Do you dread opening the door to your wardrobe each day? Are your clothes so tightly packed in that you can hardly get anything out? Do you only wear about 20% of what’s in your wardrobe either because that’s all you can get out or all that you can get into? Does your stomach lurch each time you open those doors? Do you know how to organise your wardrobe? Do you wish you could organise your clothes but don’t know where to start?
I can help. All it takes is a couple of hours to organise your wardrobe and rebuild it into a place of peace and organisation. You can have an organised wardrobe, peace of mind, and ease in finding clothes to wear. And there are no downsides.
We can help you on a daily, ongoing basis. Join the Working Frocks list, which is completely dedicated to all things to do with your wardrobe. There are no downsides to joining our list. We want to look after you and your wardrobe and help you look and feel amazing every day. Sign up to the list here:
As with anything in life, organising your wardrobe, by tidying it up and sorting it out, will lead to tremendous positive change in your mind. It’s going to cost you absolutely nothing except a couple of hours of your time. In return for that minimum investment, you are going to receive maximum returns: A calm mind; a heart that is peaceful when you open the door and: a brain that stops telling you that you have nothing to wear. Most of all you will feel in control each time you open that door. And when you feel control in one area of your life it has a tendency to spill over and have a knock on effect on other aspects of your life too.
How to organise your wardrobe: The plan
In order to organise your wardrobe we are going to take the time today to:
- Assess
- Reduce
- Reorganise
- Rebuild
Are you ready?
Organising your Wardrobe Step 1 Assess what you have
Get everything out from the floor to the top shelf. Organise all items from your wardrobe into categories: shoes, boots; scarves; flip flops; random items; trousers; jeans; dresses etc. These first two steps are what needs doing before we can put a closet system into place.
Organising your Wardrobe Step 2 Reduce
You will need 2 large bin liners/bags. One for the charity shop and the second for the rubbish bin.
Address what’s on the rail – go through quite quickly, say 15 minutes. Remove:
A. anything that doesn’t fit you any more
B. anything that you don’t like
C. anything that doesn’t suit you and each time you wear it you don’t feel quite right
D. anything that needs mending
A B, and C go in the charity bag unless they are really too old and worn in which case you can put them in the rubbish/recycling bag. You could also have a separate bag of clothes to take to the charity shop that they sell by weight to be recycled.
Organising your wardrobe – Assess 2
How many duplicates do you have? When we are in a funk with our wardrobe system we may repeat buy the same item. However it doesn’t necessarily mean you wear all those items or that you even like them that much. So the next step is to go through your wardrobe and pull out all repeats: black trousers; white shirts; blue dresses; whatever it is, pull them out and group them.
Now, decision time again. We are going to reduce that number to the bare minimum you need to maintain a healthy wardrobe with plenty to wear. With each pile, decide if the item is a basic, fundamental part of your overall wardrobe. For example if you always wear black trousers to work and you have seven pairs and you have worn all those pairs in the last 6 months then that’s fine. If, however, you always wear black trousers to work and have seven pairs and have only worn two of those pairs in the last 6 months, that is not fine, and those other 5 pairs have to go. Now. Try and be quite strict with yourself and remember what the goal is: it’s to organise your wardrobe, have a wardrobe, or closet, system. It’s to learn how to organise your clothes so that they work for you.
Repeat again with all items.
Repeat with shoes.
3. Organising your Wardrobe – Reorganise
With the clothes you now have there should be so much more room in your wardrobe than there was before. So now we are going to reorganise them. You need clothes that work together. In the next post in the basics series How to put outfits together and be organised I will show you how to organise your wardrobe so that you have automatic outfits that you can wear each day.
In the meantime we are going to organise your wardrobe so that you can see everything.
Organise by item type Working left to right, rehang, reorder everything by items type: I generally start with dresses to the left, then trousers, then skirts, then shirts, then tops or cardigans that can’t be folded.
Organise by colour Once you have the items in type order I would then organise your clothes by colour. Left to right darkest first, so black to the left white to the right.
Organise shoes I store my shoes in boxes, but a rack is equally as good, in fact potentially better, I just don’t have much room in my wardrobe for shoes. Organise seasonally first, so out of season shoes and boots should be either stored elsewhere or put to the back of the wardrobe/stored under the bed. When you have all your seasonal shoes in one place again group them. This time group according to function: work shoes; going out shoes; weekend shoes. After that sort and organise your shoes by colour or type: court shoe; sling back; pump; boot.
4. Organising your Wardrobe – Rebuild
Finally, the fun bit, building your clothes collection with items that fit you, that you need, and that you love. What items do you feel are missing in your wardrobe? Have you removed an item that is useful but doesn’t fit any more eg a jacket. If you have been really brave and taken away items that are useful but just weren’t functional any more then make a note of those. These are the items that you should be looking for and buying.
Shopping should be fun but purposeful. Life is too short to wander aimlessly around the shops. Have an ongoing list of items that need replacing and set aside time to find those pieces. Don’t put yourself under pressure. That rarely results in a happy purchase. In order to organise your wardrobe efficiently you only need items that you are going to wear and that you love to wear. Take your time and be happy to wait and when the perfect item shows up, you will be truly delighted
Finally…
OK, so that should take around 2 hours in total, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. Not including the shopping, be as leisurely as you are able with that.
So, to summarise, in order to organise your wardrobe, you are going to assess what you have, reduce what you have, reorganise what you have and then plan on rebuilding what you need. It’s a really easy exercise to do. You might find getting rid of some of your clothes a bit of a wrench but believe me, I’ve done it myself and you will feel so much better afterwards. The benefits of being back in control of a space which you are constantly accessing is not to be underestimated.
That was quite a whistle stop tour. It is possible to spend much longer on the whole process. The idea of this post, though, is to show you how much is possible within a two(ish) hour time frame. Try the steps yourself and then come back and post your comments below. I’d love to know how you get on.
Did you enjoy this post? Please feel free to share it and get the message out that a well ordered wardrobe is something we can all enjoy, and the benefits of being in control of this fundamental part of our lives far outweigh the two hours spent organising it.
If you are looking for another easy challenge or want to read more why not check out other posts in the Wardrobe Fundamentals series. Coming up next in the series is How to put outfits together: Be organised, number 2 as I mentioned above. It covers getting organised and pulling together outfits from your wardrobe.
Please also leave a comment as feedback is so important to what I am writing and how I can make it relevant for and to you. What specifically did you enjoy about this post? What would you like to see more of? Please leave your comments below.
Would you like to learn more? Join our Basic Wardrobe Styling group course starting in the near year. You will discover many more tips, tricks and methods for keeping your wardrobe under control, such as how to shop and not waste money. Plus you will learn why you make incorrect shopping choices and how to make the right ones and always feel good about what you wear. In addition we look at body image and self image. These vital psychological influencers play a major role in what we think about ourselves. Together we look at how to get free from negative self imagery, releasing you into becoming the person you were always created to be and at the same time loving the clothes you wear.
Join the waiting list HERE to register your interest in the Basic Wardrobe Styling course and we will get in touch with you shortly
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