Clutter makes me crazy and those that know me well know I’m borderline OCD (taking after my mother). I can’t stand when things are out of order and yet, I surprisingly find myself battling it pretty much all the damn time, with my wardrobe that is.
The main problem when it comes to my wardrobe is the volume. While I should have spent the last decade of my working life diligently saving instead, like many women, I’ve been seduced by the windows of Marks and Spencer, Next or the next day delivery service of all clothing brands as well as charity shopping, I now have an abundance of clothing.
I’ve noticed that when my closet is chaotic, other areas of my life are too. Much of how we care for things ties into how we live which is why there are surprisingly, a lot of proven benefits of cleaning out your wardrobe.
Here are my top tips for clearing out your wardrobe
1. Take everything out of your wardrobe
Even if you need to use a stool to get to those hard to reach places. I already know what you are thinking.
By taking everything out, you get to see everything that’s in your closet because most of the times we shove clothes right at the back and forget we have them and so we don’t wear it. This is a good way to take a stock inventory of your wardrobe.
2. Place clothes into piles
Go through each item and then place into different piles. There are many ways of choosing which pile categories to use but I use these:
Keep – items I love go in this pile (whether seasonal or not I keep them all)
Unsure – I like the item, but not sure. To decide what I do with them, I do the outfit test. If I can make more than three outfits from the item then I keep it otherwise it goes in the trash pile
Me doing the outfit test. You might even recall, I posted it on Instagram
Trash – Not to say that items here are terrible. I tend to put clothes that I have over worn, or no longer like.
I then put the trash clothes in a black bag and I give them a final check at a later date usually in summer. From here, I arrange them into piles (again!); donate, sell or trash. The trash items make it to 'cash for clothes' collection point and most times I get ~£15 cash. All clothes in the donate pile go to cancer research charity shops and the sell items make it to eBay or Depop.
3. Fold clothes into various piles
Start folding your clothes neatly and putting them into piles of similar clothing and colours. I find it’s easier to pickwhat to wear when similar item clothes are in the same place especially when in a rush.
As you can see, all my dresses are in piles, my skirts in another and tops – you get the gist.
4. Neatly pack the clothes back into the wardrobe
Luckily my wardrobe is split in two so one half is for my workwear clothes and the other is for everything else.
My workwear side of the wardrobe has dresses, coats, skirts, trousers and blazers.
The other side, without a name, has jeans, sportwear, tops, blouses, my bedding.
I also have a top section of my wardrobe. Here is where I pack most of the clothes that I don’t wear often, so a lot of occasional and seasonal wear. As the saying goes, ‘I like my money where I can see it, hanging in my wardrobe’ – that’s me right there.
Other recommendations
Storage boxes are a must if you have space on top of your wardrobe. These are great to pack away those hard to store in the wardrobe items such as swimwear.
If you struggle for space, try swapping your current bed for one with underbed storage so you can fit more items (if you can). I use my space for storing some of my shoes, excess makeup and bags.
Buy velvet hangers They are a revelation and cheap! These are extra slim so you can actually fit more of them into a wardrobe, but also, they hold onto clothes very well, so I highly recommend you make an investment. I got mine from Amazon, they sell 100 for £27!
Do you have any other tips for decluttering your wardrobe? Let me know in the comments section.
R x