I recently did a poll on my social media, asking my followers what area of their home they struggled the most to keep organized. The results were not surprising: CLOSETS was the most popular answer! And it makes sense. Clothes are the first thing that people see, it is how we make an impression on the world. Our style (or lack thereof) can define us, and no two people will always look the same! It is the area of the house that we carry with us, rather than keeping hidden away behind closed doors. So there’s a lot of pressure, and often a lot of money invested which makes it hard to part with things.
Here are some tips for decluttering your closet and keeping it organized!
1. Decide before you start what your goals are. Think about how many of each item you need based on the size of your closet/dresser and what fits comfortably. And be strict with yourself, don’t just keep everything you like, but keep what you actually wear and what is worth storing.
2. Go through your clothes by category. Start with t-shirts for instance, and then move onto blouses. By only tackling one small category at a time you will be less overwhelmed! Make sure to gather these items from all over the house, if you can.
3. When looking at your items and deciding whether to keep them or not, really think critically about your lifestyle and your job. If you are working from home (and it’s likely staying that way), you won’t need 15 different pairs of dress pants and 35 blouses. Instead you may be wearing comfortable pants and maybe a nice top when you have to go on video. Similarly, if the work you do is really dirty, you might not need fancy clothes unless you have an active nightlife (when there isn’t a pandemic going on of course!). Make sure to give priority to the things you use in your space, and don’t hold onto things in case you might need them at some point.
4. When something new enters your life, make sure that something leaves. The reason your closet is stuffed to the max is because you are accumulating things and not getting rid of anything. But you can change your ways in the future! Go to clothing swaps where you can bring an armload of items you don’t wear, and then leave the swap with some new items! After you go shopping at your favourite vintage shop, get a bag for donations and decide what you no longer need before the new items enter the closet or drawer.
5. Go for quality over quantity. Rather than having 5 different black skirts, just keep one as your go-to black skirt that can be paired with multiple tops. Make sure to choose the one that is most comfortable and is high-quality – you don’t want to be replacing things if you don’t need to! When purchasing new (or ‘new to you’) clothing, look at the stitching and type of fabric to analyze the quality of the piece and let that be your deciding factor before purchasing. You don’t want cheap items made in a sweatshop, but rather pieces that can be easily mended if needed and will last for years (and maybe even decades!).
6. When storing things in your closet or drawer make sure that it is doing good to that piece. Wool sweaters are usually stored better in a drawer because the hanger can pull at the heavy fabric causing it to droop or get warped. Unless you have no room in your dresser, jeans are usually better stored in the drawer or a shelf than on a hanger. Jeans do not require the delicacy of dress pants and are really efficiently stored in drawers when they are rolled up in a row, or folded and stacked on a shelf. If you have shirts that wrinkle easily, hang them rather than fold – even if they are t-shirts. However you store your items, make sure that it is easy for you to put back away after wearing/washing, and that is helps to keep your pieces in good condition for longer.
7. Having all the same type of hanger is a really great way to make your closet look beautiful (if that is one of your goals), but it is definitely not necessary. Use what you have on hand! If you do need more hangers, thrift stores usually sell them by the bundle for a few dollars! You can save so much money (and resources!) by not buying them new. I do not recommend using thin wire hangers that you get from a dry cleaner – they often cause more damage to clothes by getting caught on them or poking through the shoulders. Also, make sure to remove clothes from plastic dry cleaner bags so that the fabric does not get musty.
8. Organize the clothes in your closet by category – all blouses together, all hoodies/cardigans, all pants, all dresses etc. And then if you feel like it will be helpful, sort within the category by colour! Not necessary, but it definitely makes your closet look pretty, and can be helpful to find things if you know them by exact colour.
9. Something that I find really handy is having all one style of socks. That way, if one wears out, the other one can be paired with another non-holey sock and there are no mismatched pairs - unless that is part of your style of course! (Single socks make really great dusting cloths FYI). This also makes it easier to “pair” socks after they are washed. Having all the same underwear is very helpful in terms of space as well. That way you don’t have favourites and not-so-great pairs, and you don’t need to choose whether to keep certain styles, because they’ll all be the “good” ones!
10. Drawer organizers can be helpful to divide up your items, but if you keep things neatly stacked or rolled up, they aren’t really necessary. Don’t feel like you need any sort of physical container or divider to keep your stuff organized in drawers; all it needs is maintenance and an easy system to put things back away so they aren’t tossed in! Do what works best for you!
