10 Ways To Love All The Clothes In Your Closet.
Are you like me and have a handful of your favorite go-to outfits? Do you long to have an organized clutter-free closest? Here are 10 ways to stay organized and love everything you own!
1. Create piles
Many posts say it is important to take out all of your clothes and go from there. These people obviously don’t have lives. Who has time for all that? Instead, take one section at a time to focus on. For instance, I typically work on the closet first since I can easily see all the clothes, and another day I will focus on the clothes in the dresser. After that, I create 4 piles. A pile to keep, donate, trash, and save. My save pile is mostly for sentimental items.
2. Clean all clothes
It is important to have all your clothes clean so you can have a visual of how much you have kept versus gotten rid of. I guess this should be more of Step 1! And if you are like me, this could be an all-day adventure! Once your clothes are clean then you can get to work!
3. Broken, torn, or stained-good riddance!
These are the easy clothes to get rid of! You may be like my husband and say we can sew it and it will be fine. But how long has that piece of clothing been sitting on the floor waiting to be sewn? I’ll tell you what. When cleaning yesterday I found two pieces of clothing items that were covered in dog hair and ended up pushed underneath the bed that needed to be sewn. Tossed them in the trash pile!
4. Try on EVERYTHING
I definitely looked at a lot of my clothes and thought to myself it definitely still fits. And guess what? It definitely did not still fit! I did recently have a baby and basically have Irish Twins now, but that is no excuse to keep the clothes that don’t fit. I kept telling myself I will lose the weight and get back into it. If you have over 5lbs to lose, get rid of it. It is just causing more clutter and more of a hassle for you to get dressed in the morning. And losing weight takes so much time compared to gaining weight!
5. No excuses
Do you have some cute clothes that you never wear because of a small issue so then it just sits in the closet? If you try on a shirt and you start making excuses about why you can’t wear it then it has to go! I had a dress that I loved and had worn all the time. But the material started to feel uncomfortable after many wash cycles. It took me YEARS to get rid of because I knew how much I loved it at one time, but I didn’t wear it anymore. Listen to me, YOU WILL FIND MORE CLOTHES YOU LOVE! These are excuses I have made in the past;
- The buttons are loose
- It’s a little short
- It feels a bit tight
- When I walk it rides up
- They give me blisters
- The zipper sticks
- It has a funky smell
- It doesn’t clasp well in the back
If you are finding you are making excuses then it is time to let it go. This won’t be easy, but it is necessary to become more organized.
6. Limit sentimental items
When it comes to sentimental items you want to only keep 5 items because how often do you actually go back and look at them? These items should also be out of your closet! Your wardrobe is meant to include only clothes you will wear. If you plan on displaying these then of course keep more. Or if you want to create one of those blankets made from your old high school sports teams, that is also fine! But, if it has been 5 years of you planning to do this and you still haven’t gotten to it then get rid of them because you aren’t going to get to them soon and they will just sit there.
7. Sort by season
As I am going through my clothes I am hanging them up based on the season. So I have a section of sweatshirts, long sleeve shirts, and cardigans. Then I have my tank tops, workout shirts, blouses, and dress shirts. My last section is my dresses, rompers, and jumpsuits. If you want to get fancy you can organize by color within these categories as well. Now what I do not agree with is keeping only your summer clothing out during summer and winter during winter, etc. What happens on that random April day that it decides to snow? Or that random day in December that is 60 degrees. When you store clothes away you are A) Not having access to all the seasonal clothing and B) Creating more clutter by having to store more things away. Remember we are trying to get rid of things!
8. It shouldn’t take hours to decide on an outfit
This was literally me the other day. My best friend and I were going to have a girls’ day and get pedicures done then have lunch. I went through so many outfits before I decided on something that looked good. Well, after organizing my clothes the next day it took me one minute to find an outfit. ONLY ONE MINUTE! That has never happened to me! The reason is that everything fits, everything looks good on me, and I love each item in my wardrobe! Each piece I kept is something that I would buy at the store today!
9. Go back through a second time
This is a very important step! The first time I went through my clothes I got rid of quite a bit. Then a few days later I was still struggling to get dressed and finding things that didn’t look great on me right now, but maybe in the future they would when I lost that weight. I was making excuses! For some reason, we have such an attachment to clothing. This is why I say going through your clothes needs to be done twice. Not the same day, but a few days later so you have an open mind and aren’t thinking about the clothes you just got rid of.
10. Make a list of what you need
Are you afraid to get rid of that tight sports bra because it is the only one you have? Or do you have a super cute shirt but you don’t wear it because you don’t have any strapless bras that fit? If this is you, then it is time to grab your bestie and go shopping! Girls day! Sorry guys, but you will be happy in the long run that your girl spent some money on clothes when it only takes her 5 minutes to get an outfit together! Now when you go shopping don’t make excuses when BUYING! If you don’t love it then don’t get it! It will sit in your closet again and you won’t get rid of it because of the excuse that you just got it! For example, you may say well it’s only $5 so why not get it? That isn’t a love attitude. If this is your attitude when you get a clothing item then you will end up getting way too many items and have clutter again and become unorganized. Be picky when buying! Nobody is forcing you to spend money, so find what is perfect for you and makes you look amazing! This again does not have to be done at one time. If you go out and the clothes are just too expensive and you don’t find anything that looks great on you then you go home empty-handed. It is okay! You will find clothes you love at another store or another day. This is a long-term organizing plan and to continue to keep your closet neat and full of things you love then you should follow this list at least twice a year. I typically look at my clothing around fall, winter, and summer. While you are out shopping around, donate the clothing that is sitting in your trunk! Don’t leave it in your trunk for days or weeks because then you are creating clutter in other places of your home.
Before…
After…
The stack of clothes on the floor here are all the clothes he never wears.
Is your husband too busy to organize his clothing?
My husband is amazing! He works more than he should but he does it to support his family. Many times he gets up before I do, well let’s be honest, he gets up every day before I do! Then he goes to work, comes home late, eats dinner, then relaxes for an hour or two, and then does more work on his computer. If this is your husband, when will he ever have time to minimize his clothing? He won’t! So you have to do it for him.
My husband has the work shirts that he wears all the time. Then he has multiple polos, 2 work shorts, 4 pairs of jeans, and some athletic shorts he will wear. Other than that he has a ton of dress shirts that he has NEVER worn! He uses the excuse that he will wear them when we go out on a date, but he chooses his polos each time. So why do we keep clothes that take up space?
What I want you to do is go through your husband’s clothes. You will know what he wears and what he doesn’t. If you want to keep one or two dress shirts that you can talk him into wearing for a date then go for it! But don’t keep 10 dress shirts that he has never worn. My husband is also like, “well these all fit so we can keep them.” Why are we keeping them because they fit but they are never worn! That is his big issue. I’m ecstatic that they still fit after all these years but they aren’t worn.
Now if you are afraid your husband will get mad that you are getting rid of all his clothes then you want to follow these steps that I take.
- Use only two piles with your husband.
- First, anything you have never seen him wear put in one pile.
- Sentimental items you know your husband won’t wear but will want to keep, put aside in the second pile. Again, these should not be in your closet!
- Place these piles out of his immediate vision.
- Show him how neat his closet and drawers look. He is going to be so excited to be able to slide his clothes around in the closet or open and close his drawers without having to shove clothes in them.
- Now show him the piles. I guarantee he will be amazed at how many clothes you found that he doesn’t wear.
- Ask him if he wants to see each item or if he trusts you. Most of the time the guys won’t want to look at each item, especially when they saw how organized everything now is.
- Okay girlfriends, don’t touch your boyfriend’s things. Wait until you are married to follow this to-do list.