items prolong the process, my personal advice would be to either donate them OR pack them away in a box or bin out of your closet for 30 days. If you miss anything, take it out and put it in your closet, if you don’t donate the whole box without thinking twice.

Decluttering is such a great project, and you can use these steps to address any area of your home. Empty, Keep the YES, Discard the NO, and decide on the MAYBE. Over time, your decluttering muscles will get stronger, and you will be able to see how much you do not need. Having space in your home is so much nicer than having extra stuff.

What else would you add to this process? If you follow my steps, let me know in the comments below how it worked out for you.