As someone that is constantly in need of more closet space, I am always cleaning out my closet and trying to find tips on how to make more room in that confined space that holds my most prized possessions (just kidding, I’m not that materialistic but I do love the Carrie Bradshaw quote of “I like my money where I can see it… hanging in my closet”). Having an organized closet can make your life so much easier as it can help you pick out outfits quicker and save you some time in the morning (unless you’re the “pick your outfit out the night before and lay it out” type of person), it can make your room feel and look cleaner and can make your life easier when buying new clothes since ideally, there should be space of where to hang those new pieces. Today, I’m going to discuss my strategies of cleaning out and organizing my closet that I’ve used for several years now with the hopes that it can help you make your closet easier to navigate and easier on the eye.

1. Clean and Re-Organize Frequently – This is my number one tip as just relying on “spring cleaning” or that New Year’s Eve clean out in order to make the “New Year, New Me” a reality is not enough. I clean out my closet every single season. I have a winter, spring, summer and winter clean out session where I literally go through every single piece in my closet and re-evaluate its need. This way, I can make more room for new pieces that I am embracing that season and realize what pieces haven’t been worn yet and should get a little more attention while there’s still hope to wear them. I try to do this at the beginning of the new season. It makes me see what I should be wearing in the next few months (I often forget about certain pieces) and makes me realize what I’m lacking which makes shopping a little more purposeful after the clean out.
2. Sort the Piles – I like to have three bags laid out when I organize my closet –donations, items to sell and throw out. The donations bag usually gets items that I don’t think I can re-sell and that bag either gets dropped off at Goodwill or I set up a time for one of the donation organizations in Cincinnati to come pick up the bag. There are many organizations in every city that are willing to come to you to pick up your donations if you do not think you have the time to drop the clothes off or don’t know where exactly to them off so definitely put some research into that. Just google “clothes donation pick up service (insert city name)” and you’ll find many places that will come pick up your items. The second bag is for clothes to sell and those go to consignment shops. The clothes that usually go into this bag are ones that have only been worn once or twice and don’t show signs of wear that I really don’t think I’ll be wearing again. Dresses for nights out and going out tops are my most frequent categories that get put away in the “sell” bag. The third bag gets all the clothes that are just in too bad of shape to give away or sell. That bag is usually the emptiest as I try to keep my clothes in good enough conditions to at least donate but sometimes you just rip an item in a place that is impossible to stitch up (or a material that makes that nearly impossible) and those items just need to be thrown out.
3. Hanger Trick – If you don’t already know the hanger trick, it is quite simple. Face all your hangers going one way and once you wear the item on that hanger, flip it to face the other direction. At the end of the year, donate everything that you didn’t wear that is still facing towards you. This trick may be great for some people but doesn’t work for me as I have more than one item hanging on each hanger which makes it really difficult to apply this rule. This is why I encourage going through your closet at the beginning of each season. It makes you more aware of what items you have and makes you more likely to wear them during that season.
4. Stop hanging on to items that you “may” wear – I have finally stopped keeping items that “may” look better when I “finally” get in better shape and that has made my life a lot easier and my closet less full. If an item doesn’t fit you now, get rid of it. If you are working out and aspiring to be in better shape, that’s great and if you have that one dress or that one item that is your motivation, then keep it. Everything else that you hold on to just in case needs to go. If and when you do get into your ideal or goal shape, you can buy newer, better items that fit you well right then. No need to clutter your closet with “what ifs”.
5. Sort by type – When I actually start sorting the clothes, I sort them by type. I will do sweaters, then long sleeved tops, then short sleeved tops, going out tops, etc. It makes you realize when you have more than one type of a certain shirt and my rule for finding two very similar items is that I can’t keep both. You only need so many plain black sweaters and so many white tees (this sentence is more of a reminder for myself).

So there you have it with my tips and tricks for keeping an organized closet. While this post focused more on cleaning the closet out and getting rid of the items in it, I have also written about just organizing the closet in general and that post can be found here. If you have suggestions and more clean out tips please, share them down below. I would love to read them! Hope everyone has a great Monday and look out for a few more posts later this week!