There’s no better time to begin Organizing Your Closet than Today!
The Beginning
If you didn’t get to see my facebook live video, I’ll share with you how this article got started. A friend of mine needed to do a spring organizing of her clothes closet, but she couldn’t decide what to get rid of. I volunteered to help her and “Oy,” I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. To give you a good perspective on this, I helped her go through only 2 smaller rungs of her closet and this is the pile of clothing we pulled out to donate:
This is the pile of shoes we pulled out to donate:
Are you starting to get the picture?
This was so emotionally draining for her (but in a good way), we decided to give it a rest and a chance to settle in for a few weeks, and then we will venture back in to tackle the remaining areas of her closet.
Checklist of Questions to Begin Organizing Your Closet
This is the Checklist of questions that I used when going through my friend’s closet with her:
- Have you worn it this past year?
- Is it out of style?
- Does this piece of clothing, scarf, or shoes for that matter, tug at your heart strings for any reason?
- Do you have anything to match this?
- Does it fit you properly?
- Do you feel good when you wear it?
- Are there duplicate colors of this in your closet? If so, are there any duplicate colors with the same styling? Which piece is older or more faded?
- Does it have stains on it?
- Is it faded?
- Does it have pulls in it? Is it pilling?
- Does it look good on you?
{You can use these same question as you are going through your shoes with the exception of #10}.
Let’s delve into these questions one at a time.
- Have you worn it this past year? If your answer is NO, you really want to consider giving up this piece of clothing.
- Is it out of style? If the answer is YES to this, off to the giveaway pile it goes.
- Does this piece of clothing, scarf, or shoes for that matter, tug at your heart strings for any reason? If it does tug at your heart strings, it may be a piece to keep ~ at least for a little while. You can always use the 24 hour rule and put it aside to see if you feel the same way the next day.
- Do you have anything to match this? If your answer is NO, this may be a piece you bought “just because,” and it may be time to say good bye to it.
- Does it fit you properly? If you answer NO to this it’s time to put this piece in the giveaway pile.
- Do you feel good when you wear it? If you answer NO, it’s definitely time to put this in the giveaway pile. It’s so important to feel good, and feel that you look good, when you wear something. It puts an extra little lilt in your step.
- Are there duplicate colors of this in your closet? If so, are there any duplicate colors with the same styling? Which piece is older or more faded? If there are duplicate colors in your closet with the same styling, pick the newer ones to keep and donate the older ones. Let’s be honest, we don’t need 5 red shirts in a similar style.
- Does it have stains on it? If the answer is YES to this, off to the giveaway pile it goes.
- Is it faded? If the answer is YES to this, say bye bye bye.
- Does it have pulls in it? or pilling? If the answer is YES to this, it’s definitely time to say goodbye and send it off off to the giveaway pile.
- Does it look good on you? Perhaps you bought this because you loved the style or color but when it really comes down to it, it really doesn’t flatter you. If this is the case, as much as it may pain you for a second, get rid of it!
BONUS QUESTION ~ 12. Are you saving this because you think your weight will change, that you may re-gain the weight you lost ? My answer to this is if you say Yes to this, get rid of it! Work instead on changing your eating, exercise and lifestyle habits so you can maintain your weight and enjoy the clothes you do have. By the way, this is a topic for a whole new set of articles!
If you plan to do a spring/fall organizing of your clothing closet, you will find that some of the questions are easier to answer. In addition, some of the pieces are much easier to get rid of than others. Since I was at her house, my friend has “snuck” into the garage to retrieve any pieces she truly regretted giving up. Luckily, it has only been 1 piece so far which means we did a good job.
On the flip side ~ there was one relatively new piece that she truly loved but decided to give up because there was a button missing. I encouraged her to go to a notions/sewing store and buy 2 different buttons that were compatible with the buttons on the shirt, and then sew the buttons every other one on it to make it more interesting and fun. She could also buy some totally different buttons and make the shirt more artsy.
Even though it was work, it was truly fun hanging out together and we definitely laughed a lot.
When you are ready to tackle your closet, I would encourage you to dress comfortably, tie your hair back, be sure to fuel up and eat a good meal before and definitely include a lot of laughter in the process.
You will really feel like you have accomplished something once you have done this!
We have a great article on the 50 Things You Need in Your Forever Closet ~ This will also help you decide what to keep and what to get rid of. You can read it here
If you have any tips or questions you’d like to share, please email us at Holli@HolliRovenger.com or share in our facebook group here.