Tackle It Tuesday Project Clean & Organize Your Closet

This Tackle Tuesday is to tackle that closet of yours! I have some easy basic steps to get started. Your closet is very important in your life and productivity, it's a place that you go to every single day to find that outfit of the day for either work, play, fitness or for a night out. It's crucial that we make sure our closet feels good to us when we walk in and if it's cluttered and stuffed with clothing that we never wear or pieces that we can't fit into either because we lost weight or gain a little then it's time to have a closet purge.

Many people keep all different types of clothing together whether it's Summer or Winter clothes which can be very difficult to figure out what to wear when you're in a rush. Have you ever felt like you don't have anything to wear but your closet is stuffed and filled with many pieces of clothing? We may look around our closet and see tons of clothes but nothing that really suits us, so it's time to declutter and re-organize that closet.

Step #1
The first up is to go through all your clothing and make three piles. 
#1 Pile is going to be for donation 
#2 Pile for keep and another
#3 Pile for alterations

Getting rid of some clothes maybe difficult sometimes because we may have sentimental attachments towards them or we don't know if they work for us at the moment but maybe they will in the future. Key Rule: If you haven't worn the piece of clothing in over a year it's time to get rid of it. 

The clothing that is sentimental to you you can store those pieces in boxes so you never have to get rid of them. It's also a good idea to have a friend help you go through some of the clothes with you because they don't have the same connection with the clothing that you do and they can help you decide if it's time to get rid of it either because it's not working for you or it's completely out of style.
 

Step #2
Separate all your clothing by seasons. Spring/Summer & Fall/Winter 
Now, if you're not living in a climate that is basically 70° year-round then you need to keep your clothes seasonal. Have your Summer and Spring clothing together and your Fall and Winter clothes together. If it is now Fall, you should store your summer clothes in plastic containers or boxes and keep them in storage until it's time for that season. You don't want to have sweaters mixed in with tank tops when you will absolutely not wear a tank top during the Winter. Putting away seasonal clothing in storage will help you to have a better idea of what you have in your closet. Sometimes, our closets are so overfilled with so many different types of clothing it is very difficult to figure out what you're going to wear. And that perfect tank top that would go with your polka-dot Capris could be hidden between a stack of sweaters so separating your clothing by seasons is crucial.
 
After you have gone through all your clothes and donated the ones that you don't want and separated the clothes that need to be altered it is time to start organizing the clothes that you want to keep that are in season.
 

Step #3
The next step is to get rid of plastic and wire hangers because they don't have a clean look when you walk into your closet and also they don't hold clothing very well. Wooden hangers or plastic hangers with velvet on them, will help hold your clothing on the hanger and it will look better because the pieces won't constantly slip off and fall onto the closet floor. 
Wooden hangers and velvet hangers cost much more than plastic or wire hangers but you will need less of them because we are donating a large pile of our closet space and taking our clothes that are out of season and putting them in storage.
 

Step #4
There needs to be consistency with the clothing that you have either in your drawers, folded on shelves, and the pieces that need to be hung up in your closet. For example, my jeans are not hung up in my closet they are folded neatly on shelves that were built above where I hang my clothing. I take my workout clothing, basic tees and sweatpants and place those in my drawers that are in my dresser, in my closet. What I keep hung in my closet are blouses, dresses and jackets. You don't have to follow the way I store my clothing but there needs to be some sort of consistency to where you place each item so it is easier for you to find what you were looking for and something that will suit a specific top.

The main goal is to simplify your closet so it is easier to find pieces and navigate through your closet every single day. So, your closet may look a little more minimal but it will have a huge impact in the way you look at your closet and the way you dress every morning.
 

Step #5
Now that you're a closet is just one season (Fall/Winter), it's now time to organize those clothes in a specific way to help you find what you're looking for. I like to color coordinate my closet for example, I put all black together, next section it will be all white tops, next section will be red, then orange, green, blue, purple etc. I will then have my jacket separate from my tops, my dresses separate and my blazers jackets separate (I have a lot of these). I will color coordinate each of these sections by color as well. The same there he will apply for my dresser drawers I will have tops and T-shirts in one drawer, workout tops in another drawer, workout pants in another drawer, etc. to be able to easily navigate when it's time to figure out what I'm going to wear, depending on where I'm going; it is so easy to be able to go into the same drawer every time I'm about to leave for the gym, I know exactly where each piece is going to be and there is no surprises or digging through to find a specific item I am looking for. 

The shelves I have in my closet I use for storing more items such as jeans which I have a lot of along with my sweaters and hoodies that could be folded. I also have shelves different shelves dedicated to either my shoes or my handbags/overnight bags. The key is to have consistency to every single thing because there should be a home for each item. We are just going to talk about clothing and shoes/handbags in the closet and I will dedicate a new post on storing jewelry and accessories in the closet and drawers.
 

Organizing and donating old clothing may seem like a daunting task but once you get into it and start seeing your closet come together you'll will just want to keep at it until it's finished. This is not a tackle task that will take just a few minutes or hours this may take many days before you are finished. I suggest taking one step at a time each day. You can start with going through each piece of clothing and making three separate piles, the next day you can separate your clothes depending on the season and so on. And before you know it your closet will be organize aligned and easy to manage. When you walk into your closet you will feel so good about picking out your outfit for the day and hopefully you will use the sentence "I have nothing to wear" less often.
 

This task maybe one of the biggest task that has been nagging you for sometime but is one of the most important things to tackle because it is a place we go into every single day. Whether you have a small closet with the door, a walk-in closet, or a closet the size of a small bedroom, it is absolutely necessary to make sure this part of your life is in order so you can always look your best and feel good about getting dressed for the day. Take baby steps, start small don't rush into it and get overwhelmed. Just take one step at a time and before you know it this task will be over and you can go onto the next. 

There are many other factors of the closet besides clothing such as shoes, handbags, and accessories  but the first up is to focus on the major nuisance of your closet which is summer and winter clothes mix together with clothes are either too big or too small and clothes that you haven't worn since 2004. 

It is time to purge a closet and always keep in mind that simplicity is the goal. You can always get more clothes and reinvent your wardrobe but to do so you need to make sure to get rid of the old before you bring in the new. Key rule: If I am buy five new items, I will usually get rid of 3 to 5 old items. We are constantly updating our wardrobe and our style as seasons change and style changes and we don't want to hold on to styles that went out years ago and pieces that we haven't worn or maybe haven't seen in a long time.
 

Let's review the basic steps to organizing and aligning your closet.
 
#1 Go through your closet and make three piles for your clothing; keep, donate, and alterations. 

#2 Separate your clothing seasonally from Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. 

#3 Replace your wire hangers and plastic hangers with higher quality better looking hangers that will help keep her clothing on and make her closet look much prettier. 

#4 Make sure your clothing is stored in a consistent way.

#5 Color coordinate your clothing so you will be able to find a certain color top for a certain style of pants.

 

Just focus on finding simplicity and consistently with your clothing in your closet and drawers and you will feel like a TON of clothing is off your back.

Have any suggestions to add or your style of organizing your closet space? Good luck and keep me posted on how the project is going for you!

xo
Redefine & Align