How to Organize Your Closet in 5 Simple Steps

Sunday, April 20th 2008 by Shanel Yang         Email this article to a friend

Have a closet-full of clothes but nothing to wear? Stuffed closets not only make it impossible to find anything, they also wrinkle your all your expensive clothes, crush shoulder pads and lapels, and scratch leather shoes, bags, and belts.

Well, your closet need not be a headache anymore. Make a date with yourself (and, if you’re lucky enough to have one, a patient friend with good taste) to go though your closet, item by item, to declutter your closet. It takes a few hours and some tough decisions. However, the resulting sanity, simplicity, and closet-full of clothes you actually want to wear is well worth it. Here’s what to do.

Step 1: Mentally Prepare Yourself

Cleaning out your closet, believe it or not, requires mental preparation. It’s time-consuming and exhausting (you’ll have to try on everything maybe two or three times), so you’ll have to stay motivated throughout the entire process.

The goal is to be able to quickly see every piece of clothing and accessory you have so you can decide what to wear in less than five minutes. That’s right, five minutes! One minute to look at everything in your closet. Another minute or two to narrow your choices down to a few outfits. Finally, one or two minutes more to make your final decision. This can only be done if everything in your closet is clean, in good repair, fits well, and makes you feel good when you wear it. That, dear reader, is going to require a lot of time, stamina, and discipline because I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that you have never tried on everything in your closet in one day. Do it right the first time, so you never have to do it again!

Things You Will Need: A good full-length mirror. Preferably two, so you can strategically place them to view your front, sides, and back easily. Good lighting. Extra hangers if you’re planning to donate your clothes or try to sell them to used clothing stores like Crossroads Trading Co. or Wasteland. Heavy duty, large trashbags, if you’re not. You can also ask your friends if they want any of it.

Step 2: Yes, No, and Maybe Piles

It’s the big day! Start with one end of your closet and work your way to the other. Take out each item and try it on. Remember: The goal is to end up with a wardrobe you love or at least like. The rest is just clutter and, therefore, must go, go, go!

These are things to throw on the “No” pile:

a. You haven’t worn it in the past year.
b. Doesn’t fit right and isn’t worth professional alternations to make it fit right.
c. Hopelessly damaged. (Throw out. Don’t try to sell or donate damaged goods.)
d. You’re just keeping it for nostalgia. (Store with the rest of your memorabilia.)
e. Looks terrible on you. (Even if you just bought it, or it cost a fortune!)
f. Feels uncomfortable, e.g., because it itches, makes you sweat, etc.
g. You think it might make you look too fat, old, young, matronly, or sexy.

These are the things to throw on the “Yes” pile:

a. You love it!
b. You like it.
c. You would love or like it if you got it fixed or altered by a good tailor.
d. Somehow, it makes you feel good when you wear it.
e. It makes you look thinner, younger (in a good way), or more professional.

Everything else goes in the “Maybe” pile for round two of your try-ons.

Step 3: Round Two of Try-Ons

Remove everything in the “No” pile from your room. Hang up everything from the “Yes” pile in your now empty closet, in the following order:

a. Formal, semi-formal, or party clothes in one farthest corner of your closet.
b. Heavy jackets, swimwear, and workout clothes in the other farthest corner.
c. Casual clothes from the middle to the left (or right).
d. Work clothes from the middle to the right (or left).

Now, it’s time to retry the “Maybe” pile. Be ruthless. If you’re considering keeping it, ask yourself when. With what? To what? Chances are if it’s taking you a long time to answer these questions, it’s a “No.” When in doubt, throw it out!

Make three new piles of “Yes,” “No,” and “Maybe.” Repeat as often as necessary to completely turn all of your “Maybes” into either “Yeses” or “Nos.”

Step 4: Record Your Decisions

In Chic Simple: Women’s Wardrobe (1995), the writers recommend borrowing a camera and taking pictures of all the outfits you discover during this process. If you use a digital camera, you can upload them into your computer for a quick review anytime. This way, you’ll never be at a loss to know what goes with what. They also recommend keeping your shoes in their original boxes with a small photo of them stuck on the outside so you can easily see what’s inside. If you have too many clothing pieces and shoes to remember all their best combinations, I highly recommend this system. Eventually, after frequent views of your own fashion catalog, you will be able to remember all of your options quite easily.

Step 5: Stop Using Drawers for Clothes

Hang up all the clothes you can (jeans, short, T-shirts, workout clothes, lingerie, robes, sweaters) because clothes are easier to see on the hanger than folded and stacked in deep, dark drawers. Opening and closing each drawer and lifting what’s on top to see what’s underneath for each folded pile, not only messes up all the piles every time, the entire process is a huge daily waste of time.

As for small undergarments, such as bras, panties, socks, stockings, and men’s boxers or briefs, they can be folded, organized according to color, size, or style, and stacked side-by-side or front-to-back, instead of top-to-bottom, all on a shelf in your closet. This lets you pull out one at a time without messing up an entire pile each time. I no longer have any bureaus in my bedroom. But, when I did, I kept extra blankets and photo albums in them—stuff I rarely used but wanted safe.

CONCLUSION

Organizing your closet is one big step in the right direction for simplifying your life. It’s about paring down to the essentials, so you can enjoy more free time. Imagine! No more shoving heavy hangers-full of clothes to the side, just a tiny smidgen, (because that’s all the space there is) to try to get a peek at what’s inside that old plastic drycleaning bag, so you can decide if it just might be something you could wear today. Now, you can just look at the contents of your closet by standing back and admiring your handiwork. No need to move anything around. Everything in your closet fits and looks great, or at least good, on you. All you have to do is remember the combinations of items you previously discovered. If you don’t remember, all you have to do is consult your computer. Life just got a whole lot simpler and calmer because you suddenly realize every morning can start like this!

Be sure to get the latest articles as soon as they’re posted by signing up here!

[For “175 Tips on How Men Should Dress,” click here.]

[For “Best Suits for Short, Tall, Fat, or Muscular Men,” click here.]

[For tips on how to dress for American dinner parties, click here.]

[For “How to Look Great at the Beach,” click here.]

[For “Bullet-Proof Interview Suit,” click here.]

[For “25 Stain Removing Tricks,” click here.]

[For “How to Wake Up Early, Refreshed, and Excited!,” click here.]

[For “Does Your Drink Show Your Personality?,” click here.]

[For “How to Interpret Dreams,” click here.]

[For “How to Read People,” click here.]

[For “125 Sarcastic Quotes,” click here.]

[For “How to Be an Extrovert,” click here.]

[For “How to Find Your Soul Mate,” click here.]

[For “How to Think Like a Lawyer,” click here.]

[For “How to Set and Achieve Goals in 5 Simple Steps,” click here.]

[For “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” click here.]

[For “How to Be a Billionaire in 10 Steps,” click here.]

[For more “Easy Steps to Success with People,” click here.]