How to Declutter Your Closet & Tips for Staying Organized
It’s never too late to get organized! My tips for decluttering clothes and maintaining an organized wardrobe.
The new year is the perfect time to declutter your closet and start fresh. Having a well organized closet can help you find items quickly so you spend less time looking for something to wear. Here are the steps I take when decluttering my clothes, in addition to my favorite organizational tools.
Keep, Maybe, or Declutter
The first step is to divide items in your closet into 3 categories: keep, maybe and declutter.
- Keep: If you regularly wear this item or can see yourself incorporating it into your style.
- Maybe: Not sure if you want to keep or declutter at this point.
- Declutter: Can remove from your closet and sell or donate.
Some people prefer to take everything out of the closet before they begin, but I just pull out my “maybe” and “declutter” items while leaving things I know I am going to keep in their place. Here are some guiding questions to help you sort each item into the appropriate category:
- Does the item fit well? Are there any rips or stains?
- When was the last time you wore this item? Can you see yourself wearing it again?
- Can you think of at least 5 ways to incorporate this item into an outfit?
Dealing with Maybes
Once you have finished sorting all of your items into keep, maybe and declutter piles, you can address the maybes. Try each piece on and try to style it with items in your closet. Hopefully this will help you decide if you want to keep or declutter. However, if you are someone who likes to hold onto clothes, put them into a bin in your closet for a few months. If you don’t reach for them at all during that time, then you should be fine to declutter.
Optimize Your Space
Chances are, you are not fully optimizing the space in your closet. Many closets have a lot of vertical space. Spaces above a hanging bar and below hanging clothes are often underutilized. Think about the layout of your closet and what spaces you might be able to use. Decluttering your clothes first will help you organize your space without over-stuffing!
Organization Essentials
Here are some organization tools that I have found to be helpful in organizing my own personal closet. Every closet is different and what works well for me might not work for you. There are lots of great organization ideas out there that might better suit your needs, but hopefully this is a place to start.
Velvet Hangers: Keep your clothes from falling off of the hangers. These are particularly helpful for smaller tops and dresses. Also, having all uniform hangers helps your closet look instantly more organized and put together. I like to order hanging clothes by color and type.
Pant “S” Hooks: I used to roll my jeans and put them in a drawer, but I have found that hanging them with S hooks allows me to easily see and access all of my jeans. This has helped me mix up the pants I wear on a daily basis.
Stackable Shoe Bins: Shoe bins help keep your shoes organized and protected. My shoes used to be on the ground of the closet, which did not optimize the space and it looked cluttered. Another perk with these shoe bins is that you can customize how many bins tall/wide to fit your closet space perfectly.
Top Shelf Storage Bins: If you have a top shelf in your closet, these bins are a must have. They are easy to pull down to access items you might not use on a daily basis. I put purses, swimsuits, scarfs/hats and sweat sets in the bins up top.
Box Shelf: Adding folding space below hanging clothes helps optimize space. This is a great spot for folding sweaters and sweatshirts. I also put my work purse and backpack in one of the bottom shelves for easy access.
Drawer Dividers: I use these dividers to organize my dresser drawers. They help me stay organized and divide my drawers into subsection for each category of clothes. For example, I separate out my workout t-shirts, tank tops, and sports bras in one drawer with two of these dividers.
shop closet organization
Maintain Your Organization System
Once you have gone through the effort of organizing your closet and decluttering your clothes, be sure to try and maintain the system you set in place. An easy way to keep your space organized is to do small tidy-ups every few days/week to make sure that everything is in its place.
Comment below your favorite closet organization hack. Happy organizing!
