The wardrobe:
1. Home to everything we wear. 2. Bottomless pit of stuff we actually never wear. 3. Often, the ‘go to’ place we throw things when we just can’t face the mess!
Having a dis-organised, cluttered wardrobe can be a problem in more ways than one. After years of buying things that seemed like a good idea at the time – and maybe they were – most of us don’t even know what we have in our wardrobes. Those new buys, are long forgotten. Gym gear, party frocks, jewellery, office ensembles, shoes and underwear… the list of what lies inside is long. This is why we need a simple go-to strategy when it all gets a bit too messy to handle. Here are our top 3 tips for getting back to an organised and clutter-free wardrobe space.
1. De-clutter – find your inner boss!
It’s possibly the hardest part. Sorting the wheat from the chaff, getting rid of what you don’t wear and keeping only what you do. The rule of thumb is, if you haven’t worn it in more than 12 months, chuck it. If you haven’t worn it in 6 months, put it in the ‘maybe’ pile and if you haven’t worn it in more than 3 months, keep it, but only if you really think you’ll wear it again.Then there are the pieces that we’ve held onto for a while just for keep-sake. We all do it, keeping those sentimental things, perhaps your old prom dress or your son’s first baby grow. For these items, ask yourself how often you actually look at them and if it’s really worth clogging up your wardrobe space just for memory sake? Of course, it’s good to hold onto a few precious items but for most of them, you can simply photograph them and give them to charity. You’ll save lots of precious storage space.It’s not easy throwing out things that have precious memories but there are plenty of places where you can give them a second life. Why not upcycle, sell you wares online, at a garage sale or donate them to your local op shop.
Getting rid of all the odd bits and pieces you don’t need will give you space to organise what you do keep and a little room for the next shopping trip perhaps!
2. Don’t limit your creative genius
Take a moment to reflect on how to best use your new wardrobe space before you go out on your next shopping spree though! Get creative and think about different ways of re-organizing things. Perhaps get out a measuring tape and see how you can better make use of your space with storage boxes or zip lock bags.There is no limit to your creativity – whether you need new hooks, shelving, racks or baskets, a quick trip to your home ware store or Ikea will give you plenty of options. Always try to reduce, re-use and recycle when looking at your storage space – it’s not an excuse to go out and spend lots of money but more so, use up what you already have around the house.If buying new storage products, invest in good quality items only, that will stand the test of time and can handle plenty of wear and tear. You don’t want to have to replace them after 6 months because of broken bits or missing parts, even though you might have saved a few dollars initially. Good storage items, make a big difference in keeping and maintaining an organised wardrobe space. While having things neat and tidy initially is great, you want a solution that works over the long-term, especially for those frantic mornings where you are running out the door late, because you can’t figure out what to wear!
3. Strategize – get your tetra skills on!
When you’ve figured out what stays and what goes, start thinking about a way to order everything so that you can see all your clothes at a glance and you know exactly where to find something, when you need it without trawling through every item! I prefer to group clothes by item and then by colour but there’s no set rule, just as long as your system makes sense to you. You could also organise it by style, occasion or fabric too.
To maximize the benefits of your new organized wardrobe, it’s important to keep it looking tidy and neat as a means to keeping it that way.
There you have it, your go-to wardrobe cleaning guide – in 3 easy steps! Just like most things we procrastinate over, the thought of it is always worse than actually doing it. So what are you waiting for? Make this week, the week. You’ll be amazed by how much time you’ll save and stress you eliminate simply by being organised. You might be surprised just how many cool outfits you discover that you didn’t even know you had!
If you have any organisational tips of your own you’d like to share, we’d love to hear your comments below!
