Spring has sprung...the doors off my closet
The first day of spring has come and gone. As I look at my snow covered lawn, I ask myself why I still live in Wisconsin. Even though I may want to go back into hibernation, one task that I plan on accomplishing is cleaning out my closet, queue Eminem for inspiration. Here's the system I use and it works whether your closet is over-flowing or you need some honest advice on what to keep or toss.
Step 1: Purge
Each season, I rotate out my clothes for the next one. Currently, I'm swapping out flannels and shackets for lighter cotton and linen shirts. Whenever I do this, I turn the hanger around so it's facing the opposite direction of how I would normally hang my shirts. This way, when I rotate out my clothes this fall, if I haven't turned the hanger around (aka worn that shirt during the whole season) it goes in my donate pile. Usually, those unturned pieces fall into these categories:
- Doesn't fit
- You don't like it
- It's worn out/not repairable
- You forgot about it
Feel free to purge any of these items.
2: Organize
Now you presumably have a pile of things that have been purged and items to keep. I like to start with my shoes/boots. I organize by type: boots, dress shoes and sneakers/casual shoes. If you're not OCDish like me, feel free to disregard the rest of these suggestions and just hang everything that survived the purge. I like to arrange my shirts by color so I can easily find them when I'm getting ready. This goes the same for chinos, dress pants, and denim.
3: Review
Take time to inventory what you've got left and assess what you'll need for the next season. Make a shopping list of needs/wants and keep tabs on those items in the off season to find a great deal on them. If you've purged something that you need, be sure to add it to your shopping list. Now just repeat these steps every season to ensure your closet is looking photo shoot fresh. My closet has really only looked like this one time... shout out to Buzzfeed for featuring it last year.
