Many of us embrace the New Year with resolutions to get organized. For our clothes closets, this means saying goodbye to items we don’t wear by donating them, giving them away, selling or repurposing them, or tossing them as a last resort. If you have a big wardrobe, it can take time to purge. It may feel like a daunting task, and/or it may be difficult to part with things. But all is not lost. Often, it’s best to take an afternoon to try things on in front of a mirror. If it doesn’t fit or you don’t really wear or like it, and it lacks sentimental value, it’s okay to let go of it.
When culling a closet, you are often required to make quick decisions on what to keep or rehome. If you’re having trouble, ask a trusted friend to provide their honest opinion. The hope is to keep the job simple and keep only what you want, need, like, or use. Sometimes you may find hidden gems by way of clothes you bought and never wore because they got pushed to the back of the closet. This can be a great incentive to get your closets in order!
But removing excess wardrobe is only part of the job of organizing. So, what’s next?
After you’ve decided on which clothes are keepers, it’s time to get organized. It’s important to establish a system that works for you. We can take notes from celebrities, such as fashion and makeover expert Trinny Woodall. Among the organizing methods, Trinny applies are separating, categorizing, and pairing. (For more information, be sure to check out some of her videos on YouTube.) Let’s examine each:
Separating –Like many celebrities, Trinny keeps her closets organized by seasonally separating her clothes. What does this mean? It means that she stores her summer wardrobe separate from her winter clothes, for example, so that each season she can easily find what to wear. How can we do this at home? Easy, use a spare closet, clothes storage bin, or space bags to store off-season clothing. Then switch it out as the weather changes.
Categorizing – Like most professional organizers recommend, this fashion guru puts her clothes in groupings. What does this mean? It means that she keeps like things together. For example, she keeps her white tops together, her trousers together, blazers together, and so forth. This makes clothing easier to find. She also has a hanging rack for clothing that she will wear or experiment with soon. How can we do this at home? As you go through your closet, organize what you’re keeping into categories that make sense to you. You can further manage your wardrobe by categorizing colors or brands if you so wish. Or keep it simple with general categories.
Pairing – This means keeping sets of things together. For example, matching sets of sweatpants and sweatshirts should be paired together so that when you go to wear them, you don’t have to hunt for the match. Most fashion icons, including Trinny, do this at home. Another general celeb tip is to ditch the wire hangers. Matching hangers can streamline your closet; thus, many people feel they are worth the investment. Not only do they look neat and save space, but they are much thicker than the thin wire hangers from the dry cleaners and are less likely to misshape clothing, poke holes in or catch on fabrics, or rust.
We often see celebrity closets and dream we had their fashions and glamourous spaces to store things. By ridding our closets of excess, caring for and appreciating what we own, and mixing and matching outfits to extend our clothing selections and styles, we can positively impact the way we view our wardrobes and closets. By incorporating the above tips, not only will our closets function and look better but deciding what to wear will likely become infinitely easier. We must remember that organizing isn’t about perfection or how much we have; rather, it’s about enjoying the special things we own and feeling confident when we walk out the door.