Closet Organization

Is there a more intimidating or thankless project than cleaning out your closet? I have to confess that I usually have it on my To Do list for weeks before I get up the courage and fortitude to tackle the project. Don’t get me wrong, I adore a well-organized closet and am somewhat OCD about keeping it clean day-to-day {bf chuckles}, but a full-on cleaning can be intimidating.

I’ve found that approaching the project with a three-fold plan of attack is what works for me. That and spending days hours on Pinterest drooling over beautifully organized closets to get me in the mood… ❤

1. Love It or Leave It – First you need to go through every single piece in your closet and decide whether you want to keep it. Tears optional.
2. Share The Love – Once I’ve created a pile of pieces that need a new home I set up a Closet Party with some friends and after that any remaining items will be donated to the Goodwill.
3. Live The Dream – Finally, when your closet is filled only with the pieces you’ll be holding onto, it’s time to sort, organize, rearrange, and plan for the future.

Need more details? Read on…

Love It or Leave It:

I become somewhat attached to inanimate objects so after years of carrying clothes that still have the tags on them from one apartment to another, I have had to set rules for myself. If I haven’t worn it in the last year – It has to go. End of discussion.

You may have a home with more storage space or larger closets and be able to keep more clothing and accessories, it’ll be dependent on what you have available to you and how much of a “clothes horse” you are. In general, if you can’t remember the last time you wore something, you probably don’t need to hold onto it. If your shoes are falling apart, you can probably let them go. If a piece has needed hemming or tailoring for as long as you can remember and you still haven’t taken it in, you guessed it, you should probably put it in the “out” pile.

Share The Love:

My favorite thing to do once I’ve created a pile of things that I’m not going to keep is to plan a closet party – I invite some friends over for cocktails or champagne and free reign of my closets. It’s been a tradition for a few years now and I love to include new friends, it’s a fun bonding event. And what’s left over after the closet party gets dropped off at the donations center of Goodwill.

Living The Dream:

Now that you know what you’re working with you can figure out how best to approach the cleaning of your closet. I like to tackle the reorganizing process in three steps:

• First I rearrange by type & color {i.e. pants with pants, solids from black to white, then prints}
• The second step is to consider the season and organize your closet so that the clothes & accessories that you’re wearing now are most readily available. This can mean deploying under-bed organizing trays or boxes to be stacked on shelves out of reach in your closet if need be.
• Finally, after all of that work, I like to take stock of what I have and how it’s arranged and implement some changes to make getting dressed run more smoothly – Like adding accessories holders, changing hangers, or separating work clothes from play.

{All photos from MCLV’s Closet Porn… Board on Pinterest}

You can find some other tips and suggestions in Sincerely Jules’s Details or Cupcakes & Cashmere’s Closet Clean-Up or her Operation Organization: Closet Edition.

So tell me, how often do you overhaul your closet(s)? Do you have a specific process whenever you get started on this project?