Getting ready to organise your clothes

5 May

How to organise clothes? Organising clothes or a wardrobe is a great starting project when you are decluttering and getting more organised.

Okay, let's do this and talk about how to organise your clothes. I am so excited to be writing this page for you.

There is quite a bit to it, but I know you can do it. Organising clothes or a wardrobe is a great starting project when you are decluttering and getting more organised. It also has great returns on investment, more space, spending less money, looking good, feeling great to name a few.

Organising your clothes can be done in a weekend (for most people, however, if you have 3 rooms full of clothes please take that statement with a grain of salt. Or through a few regular sessions on for example a weekly basis.

Getting emotional?

One of the first things to note when learning how to organise a closet is that organising clothes tends to bring about emotions. These emotions can range from joy, to a somewhat confronting experience or something in between. As you are looking at all the clothes you own. Clothes can bring about memories from times that have passed. It might make you think about the baby stage, or the time you still fit into those skinny jeans. You might have regrets the decisions made. What were you thinking when you bought those $100,- neon pants?

On the upside, organising clothes and learning how to organise a closet will allow for a new phase to emerge. A phase in which you can create a new identity based on who you are now. It also allows you to think about what you would like to look like, and what you want to wear, moving forward from here.

Let's move along, part of organising anything does require pragmatic questioning so, let's be honest and ask ourselves.

Could I have too many clothes?

Based on my experience as a professional organiser I think most of us living in the Western world, have too many clothes.

However, before you throw out most of the clothes you own, a few things do need to be taken into consideration;

· There is an element of personal preference, for example some like lots of clothes, and others like myself are rather minimalist with the clothes they own.

o I am a big advocate of the capsule wardrobe which automatically reduces the amount of clothes you have (but could often increase the quality of those clothes).

· Are there external pressures to own clothes. These can often come in the form of a job and could have a lot to do in terms of how many clothes you own and how you organise these clothes. This obviously will have a big impact on your wardrobe and on the basics of how to organise a closet in your case.

However, if your answer to the questions of having too many clothes is yes or a maybe then you guessed it, we will first have to declutter.

Let me rephrase, for many of us, to organise your clothes and start to organise a closet you will need to: really declutter! Reduce your clothes and only keep what you wear and love.

Do keep clothes for the seasons though, we can go too far in summer and deeply regret our purge in winter, I might speak from experience here.

Things to note before we begin

I am not an organiser who is going to force you to throw out clothes you didn’t wear for six months.

In general:

· As long as, you love the clothes you wear, you will have a good basis to start organising.

· If you don’t like your clothes - it is time to declutter

· Or if your wardrobe is so messy that looking in it is not for the faint hearted, then there might be a combination of decluttering and organising required.

Having said this, you don’t have to throw out your ski jacket which is only used once every two years or the amazing black dress or suit you wore to a fancy occasion. My main premise is you need to like what is in your wardrobe and know when you would use it again.