Organize It: Bedroom Clothes

I know we already talked about the hall closet but now let’s talk about the clothes closet or bedroom closet. I feel like it’s sort of like spices. We get so unorganized and don’t know where to find things that we often forget what we have so we buy more.
First of all most of us have more clothes then we need (I know I do!) and second of all a lot of us hold onto things way longer then we should (“I’ll use it as a paint/house work shirt!”….you don’t need five of them!) And then there’s the habit (that I have as well) of piling things mile high in the top of my clothes, mostly just because I can. That’s not a good use of your clothes closet space (you can’t get to anything because there are four boxes on top of it) and it can be dangerous. So here are my suggestions:

1) Define your closet. Decide what you want to have in there and don’t have in there (don’t store boxes of none clothes/shoes items in there. If it’s being stored put it in your storage area…which I’ll take about a couple of posts from now)

2) Pull out anything that doesn’t fit your description and put it in a pile

3) Go through your clothes and shoes with a fine toothed comb (gulp) if you don’t wear it don’t keep it. Find a friend that would love it, bring it to a consignment shop and get some money out of it or give it to a thrift shop for charity. DON’T THROW IT OUT! Almost every piece of clothes or shoes can be reused and you’ll feel much better about this purge if you knew it went to someone that will love it as much as you once might have.

4) Once you’ve cleaned it up get organized with what you have left (I’ve even gone so far as to color code things. It helps me pick outfits; “I need something blue to go with this skirt” AND it shows you how much black you really own!). If you are going to keep things like shoes, belts or socks in there label your boxes or spend a little money and get some storage boxes that fit in the top or bottom of your closet. I have clear ones and it’s great because I can see what’s in them and never forget what I have.

5) Go back to your pile of things that don’t belong and sort. If you don’t use it get rid of it. If you want to keep it find a home for it.

6) Keep up the system! Just like the hall closet don’t even let yourself think about putting something in there that doesn’t belong. Put it in the right place the first time. Progress not regress!

Having an organized clothes closet feels so great! You know what you have, you know what you need, and you know where everything is! And I find that having it organized helps me be more creative with my fashion, which I take as always a plus!

Happy organizing everyone!