How To Organize Your Closet
Share
1
Little
girls may lay down to sleep in fear of fictitious closet monsters, but
not-so-childish ladies like you and I often live in fear of a very
different, but very real closet ghoul. If you are a Messy Molly, Pack
Rat Penny or Clutter-Me-Carol, then this article is for you. There is no
better time to de-clutter your life than at the start of a brand new
year, and no better place to start than your bedroom closet.One of the very valuable lessons that my mother taught me was to live within my means. Sometimes this meant that I couldn’t always have a brand new pair of shoes to wear to school, or that we would take a weekend vacation together as a family instead of going away on an exotic summer cruise, but years of watching my mother save instead of spend has given me an incredibly successful jumpstart into adulthood. I have no problem bringing my lunch to work instead of ordering takeout, or watching my favorite television shows on Hulu.com instead of paying for cable. My one weakness however, is clothes. I love love love shopping. The thrill of the hunt, the satisfaction of finding the perfect dress or designed-just-for-me pair of shoes far outweighs the satisfaction of a fancy dinner or movie premiere, in my opinion anyway. Needless to say, my walk in closet is overflowing with vintage skirts, girly blouses, and countless pairs of shoes. To be more honest, it is a tulle-based train wreck with absolutely no rhyme or reason.
But this year is going to be different. New year, new me! Mom often tells me that she was a quite the pack-rat before she met and married my father, so there may be hope for me yet. In the year 2012, I will turn 25-years-old, and I am whole-heartedly committed to developing my organizational skills (after all, how else will I make room for all of the brand new 2012 fashions?) I thought it would be nice to share my plan of attack with all of you lovely readers, because if you are anything like my girlfriends and I, your closet could use good cleansing as well.
1. Set a date and make sure to keep it.
Open wide those closet doors, dolls, and take a long, hard look at the level of damage. Be honest when gauging how many hours you think it is going to take to turn that mess into a masterpiece.
2. Recruit a friend to help you.
Pick a guy or gal who is going to be honest with you. If you’ve got a god-awful blazer or two hanging out in your “maybe” pile, you’d want a good friend to help you throw it away, right? Having a friend around will also make the daunting task of cleaning and organizing a little more enjoyable. Be careful to pick someone who you know will keep you on task. You’ll defeat the purpose of setting aside a time to clean if all you end up doing is sitting on your bed watching old movies and painting your nails.
3. Take everything out of your closet. Yes, I mean all of it.
It may seem easier to organize things one section at a time, but since we’re being real here, sometimes rouge socks and crumpled up t-shirts have a tendency to get lodged and lost in the mess, never to be seen again until moving day. So roll up your big girl sleeves, and get everything out of there. Once you have cleaned everything out of your closet, clean your actual closet. Sweep, vacuum, disinfect–do whatever you need to do to make sure that the things you decide to keep are put back in a sanitary environment.
4. Quickly sort into three piles.
Quickly is the key here. Don’t take twenty minutes to decide if you want to keep your Jr. high track jacket or not. These are the choices: keep, toss, maybe. The maybe pile should be the smallest, and after consulting your right hand man, there should only be two piles left. If you haven’t used or worn something in 6 months or more (9 months for seasonal items), put it in the toss pile. If you want to feel better about getting rid of your once-loved items, consider giving them to a Goodwill or Salvation Army.
5. Organize the keep pile, then put it back into your closet.
Congratulations, your piles have been sorted! But you aren’t finished yet. Take a short snack or coffee break if you need to, then get right back to work. Put everything from the keep pile back into your closet, neatly organized. This shouldn’t take very long with the diligent help of your friend.
6. Decide what to do with the remaining piles.
First decide whether or not the items in the maybe pile are here to stay or good to go. Once you have your toss or give away pile organized, start packing it away. For the toss items, put into trash bags and immediately throw them away. If you have decided to give old clothes and shoes away to a charity, pack the items into boxes and put the boxes into your car (you have momentum on your side right now; if you dilly dally with the give away and toss items, they very well may sit on the floor of your room for the entire year, and we don’t want that!)
7. Take a deep breath, sit back, and revel in your accomplishment.
You did it! Hooray! Now that you have a clean closet and are ready to start the new year off on the right foot, you should have a little something special to help you celebrate. Take your friend out for a drink and a movie–you both deserve it!
