How to Declutter Your Closet

Put on some lively music and toss your ill-fitting clothes.

Closets become our personal indoor storage sheds, housing all the old, odd, ill-fitting, off-season and mismatched things we just can't bear to throw away. Before you start decluttering your closet, determine to end the mantra, "I'll get into this someday." Replace it with "I'll get new things when I have space." That's an incentive and a strategy for decluttering.

Things You'll Need

• Boxes or storage bins
• Garbage can with liner
• Cleaning supplies

Instructions

1. Bring four bins or boxes into your room. Label them: Keep, Keep but Move, Donate and Sell. Use a medium-sized garbage pail with a liner for your Throw-Away bin.

2. Start at the top of the closet. Pick a shelf or a rod and take every thing in that area out of the closet. Clean and wash out the area. Start at the top of the pile of clothes you removed and sort them. Be hard on yourself. If you haven't worn it in a year, you probably won't. If it doesn't fit, give it away or sell it, but do not keep it.

3. As your throw-away bin fills, take it outside and toss its contents into the garbage. This way you won't be tempted to dig through it again. Empty a full bin of items to donate or sell into garbage bags. Label them and put them in the trunk of your car. The trick is to get them out of the house. When you fill up the Keep but Move bin, take a break and put the things away where they belong.

4. Continue with the closet rod. Grab an armful and sort. Be brutal. If you just loved it but haven't ever put it on, give it away to someone who will use it. If it used to fit, think about how nice it will look on someone that it fits now.

5. When the closet's empty, clean the floors and walls. Remove all bins except the Keep bin from the room. Organize your everyday clothes by length and then by color. All black long dresses, then black short dresses, then brown long dresses and so on. If you have clothes that are seldom used and you can't put them elsewhere, sort them by color behind your daily use clothes.

6. If there is room, built-in bins or shelves are great for Tee shirts and sweaters. You can organize them by color as well and always see what you have on hand. This is much easier than rummaging through drawers.

7. Put shoes on racks. If you have a lot of shoes, use an over-the-door rack and a long floor rack or shoe shelf. Color coordinate these also. Put rarely used shoes in labeled boxes on the highest shelf.

8. Take the clothes you've bagged up to the local thrift store or shelter and leave them there. Determine that nothing goes into your closet unless something comes out. With that rule of thumb, you should never have to face another closet-cleaning marathon again.

Tips & Warnings

• Do this when you are well rested and full of energy because it's usually a big project. You'll be better able to judge what you really need then.

• If you don't take the stuff you collect out to the trash, the car and its various destinations, you may be tempted to go through it again. Trust your first instincts and get rid of it.

References

• Declutter Day Tips: Declutter Your Closet -- Six Tips From a Declutter Expert

Resources

• Organized Home: Seasonal Clothing Declutter: Who's Living in Your Closet?