It’s time for spring cleaning and that means your closet, too. Here are some tips on how to refresh your wardrobe.
If you love your clothes, you should give them enough comfortable space to live.
Start by taking out all of the clothes from your closet and dresser drawers.
I like to fold them and put them on my bed; that way I can’t go to sleep until I finish the job.
This should include your shoes, too, but depending on how dirty your shoes are, you might not want to put those on your bed.
The next step is the hard part: decide which clothes have got to go.
You have to ask yourself a series of questions. Do you wear this item on a regular basis?
Have you worn this in the last month or even few months?
Now, have you worn this item so much that it’s worn out?
Make one pile for the clothes you wear on a regular basis. Make one pile for clothes that need to be stored for next winter as well as clothes that have sentimental value.
Don’t throw away the unicorn sweater your grandma knitted you just because you can’t seem to find the right occasion to wear it.
Finally, make one pile for the clothes you just can’t rationalize keeping.
There are plenty of options for finding your old clothes a good home.
Do not throw them in the trash only for them to take up space in a landfill somewhere. I recommend recycling your clothes.
If you have a stack of Abercrombie or Hollister shirts that you just don’t wear anymore, take them to a place like Plato’s Closet.
They’ll give you a little bit of cash for the clothes you have that are still in good shape. You’re getting paid to clean out your closet.
For your non-conformist, non-brand-name clothes, make a drop-off at the Goodwill.
If you ask for a receipt, you can claim a donation on your taxes. Yay, more money!
Once you’ve gotten rid of all of your undesirable clothing, it’s time to organize.
Try to hang up as many of your clothes as you can.
It’s easier to pick out what you want to wear when it’s not hidden in a drawer.
There are several methods for organizing your clothes.
I organize my closet by type of clothing. I start at one end of my closet and put all of my shirts together, then cardigans, dresses, skirts and pants at the other end.
Basics like jeans, camisoles and plain T-shirts go in my dresser.
Another way to organize your clothes is by how often you wear them. Start a rotation each time you do laundry.
Put the clothes you wear less frequently in the most accessible place, and the clothes you tend to wear all the time way in the back.
As you wear an item it comes out of the closet, goes in the laundry and then moves to the back of the closet.
The items you haven’t worn then get pushed to the front.
If you want to get really fancy, you could buy different color hangers for each different style of clothing.
For example, casual clothes get the pink hanger and formal/professional clothes get green.
Now that your closet is organized and you have extra space in it, go fill it up with more clothes.
BRIANNA WOODS
