Decluttering Your Closet Effectively: 5 Tips You Haven’t Heard Yet

You look at your closet every day without really seeing anything. You have the feeling that all of your good clothes are buried under your crappy ones, and that one top you’ve been looking for for over six months? It’s nowhere to be found.

As a chronic declutterer, I want to pass on my declutter-wisdom to all of you who are new to this magical phenomenon (I like using hyperbole, can you tell?) Here are five tips you haven’t heard yet (promise!), take note.

Start with the things you love

When you’re starting out, your closet can look overwhelming. Time to throw everything on the floor and only pick up the things that you love. The things that make you feel amazing, you wear a lot and you will not get rid of, even for a million dollars. Chances are you only have three to five of those pieces, if any. It’s important to note that once you’ve gone through your clothes and picked out the things that you love, you can’t go back later to add things to it. If you didn’t pick it up the first time or if you’re on the fence about it, you don’t love it enough.

Get creative with Pinterest

When was the last time you decluttered your closet? If the answer is never (it probably is) chances are you still have clothes that are almost ancient. You might love those clothes, but they don’t reflect your personal style anymore.

Here’s where Pinterest comes in. Make a separate board and pin pictures of outfits to it that really speak to you. Not just the shoes or the jacket, but the entire outfit. After pinning a bunch (it’s addictive) you will notice that there’s a certain style and certain colors you gravitate towards. You might like earthy tones, knee-length dresses or bomberjacks. Whatever it is, it’s important that pieces you decide to keep in your closet reflect the style you’re trying to achieve.

Ask the tough questions

When going through all of your clothes from start to finish, it helps to ask yourself the same set of questions for each item. Of course, there are the cliche questions of asking yourself when you last wore something, but there are plenty of others that can help you decide if you should get rid of something.

• How did I feel last time I wore this?
• Does this item reflect the style that I want?
• Would I buy this item again?
• Does the color of this item go with the other items in my closet (specifically favorites?)
• Does this item reflect who I am as a person?

If the answer to any of these questions is negative, you probably want to get rid of the item. You’ll find that items that you used to love now really don’t fit your style anymore.

Plan where your items will go

Are you going to chuck it all? Sell it? Donate it? If you know where your items will go, you will feel less guilty getting rid of them. You will find that during your decluttering you’ll want to make separate piles, which I highly recommend you do. Chuck clothes with holes in them (even if you love them!) and make your girlfriends happy with clothes you can’t or don’t want to donate. If items are still in good condition and you want to sell them, try websites like Depop!

Set a future date for a re-evaluation

There will be a bunch of clothes you will want to keep. ‘I’ll start wearing this!’ you promise yourself. And you know, if the item was buried in your closet you might really end up wearing it. Or you don’t. Either way, it’s important to set a future date to go through your closet again after the initial purge. That’s what I did in the video down below, you’ll be surprised how many more things I got rid of. I keep doing these re-evaluations every three to six months until I’m completely happy with my closet.Even though that will probably take a longggg time.