Spring cleaning does not have to happen just once a year. With the weather getting cooler, it is the perfect time for a closet cleanout, and down below, I have tips on deciding what to keep/toss, hints on organizing it all and motivation for tackling it this winter!
Reassess Your Style
The first step in “winter cleaning” your closet is reassessing your style. Look around your closet and dresser. Flip through some magazines. Scroll through social media.
Think about what is working with your current wardrobe and what you’d like to change. This will help with step number two…
Make Your Piles
The main task with cleaning out closets is deciding what to do with everything that is in there, so you’ll need to make the following piles:
- Keep: More than likely, you will keep most of your items. You bought them for a reason, there are cute things, and there are staples that never go out of style.
- Store: Since this is a cold-weather project, though, there may be clothes that need to be stored for the season, and you may want to swap out the swimsuits for the coats and the sandals for the boots.
- Repair/Clean: Another pile that may pop up is one for mending and washing; some of the things you are keeping may need to go to the seamstress or the laundry room!
- Donate: Earlier, you rethought your style, so there may be clothes you don’t like anymore. In this case, we urge you to donate unwanted items, which is a great way to recycle what’s being taken out of your closet.
- Toss: Hopefully, the toss pile is small. Some shirts have too many holes, some shoes have literally fallen apart, and some bras have seen better days. Feel free to throw these broken and worn items away!
Edit Your Areas
After you have gone through everything, you will need to edit. You may want to rearrange your jewelry or move some accessories around. You may have fewer of one item after getting rid of clothes, so there may be some open space (Ooo…maybe some new Christmas clothes will fill those areas!).
Just look around and make sure you’ve gone through it all and that it is all ready for the final step…
Organize Your Areas
The last step is to really organize your closet and its coordinating areas, such as your jewelry box and dresser. Utilize cute boxes, under-the-bed drawers, over-the-door hangers and racks in order to keep everything tidy.
Label the summer items you put in storage, and remember where you put them. Immediately take care of your other piles (repair/clean, donate and toss). And that is it! You will feel so much better once it’s done…and you may even feel motivated enough to go clean out ALL the closets in your house this winter!