I don’t know about you, but when I look through my closet, I don’t just see sweaters and pants. I see first dates. I see my little sister’s graduation. I see my best friend’s wedding, goodbye drinks with old coworkers and interview outfits that have changed my life. Our closets aren’t just made up of pieces of clothing - they’re made up of a hundred memories that trigger a thousand emotions, and that, my friends, is why it’s so damned hard to throw stuff away.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over these last few months, it’s that a cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind. And the first step toward a streamlined closet and centered spirit, is figuring out what you have in your wardrobe...and what the hell to do with it.
Easier said than done, I know, but the good news is that if you’re standing in front of a disastrous closet, and feeling some serious material shame, you’re definitely not alone. Studies show that one in four women feel that their closet is disorganized, 44% of you can’t find an item in your closet at least once a month, and 82% of people believe that if they were more organized, their quality of life would improve. See?
Told you you weren’t alone.
So let’s start organizing! And let’s do it together. Here are dressCODE’S Top 5 Quick Tips to help you cleanse and edit your closet, so that you can get back to the fun stuff - putting together your next fabulous outfit!
1- See What You’ve Got & Separate Clothing
The first step in The Closet Cleanse is to pull out all of your clothes, lay them out in plain sight, and look at what you have. I know, I know. It’s a lot of clothes. But that’s why we’re doing this. You definitely have a tank top from middle school in there and we’ve gotta that sucker out of the dark and into the light. Once you’ve got everything pulled out, separate the clothing into 4 different piles: keep, donate, toss, and tailor. Keep items that bring you joy and fit you now. Donate items that are too big, too small, or have no use at all. Toss anything that is stained, pitted or damaged. And Tailor anything that you want to save or repurpose. Bottom line: we’re trusting you to be brutal here. If those skinny jeans have seen their last skinny day, have a moment of meditation for that one summer when you had a six-pack and let them go. If your favorite old t-shirt is no longer vintage-chic, and officially swiss cheese, toss it out. Trim the closet fat! You’ve got this!
2- Hang Them Back Up...With Purpose.
Now that you’ve thinned things out, step two is to organize and re-hang the clothes that you’ve decided to keep. This means that you also have to throw out all of those weird wire hangers that you’ve inexplicably held onto from dry-cleaning days of yore. Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest said it best: No. More. Wire. Hangers. Once you’ve whittled that down, start hanging. Do yourself a favor and invest in matching hangers. If everything has a clear home, it’s much easier to stay organized in the long term. This simple trick makes your wardrobe look aesthetically pleasing, and bonus: it serves as a great visual reminder as to where things belong when you’re, say, hanging up a rogue dress at two o’clock in the morning on a Friday night after happy hour with the girls turned into three bottles of wine…Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.
3- Coordinate by Color and Arrange by Style
Congrats! You’ve completed two of the hardest steps - tearing things apart, and putting them all back together. Now we’re on to the little details that will launch you straight into Marie Kondo territory, and turn your pedestrian closet into a color-coded boutique. Yeah, I said it. Color-coded. A color-coded closet seriously cuts down on decision making and makes getting dressed nearly effortless. Arrange your clothes by category from light to dark: white, tan, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, brown, grey, black. Organizing in this way allows you to not only retrieve what you want when you want it, but it also serves as ready-made inspo for putting together new outfits. Taking it a step further and arranging by style is the icing on the cake: start with the smaller items in front like tanks and tees, followed by larger items in the back like sweaters and jackets. Group together tops on one side, pants on the other, and suddenly your haphazard blackhole has turned into a color-coordinated & streamlined collection of your favorite pieces. You’re welcome.
4- Showcase your Shoes
It’s a simple trick, but a lot of us forget about it: A shoe rack is one of the best and most reliable ways to organize your shoes. Not enough room for everything you love? Pick your favorite pairs that you wear the most and switch them out each season. Group similar shoes together, display your heels and boots on a shelf, ascending according to height (obvi) and lastly...dare I say...arrange them all by color? C’mon...you know you want to…
5- Invest in Bins, Baskets, and Boxes
Ah, step five...time to address the pesky “other” clothes that we never know what the hell to do with. Just because you don’t wear it to the office or out on the town, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t deserve TLC. So invest in some small organization tools (bins, baskets, boxes, etc) that will give things like pajamas, underwear, and activewear a place to live. Neatly fold them. Catalogue what you have. Make sure that even your PJ’s make you feel good, and give them a happy home. And while we’re on the subject of organization tools: Invest in a sturdy laundry basket to hide away your dirty clothes. And no, I don’t mean that mesh one from college that you’ve dragged with you to three different cities. Why do you still have that? It’s time to throw it out. Seriously though - a nice laundry basket can add its own aesthetic to a room, and getting one that allows you to separate lights and darks to make your weekly laundry days easier doesn’t hurt either. Keep belts, sunglasses, and jewelry stored neatly in display boxes, and my friend...you. are. done!
I know we just threw a lot at you there, but the reality is: an organized closet will make your life infinitely easier. And at this point in the pandemic, we all deserve something easy. So set aside some time during these (hopefully) final weeks of being cooped up, pour out a glass of rose, streamline your wardrobe, and create a fresh new Coronavirus-free beginning. You know...for whenever we can go out in public again.
Or, if you’d rather have a wardrobe stylist do the work for you, then join our mailing list and get notified as soon as this lockdown is over and we can resume servicing our local clientele. Stay safe and get organized!
