5 Steps to Organizing Your Closet
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Designate a staging area and empty your closet out. You can use your bed or a cleared-out corner of the room. ... BUT DON'T TAKE EVERYTHING OUT.! Declutter your clothes by category instead of all at once. I know Marie Kondo recommends taking everything out at once and tossing it in a pile on the bed or floor, but honestly you know what DOESN'T spark joy in my life? Staring at a huge pile of clothes on my bed.....Going by category (pants, jackets, shirts, dresses...) is a lot quicker and MUCH less overwhelming. I once had a job where the couple had moved and she hired me to unpack and hang all her clothes...and she had 23 large black trash bags of clothes. We had no choice but to dump each bag on their bed and hang one bag at a time. It was overwhelming for me and they weren't my clothes. Work small, work quickly.
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Organize items into specific categories and take inventory. ... this is where you discover that you accidentally bought 3 shirts the exact same color, size and manufacturer because you didn't know you had the first one...maybe you need them, but probably you don't. Same thing with any other article of clothing or accessories...it avoids the "oh yeah I already had that belt/shoes/top. You probably DON'T need 4 of the exact same thing unless it's underwear.
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Eliminate items that don't belong in that particular closet. ... so THAT's where Johnny's Marvel figure wound up....wait, WHY is my husband's camera in with my shoes? To make it easier grab a laundry basket and place things that need to be re-homed in it for later distribution.
· Remove unwanted items. ... we all have them...Why did we buy that pair of shoes again? Oh yeah, they looked so cute on the shelf...and I tried them on and they felt ok until I wore them for an hour...and no I never did "break them in". Or the dress I bought because it looked so cute on the mannequin or in the catalog, but I have lumps and bumps in places the model didn't...or it looked so cool on the mannequin in the store but when I got it home I am 3' shorter on me it just looks like a designer bathrobe. It's not a character flaw to change your mind. If you don't really like it pass it on, someone else probably will. You probably don't have as many this client of mine did...but you get the idea.
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Clean the closet itself. Wipe the shelves down. Clear the floor. Run the vacuum or sweep it out. And don't forget lights! If you have lights, wipe them down or dust them off too, change the lightbulbs if you need to. Want to put bins in to store some extra items? Grab matching ones, even if they are inexpensive to start. Keeping your closet neat makes you want to KEEP your closet neat.
Closets--we all need em. We can help you with them, or we can help you with a DIY plan. Either way you will feel SOOOO much better.
